Beurteilereffekte bei der Messung von Unterrichtsqualität

In the external evaluation of schools the technique of classroom observation belongs to the methodological standard repertoire. Nevertheless the measurement of quality of classroom teaching based upon selected lesson sequences, which are as a rule inspected only briefly, is fraught with a lot of methodological problems. Therefore it is relevant for a substantiated quality assurance to reveal problems in the measurement of quality of classroom teaching due to an implementation of adequate empirical methods. This is made possible by using the generalizability theory and the many-facet Rasch model. Analyses based upon data of the Hamburg school inspection point out that by using an appropriate data collection procedure rater effects in classroom observations turn out comparatively low at about nine percent of total variance. Furthermore analyses prove that it is insufficient to simply quantify the agreement among raters by using global reliability measures, but that it is necessary to check up on intra rater consistency for getting valid and in this way reliable results from classroom observations for the practice.     

Übereinstimmung,Variabilität und Reliabilität von Schülerurteilen zur Unterrichtsqualität auf Schulebene

Using student ratings to assess instructional quality of schools should fulfill three requirements: (1) an appropriate level of inter-rater agreement within schools, (2) systematic variance of student ratings between schools, (3) an adequate reliability level of aggregated student ratings. Using international PISA-data (2000–2012; 81 countries, over 55,300 schools, over 1.3 million 15-year olds) this study investigated how these requirements were met regarding indicators of instructional quality (classroom management, cognitive activation, individual learning support). We computed the interrater agreement index r_WG(J), as well as the intraclass correlations ICC(1) and ICC(2). Our results showed that (1) student ratings demonstrated a moderate or strong level of agreement for most indicators of instructional quality and (2) instructional quality assessed by students varied systematically between schools. Yet, (3) reliability of aggregated student ratings was not sufficient in many countries. We discuss these results regarding conventions to evaluate agreement, variability, and reliability of student ratings at the school level.     

Welche Rolle spielt Kompetenzdiagnostik im Rahmen von Lehr-Lernprozessen?

Competence assessment can support evidence-based teaching and learning. Depending on its specific purpose, competence assessment can be applied at the individual, the classroom or school level as well as on a national level. Large-scale-assessments are typical examples for system monitoring. Competence assessment on the individual level can provide important information with respect to individual qualification and learning outcomes. Typically, competence assessment uses psychometric models from Item-Response-Theory (IRT). However, until present, competence assessment still struggles to tap its full potential regarding feedback and individual support. Teachers often have difficulties to interpret results from competence assessments that are based on IRT. Thus, it is crucial to support teachers in using these results to improve classroom teaching. One of the main challenges of educational measurement is to align everyday classroom teaching with formative and summative assessments and to establish competence models as a common ground. Process-orientated, formative assessment can inform criterion-based feedback and, consequently, promote teaching on the basis of educational standards that were defined on the system level. However, more work needs to be done with respect to research on assessments as well as their communication and implementation into teaching practice.     

überg?nge in die Ausbildung: Welche Rolle spielt die Ausbildungsreife?

Youth with no or only a lower secondary school degree (Hauptschulabschluss) are increasingly disadvantaged in terms of access to vocational education and training (VET). Their lower chances of obtaining a trainee are explained by the claim that an increasing number of them are ??not mature enough for VET??. These young people would not (yet) meet the training requirements??so the criticism. So far there are no empirical studies that have shown whether such immaturity can indeed serve as an appropriate explanation for differences in training chances of less-educated youth. This paper answers this question by analyses using a panel survey of school leavers after grade 9 from the Hauptschule in Lower Saxony. Central results are: About 45?% of the school leavers had successfully entered into an apprenticeship within three months. School grades in German and mathematics were less important than grades for work attitudes and firm-internships while still at school. In general, our analyses reveal that social behaviour and a firm??s opportunities to discover the strengths of low-achieving youths and not only their weaknesses are important factors for the chances of successful transitions into training.     

Zur Effektivität von jahrgangslosen Schulen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Wird die Pluralität in der Erziehungswissenschaft aufgekündigt?

