Herkunft und Bildungserfolg beim Übergang vom Kindergarten in die Grundschule

In Germany, age and readiness for school are still the main criteria for school entry decisions. As a result some children start school earlier or later than scheduled. Since the 1970s it is well known that school entries not according to the cut-off date are coupled with the social and ethnic family background of these children and result in differential school careers. Thus an early or delayed school entry may be seen as the starting point of cumulative educational inequalities. New results from three series of interviews with parents, Kindergarten teachers, and school headmasters being part of the longitudinal study BiKS (“Bildungsprozesse, Kompetenzentwicklung und Selektionsentscheidungen im Vor- und Grundschulalter”, educational processes, competence development and selection decisions in pre- and primary school age) now reveal how these decisions develop. One of these qualitative studies is dedicated to school entry decisions in families with Turkish migration background. It is concluded that especially two measures can reduce these early inequalities: (1) better information for the parents and (2) early preventive support for all children making delayed school entries no more necessary.     

Parental Choice and Schooling: some factors influencing Muslim mothers’ decisions about the education of their daughters

In recent years parental choice in education has become an important focus of political debate. Muslim demands for the state funding of Islamic schools have attracted a significant amount of media attention, with opposition sometimes coming from those who argue that such schools are likely to offer limited opportunities to pupils, particularly girls. This article reports on a small‐scale research project which examined the attitudes and values of Muslim women in the UK to their daughters’ education, particularly the basis on which they had selected either a private Islamic school or state primary school. It considers whether the concept of parental choice is a valid one for these women     

Stigma Hauptschulabschluss?

Graduates of vocational training with or without an exit qualification from the German lower secondary school called ??Hauptschule?? have an above-average chance of being unemployed at the next level. Using a data set which includes both school exit qualifications and the marks from vocational training, we show that this increased probability of unemployment can be explained by the enduring stigmatization of graduating school with a low qualification level and by weaker performance in the final examination from vocational training. This leads to additive disadvantages at the next stage in a young person??s career. The attainment of a vocational qualification is, therefore, an insufficient basis for successful entry into the labor market. At a stage, when their integration into the labor market appears to have been secured??despite a problematic start?Cthese youths are, in fact, confronted with an increased risk of unemployment and a precarious start in their working career.     

Museum Heroes All: The Pavia Approach to School-Science Museum Interactions

To improve on the classic school trip to the museum and the traditional distinctions between formal and informal learning, every year we run a project where the schools (first the teachers and then the pupils) are actively involved right from the very first stages of planning. The various projects realised so far involve schools with children of different age levels, from kindergarten to high school, and aim to provide a rewarding museum experience for each level. The various phases of each project follow a timeline where the specific roles of each group of actors is set out. All our projects rely extensively on history of science, but in a number of ways: using primary and secondary sources, museum exhibitions, multimedia and hands-on reconstructions of historical experiments. We mix all these resources together to offer a historical route suitable to the various age groups. Creative analogical thinking, iconographic similarities and coincidences between the scientific and artistic domains are encouraged especially with children from 3 to 13 years old. These comparisons become pretexts for analysis, reflection and creative production also at the graphic level. In this paper we outline our methodology in the specific case of a laboratory and exhibition experience built around the person and work of Galileo. One of the results has been the involvement of the pupils in a new, unexpected emotional experience.     

Mathematik — ein polarisierendes Schulfach

Zusammenfassung Mathematik ist ein polarisierendes Fach, ein Fach, das entweder geliebt oder abgelehnt wird. Der Beitrag fragt nach den Ursachen für eine derartige Polarisierung und beschreibt dabei die Stellung des Fachs Mathematik in der Schule. In einem ersten Teil werden unter Bezug auf die historische Entwicklung des Faches Mathematik die Zielsetzungen des Mathematikunterrichts beschrieben. Dabei wird deutlich, dass im Mathematikunterricht über die historische Entwicklung hinweg für die gymnasiale Bildung st?rker formale Ziele von Mathematik als Geistesbildung formuliert wurden, w?hrend für die Volks-und Realschulbildung st?rker materiale Bildung der Bef?higung zur Umweltbew?ltigung gefordert wurden. In einem zweiten Teil werden Probleme und Defizite des Mathematikunterrichts beschrieben wie die Dominanz von Regeln und Kalkülen und die einseitige Orientierung an einer deduktiv aufgebauten Fachsystematik. In einem dritten Teil werden Konsequenzen und Ma?nahmen zur Behebung der Defizite vorgeschlagen wie die Orientierung an fundamentalen Ideen. Auf der Ebene der Lehr-Lern-Formen wird die Bedeutung produktiver Lernumgebungen hervorgehoben sowie die St?rkung von Eigenaktivit?ten und offenen Fragestellungen gefordert.

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Summary Mathematics — a polarizing subject. Mathematics is a polarizing subject, a subject either beloved or condemned. This contribution asks for the reasons for such polarization and, at the same time describes the position of Mathematics as a school subject. In the first part, the aims of mathematics teaching are described in relation with the historical development of mathematics. It becomes obvious that beyond its historical development mathematics teaching at the Gymnasium (higher type secondary school) was laying stronger emphasis on formal goals of mathematics such as the cultivation of the mind, while at the Volksschule (lower type secondary school) and Realschule (intermediate type secondary school) goals related to the ability of mastering daily life were more strongly demanded. In the second part problems and deficits of mathematics teaching are described, such as the prevailing dominance of rules and calculations and the unilateral orientation towards a deductively constructed systematics of the subject. In the third part consequences and measures for remedying the deficits are suggested, for example an orientation on fundamental ideas. At the level of teaching-and-learning-modes productive learning surroundings are demanded and the support of individually initiated activities and open problems is stressed.

     

公民教育的进展研究：发达国家的探索

21世纪初，无论是在国家层面还是在国际范围，人们都开始对公民教育产生新的兴趣。越来越多具有多元文化的民主国家对作为民主公民教育基础的人权教育的国际共识、全球化进程所带来的统一性与多样性之间关系的冲突特征、许多民主的民族一国家对公民（特别是年轻人）的政治参与水平以及对种族主义倾向的反民主运动的忧虑等，都被看作是引进和加强公民教育的原因。一个由国际学者组成的研究小组，通过考察、研究为我们确认了多元文化的民主体系中公民教育在教学方面的一些重要原则、概念以及公民教育对学校课程的促进。发达国家在实践方面的经验显示，成功的公民教育要求一个清晰的政策框架和专业的教师培训等。