The effect of school inspections on school improvement

This study uses a school-level longitudinal control-group design to examine how teachers and principals of inspected versus uninspected schools perceive school improvement at their schools. During the phasing in of school inspections in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany), both inspected and uninspected schools were surveyed with respect to school improvement activities over a 1-year period. The main finding is that principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of school quality were highly stable, irrespective of the introduction of school inspections. The results show school inspections had a comparatively low impact on the aspects of school quality measured here.     

Wirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Sportkonsums in Deutschland

The aim of this research project was to determine the volume and structure of the sport-related consumption (based on participation and on interest) of private households in Germany in the year 2010 in a differentiated and extensive way. A representative computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey with n?=?7,031 was implemented, followed by a computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) survey with n?=?12,365. This way, data was gathered on the number of people spending money on sport and the respective amounts spent, differentiating between 48 sport-related categories of consumption. The results show that—in the realistic scenario—a total sum of 138.6 bn euros were spent, of which 112.6 bn euros were caused by participation and the remaining 26 bn euros alone by the interest in sport. The most relevant categories of participation-based consumption were transportation costs (33.7 bn euros; 30?% of the total), sport-related vacation and training camps (22.4 bn euros; 19.9?%) and shoes and clothing (15.3 bn euros; 13.3?%). The most relevant categories of interest-based sport consumption are entrance fees/tickets (10.4 bn euros; 40?% of the total), catering and accommodation (5.2 bn euros; 20.1?%) and media/information technology/pay TV (4 bn euros; 15.5?%).     

Dynamics of mental model construction from text and graphics

When students read for learning, they frequently are required to integrate text and graphics information into coherent knowledge structures. The following study aimed at analyzing how students deal with texts and how they deal with graphics when they try to integrate the two sources of information. Furthermore, the study investigated differences between students from different school types and grades. Forty students from grades 5 and 8 from higher track and lower track of the German school system were asked to process and integrate texts and graphics in order to answer items from different levels of a text–picture integration taxonomy. Students’ eye movements were recorded and analyzed. Results suggest fundamentally different functions of text and graphics, which are associated with different processing strategies. Texts are more likely to be used according to a coherence-formation strategy, whereas graphics are more likely to be used on demand as visual cognitive tools according to an information-selection strategy. Students from different tracks of schooling revealed different adaptivity with regard to the requirements of combining text and graphic information.     

The achievement flow motive as an element of the autotelic personality: predicting educational attainment in three cultures

Human behavior is directed by an implicit and an explicit motivational system. The intrinsic form of the implicit achievement motive has been demonstrated to predict the experience of flow. Thus, this achievement flow motive can be considered an integral component of the autotelic personality, posited in Flow Theory as dispositional difference in the propensity to experience flow. As implicit motivation predicts long-term behavioral trends and flow predicts quality of performance, the achievement flow motive should be predictive of a long-term goal pursuit such as educational attainment. This hypothesis is tested cross-culturally to shed some light on the universality of flow: Participants from Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany were asked about the level of education they attained. To assess their achievement flow motive, the Operant Motive Test was employed. After measurement equivalence was established, analyses revealed that, across all three cultures, the achievement flow motive explained variance in educational attainment independent of achievement values as measured by a scale of the Schwartz Value Survey. Consequently, as would be expected of an element of the autotelic personality, the achievement flow motive predicts long-term academic success.     

‘Our Victorias Victorious’: Media,Rivalry, and the 1896 Winnipeg-Montreal Stanley Cup Hockey Challenges

This study analyzes media coverage of the two Stanley Cup hockey challenges played by the Winnipeg Victorias and the Montreal Victorias in February and December 1896. First presented in 1893, the Stanley Cup symbolized the national hockey championship of Canada. The essay argues that newspaper reports and telegraph reconstructions of early Stanley Cup hockey matches brought Canadians into both local and national communities of interest centred on sport, while helping to create a mediated Canadian ‘hockey world’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 1896 Stanley Cup contests were likely the first two games in which the technology of telegraphy was applied to the sport of hockey in such a way that large crowds in distant cities could experience matches as they were being played. In addition, this study examines the regional and interurban rivalries that were expressed through Stanley Cup competition. Newspapers depicted Montreal and Winnipeg hockey teams as representatives of east-west conflict and difference, as well as embodiments of community identity and civic pride.     

Constructing a Cultural History of Canadian Hockey

This essay explains how the collection of papers in this volume contributes to the growing scholarly literature dealing with hockey’s role in Canadian society and culture. In particular, this project explores aspects of hockey – and its connection to the sports media – which have not been sufficiently examined by historians. The cultural history of hockey in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has not been researched thoroughly by those working in the fields of sport history, Canadian history or cultural studies. This study addresses this deficiency by assessing key elements of the media-constructed ‘world of hockey’ during the early years of Stanley Cup competition. It examines local and national newspaper coverage of championship hockey games between 1894 and 1907 in order to understand interurban and regional rivalries, the national scope of the sports media, violence and gender construction and community representation. As local and national audiences were exposed to similar media texts and narratives about hockey, they developed shared understandings of the cultural meanings of the sport throughout Canada.     

Effects of age at school entry (ASE) on the development of non-cognitive skills: Evidence from psychometric data

We identify effects of age at school entry (ASE) on the development of child temperament. Our analysis is based on psychometric measures from a longitudinal cohort study of children in the Rhine-Neckar region in central Germany. In children with a higher ASE due to a birthday late in the year, we find more favorable outcomes with respect to several temperamental dimensions: these children are more persistent and less often hyperactive. The findings are robust if we control for the respective temperamental dimension before entering school. We also show that the ASE effect on persistence is stable over time by comparing the children at age eight and age eleven, after the children have entered Germany's segregated secondary-school tracks. At age eleven, we additionally find significant ASE effects on adaptability to change. Overall, the results point to a high degree of malleability in the considered non-cognitive skills after school entrance. By contrast, we do not find a significant effect of ASE on cognitive skills as measured by IQ.