This paper discusses whether research following PISA might constrain the plurality of empirical and theoretical approaches in empirical educational research. The significance of plurality in the field of science is reviewed initially; followed by the paper’s central thesis. It is argued that qualitative and new quantitative empirical educational research seldom considers each other in key areas of the field, e.?g. investigations on educational inequality. Though, ‘dimming out’ perspective-wise is marked rather a distinct feature of new quantitative educational research. Using the example of research on selection-based learning environments, students’ habitus and the family’s role in educational inequality, it is shown how a reflected linkage of both perspectives and mutual reception can be substantially beneficial to the findings of both paradigms.     

Die Klasse an die Universit?t, die Masse an die anderen Hochschulen?

In Germany, different types of university-level institutions are available for tertiary education: traditional universities (Universit?ten) and??since the 1970s??universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen) as well as universities of cooperative education (Berufsakademien). The present study investigates differences in key areas related to students?? academic choices and success: do students at different types of university differ significantly in terms of cognitive performance, personality or social background? We compared N?=?1.230 students at traditional universities, universities of applied science, and universities of cooperative education (Baden-W??rttemberg Cooperative State University) on the basis of a large scale longitudinal study in the German federal state of Baden-W??rttemberg. Students of the different university types differed significantly in all three key areas (cognitive performance, personality, and social background) within the fields of technical sciences and economics. We determine the relative importance of these key areas for differences between university types and we discuss the implications of our findings.     

Soziale Ungleichheit beim Zugang in eine Berufsausbildung: Welche Bedeutung haben die Institutionen?

The corporatistic governance model of nonacademic vocational training, which is predominant in Germany, has produced heterogeneous and complex conditions for the access to vocational training. Which training programs are offered and the selection of applicants is largely determined by the training companies themselves. Adolescents interested in vocational training are thus confronted with diverse admission requirements. Which resources they can and have to use in order to receive a training position is significantly determined by the respective admission requirements. The present paper elucidates key institutional conditions of the access to vocational training which can serve as explanations for the (re-)production of social inequalities in the transition process from school to vocational training. In particular, the inequalities with respect the admission to vocation training along the lines of educational degrees, gender, as well as regional, social, and ethnic backgrounds are investigated.     

Das Problem des Übergangs von der Grundschule auf die Weiterführenden Schulen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Wer geht auf die Hauptschule? Primäre und sekundäre Effekte der sozialen Herkunft beim Übergang nach der Grundschule

It can be especially controversial when pupils are transferred to the “Hauptschule”, which is the lowest of three tracks in the German secondary school system. The acceptance of this type of school is very low for both parents and pupils. By contrast with the transfers of pupils to the high ability grammar school (“Gymnasium”), there are no recent studies on transfers to the “Hauptschule”. Analyses using data from the Bavarian partial sample in the KOALA-S study show that the discrepancy between the aspirations of parents and pupils on the one hand and the school type recommended by teachers and the pupil registrations on the other hand is particularly large when pupils are transferred to the “Hauptschule”. Discrepancies concerning transfers to the “Realschule” (intermediate track; commercial/technical secondary school) or “Gymnasium” are less severe. Unwanted attendance at the “Hauptschule” most frequently affects children from families with lower social or educational status. Analyses with an elaborated simulation procedure (counterfactual calculations) show that attendance at the “Hauptschule” mainly results from poor school achievements, whereas social selectivity due to parents decision making or transition regulations is far less important.     

Identität — ein überholtes Konzept?

W?hrend der Identit?tsbegriff sich einerseits weiterhin gro?er Beliebtheit erfreut, ger?t er andererseits zunehmend in die Kritik. Vertreter postmoderner Optionen pl?dieren u.a. mit Rekurs auf den Philosophen Welsch für dessen Verabschiedung. Kritisiert werden vor allen die mit dem modernen Identit?tskonzept verbundenen Konzeptionen von Koh?renz und Kontinuit?t. Welschs Option wird hier einer mehrperspektivischen Analyse unterzogen, wobei jenseits der Differenzen verschiedener Diskurse Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen modernen und postmodernen Optionen aufscheinen. übrig bleibt ein formaltheoretisches Konzept der Subjektkonstituierung, das für die p?dagogisch Praxis nicht taugt.     

