Britta Wenzel

Academic career

August 2026: Submission of the doctoral thesis ‘Constructive support in individualised teaching: An investigation of its adaptivity and conceptualisation’, University of Wuppertal

Since 05/2026
Research Assistant, Institute for Educational Research (IfB) in the research group
‘Methodology and Didactics in Special Educational Needs: Learning’, University of Wuppertal

January 2023 – April 2026
Research Associate in the research group “School-based Intervention Research for Special Educational Needs” at the Institute for Educational Research within the School of Education at the University of Wuppertal

04/2021 – 12/2022
Research assistant in the research group ‘School-based Intervention Research for Special Educational Needs’ at the Institute of Educational Research within the School of Education at the University of Wuppertal

04/2021 – 12/2022
Master of Education programme in Special Educational Needs, specialising in learning and emotional and social development, with modules in educational sciences, German and music education

10/2018 – 12/2019
Planning, implementation and evaluation of an inclusive theatre project at the prison in Wuppertal Ronsdorf

May 2019 – July 2019
Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Department of Music Education, at the University of Wuppertal. Seminar: ‘Music Education Practice at Wuppertal Ronsdorf Prison’

04/2018 – 03/2021
Student assistant in the research group ‘School-based intervention research for pupils with special educational needs’ at the Institute for Educational Research within the School of Education at the University of Wuppertal

10/2016 – 03/2021
Bachelor of Education degree programme in Special Educational Needs, specialising in learning and emotional and social development, with German and music education as subjects

2026

Wenzel, B., Decristan, J., & Tetzlaff, L. (2026). Adaptive Constructive Support in Teacher-Student Interactions: Differences in Support Duration Depending on Individual Student Characteristics. Social Psychology of Education, 109(2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-026-10278-y

Wenzel, B., Decristan, J., & Schnitzler, K. (accepted). Constructive support in inclusive education: Examining the role of additional educational professionals. Journal of Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology.

Decristan, J.*, Wenzel, B.*, Fauth, B., Dumont, H., Ohl, S., Schnitzler, K., & Schwarze, T. (accepted). Development and testing of an observation instrument to assess the three basic dimensions of teaching quality in individualised instruction. In H. Schröter, S. Hartz, F. Lauermann, & J. Schrader (Eds.), Assessment and promotion of teacher competencies using classroom videos. Edition of the Journal of Educational Science.
*shared first authorship

Wenzel, B., & Decristan, J. (2026). Observation and Coding Manual of Classroom Interactions and Socioemotional and Instructional Support [Manual]. OSF . https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/K8AXH

Wenzel, B., Decristan, J., Dumont, H., Fauth, B., Ohl, S., Schnitzler, K., & Schwarze, T. (2026). Teaching Quality Ratings. Manual with rating scales for assessing the dimensions of cognitive activation, constructive support and classroom management in individualised teaching [Manual]. OSF. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2CGH9

2025

Wenzel, B. (2025). How much individualisation can teaching cope with? Zukunftsraum lernen:digital. https://lernen.digital/fragen-an-die-zukunft-der-bildung/individualisierung/

Wenzel, B., Dumont, H., Telle, S., Thurau, A., & Vogel, S. (2025). Individualisation and adaptivity as an opportunity for good teaching: Addressing heterogeneity in schools. (InfoTEXT from KONTEXT Primary School, 3). DIPF Leibniz Institute for Educational Research and Educational Information. https://doi.org/10.25657/02:33788

Wenzel, B., & Lohmann, S. (2025). MJoy Videocoding. A coding software for the continuous assessment of 2D (inter)personal behaviour. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15620281, https://codeberg.org/B_Wenzel/MJoy

Wenzel, B. & Decristan, J. (2025). Criteria for high-quality teaching. In R. Markowetz, T. Hennemann, D. Hövel & G. Casale (Eds.). Handbook on Support for Emotional and Social Development (pp. 858–868). Beltz.

Symposia organised

2025

Frühauf, M. & Wenzel, B. (2025). Multidimensional approaches to describing interaction processes in schools.Symposium at the 12th Annual Conference of the Society for Empirical Educational Research (GEBF) from 27–29 January 2025, at the University of Mannheim.

Conference papers (peer-reviewed)

2026

Wenzel, B., Decristan, J., & Schnitzler, K. (2026). Constructive support in inclusive education: the role of additional teaching staff. Presentation at the 13th Annual Conference of the Society for Empirical Educational Research (GEBF), 16–18 March 2026, at the Technical University of Munich.

2025

Wenzel, B., Decristan, J. & Schnitzler, K. (2025). Constructive support in inclusive education: the role of additional teaching staff. Presentation at the 2025 Autumn Conference of the Working Group on Empirical Special Educational Needs Research (AESF), 21–22 November 2025, at Dortmund Technical University.

Wenzel, B. & Decristan, J. (2025). Observed constructive support in teacher–pupil interactions during free study periods in primary schools. Presentation at the symposium by M. Frühauf & B. Wenzel on the topic ‘Multidimensional approaches to describing interaction processes in schools’ at the 12th Annual Conference of the Society for Empirical Educational Research (GEBF), 27 January–29January 2025, at the University of Mannheim.

2024

Wenzel, B. & Decristan, J. (2024). Adaptive constructive support in dyadic teacher–student interactions. Symposium paper presented at the Earli SIG 6 & 7 Conference on 22 August 2024 at the University of Tübingen. Nominated for the ‘Junior Paper in a Symposium Presentation Award’.

Wenzel, B. & Decristan, J. (2024). Adaptive constructive support in teacher-student interactions. Poster presentation at the Early-Career Researchers’ Conference of the 9th Dortmund Symposium on Empirical Educational Research at the IFS in Dortmund

Wenzel, B. & Decristan, J. (2024). Dyadic constructive support in individualised teaching. Poster presentation at the GEBF Young Researchers’ Conference on 21 March 2024 at the University of Potsdam.

2019

Ziegenmeyer, A. & Wenzel, B. (2019). Music education as an extracurricular activity in juvenile detention centres. Learning potentials and perspectives for an inclusive music teacher education. Presentation at the international conference ‘jailbreak – musical inclusion in prison’ on 21 May 2019 at the Catholic University of Eichstädt-Ingolstadt.