Der Einfluss von Bildungs- und Wirtschaftspolitik auf den Ertrag des Hochschulstudiums in 21 OECD-Ländern

Returns to Higher Education in 21 OECD Countries: The impact of economic and university policies. – We present new estimates of the private internal rate of return (IRR) to Higher Education (HE) in 21 OECD countries. In 2001 the IRR varied considerably across countries, ranging from 4 percent for women in Italy (5 percent for men in Spain) to 14 percent in Ireland. IRR are relatively homogeneous across gender. At 6¼ percent the IRR for Germany falls short of the OECD average (8½ percent). The largest contributor to benefits from HE is the educational wage premium; the largest contributor to costs is foregone income while studying. Cross-country differences in IRR are driven by differences in the wage premium (27 percent in Spain versus 91 percent in Hungary and the United States), in the duration of HE, the marginal tax rate, and direct costs of HE. We then simulate the effect of policy reforms on the IRR. An increase in tuition fees equivalent to 15 percent of average national income would reduce the IRR by 0.8 to 1.6 percentage points (Germany: 1.1 percent). Shortening the duration of studies by 10 percent and reducing the progressiveness of the income tax schedule would compensate for the fall in the IRR.     

Wie lässt sich die Experimentierstrategie-Nutzung fördern?

Pupils display a production deficiency within self-regulated learning arrangements using experimentation. Available strategy-knowledge does not result in an effective strategy use. This may be due to a lack of metacognitive capabilities and motivation. These aspects should be supported, then, in order to foster strategy use. Providing prompts is a promising method. The question is how to design them to optimal effect. Two characteristics were investigated in an experimental study, namely the adaptability of prompts and their combination with strategy-related feedback. 93 pupils in year 9 experienced self-regulated learning in a computer-based experiment setting. There was a control group and three experimental groups with non-adaptive prompts, adaptive prompts or a combination of feedback and adaptive prompts, respectively. The dependent variables were the extent of using a strategy for experimentation and pupils’ motivation. Benefits for use of strategy were only observed for the group with a combination of feedback and adaptive prompts. The learners in this group remained also more strongly motivated than in the other groups.     

Subjektive Theorien von Lehrkräften über ungünstige Faktoren in der Bildungsbiografie von Schülerinnen und Schülern – Wie konstruieren Lehrkräfte den Übergang von der Schule in die Berufsausbildung?

The transition from school to apprenticeship marks a turning point in the life of teenagers because it can affect the course of their professional careers. Currently, this transition appears to be difficult for many older teenagers. Science deals with factors and conditions which contribute to the complication of this transition process. Teachers and their beliefs play an important role in this process but are largely neglected in the literature. Research has shown that there is a dialectic and dynamic interaction between knowledge and action (i.?e. knowledge is the basis for action). Thus, it is important to investigate the knowledge and beliefs of teachers about the transition from school to apprenticeship. It is documented that beliefs of professionals are underdeveloped in some areas in comparison to the epistemic truth status of scientific knowledge. A certain type of teacher develops an independent and creative professional-action strategy based on his/her beliefs.     

Welche Rolle spielt neben Merkmalen des Instruktionsdesigns die fachspezifische und aufgabenspezifische Motivation beim Lernen mit Multimedia im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht?

The present paper reports on an empirical study which investigated learning with text and animations in the science classroom. In a 2?×?2 design the presence of multimedia learning material instruction (text only vs. text + animations) as well as the modality of the explanatory text (spoken vs. written) were tested. Prior to learning, students’ motivation to learn was assessed as a continuous factor. Recall and transfer were assessed immediately after learning. The results show better recall of information for learners with multimedia materials, providing the animations were accompanied by spoken text. However, in contrast to the positive effects of domain-specific motivation this multimedia effect was not evident for transfer. The effects of multimedia design were independent of motivation. Implications for future studies are discussed.     

International orientierte höhere Schulen in Deutschland – Zwei Varianten von Internationalität im Wechselspiel von Institution und Schülerbiografie

During the last decades, the education system has been marked by distinct processes of internationalisation. In the field of higher education, there are numerous and varied schools with different international profiles. This paper focuses on processes of internationalisation in the German sector of higher education. We contrast two higher secondary schools with international profiles: one international school in a West German metropolitan region with a long tradition and a younger internationally-profiled school located in the periphery of an East German urban centre. This institutional analysis presents school cultural similarities and differences with regard to different claims and concepts of internationality. This analysis is complemented by a reconstruction of three patterns of biographical meaning examining the internationality of pupils and their respective habitual fit to these internationally-profiled schools. We draw on qualitative data, consisting mainly of interviews with head teachers and pupils of these two schools. We argue that these differing regional forms of internationalisation indicate a stratification and hierarchisation in the field of higher education in Germany.