Berufliche Weiterbildung – Gelegenheits- und Teilnahmestrukturen

This contribution starts out from the assumption that participation in continuing professional education is realized in the context of different opportunity structures and an analysis of participation selectivity must take account of both self-selection and external selection processes. The different opportunity structures are described using approaches from segmentation and economic theory, which lead to the identification of three segments of continuing professional education. Participation structures in the three training segments are shown using logistic regressions, which take account of socio-demographic and individual characteristics of the social and employment environment. These predictors display segment-specific influences, which emphasizes the importance of differentiated perspectives on continuing professional education. Overall, participation is shown to be clearly influenced by external selection processes. The basis of the analyses is data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), cohort 2009/10.     

Information ambiguity,patents and the market value of innovative assets

Research and development (R&D) is often essential for firms’ profitability and growth. At the same time, R&D is long-term and risky. We show that innovation activities lead to information ambiguity about the future value of firms’ assets. This effect appears to be more pronounced for small and less reputed firms. Information ambiguity further lowers firms’ market value and, in particular, the market value of innovative assets. We further show that high quality patents mitigate the negative effect of information ambiguity to some extent.     

Supporting learning with interactive multimedia through active integration of representations

When learners explore dynamic and interactive visualisations they are often not able to interact with them in a systematic and goal-oriented way. Frequently, even supporting learners in processes of discovery learning does not lead to better learning outcomes. This can be due to missing pre-requisite knowledge such as the coherent mental integration of the pictorial and symbolic sources of information. In order to support learners in this process, we encouraged them to interactively and externally relate different static sources of information to each other before exploring dynamic and interactive visualisations. We evaluated the benefit of this instructional support in two experimental studies concerning the domains of statistics and mechanics. It revealed that the active integration of static representations before processing dynamic visualisations resulted in better performance and can provide a basis for a more systematic and goal-oriented experimentation behaviour during simulation-based discovery learning.in final form: 16 November 2004     

Social Presence in Synchronous Virtual Learning Situations: The Role of Nonverbal Signals Displayed by Avatars

Social factors play an important role in determining whether instructional communication in computer-supported settings will be successful. Social presence is a social factor, specifically addressing the feeling of being present with another person in a virtual environment. This article describes possibilities to influence the feeling of social presence in synchronous learning scenarios using desktop collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). Desktop CVEs are technically simple compared with immersive CVEs and can be adapted according to the needs of the users. In this article, possible adaptations are described using the example of the desktop CVE virtual team room. In CVEs, users are represented as avatars. Avatars may or may not convey nonverbal signals. The focus of the article is on whether the actual use of nonverbal signals can affect the sense of social presence and thus help to establish and maintain the learner's motivation and provide support for structuring social interaction in learning situations. The paper provides a review of exploratory studies and experiments as well as a report on the author's own studies. Future research questions concerning learning in CVEs are discussed.     

Performance‐approach goals,task‐avoidant behaviour and conceptual knowledge as predictors of first graders’ school performance

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children’s performance‐approach goal orientation, task‐avoidant behaviours, conceptual knowledge and their achievement in maths and literacy. The sample consisted of 174 first grade children and their class teachers. Children’s self reports of their performance‐approach goals and avoidant behaviours as well as teacher‐reports of children’s avoidant behaviours were used. Our results indicate that performance‐approach goal orientation positively predicts children’s self‐reported task‐avoidant behaviours which in turn have a negative effect on children’s achievement outcomes. The negative effect of teacher‐rated avoidant behaviours on children’s achievement outcomes was even greater than the positive influence of children’s conceptual knowledge. These results suggest that the relationships between goal‐orientations, achievement behaviours and achievement outcomes start to form early in children’s school career (or even before that) and that children’s self‐report of their achievement goals and behaviours provide a valuable knowledge already in this early age.     

Konstruktion eines Fragebogens im Rahmen der Selbstbestimmungstheorie der Motivation im außerschulischen Sport im Kindesalter

The article describes the development of a questionnaire based on self-determination theory for 9- to 13-year-old children engaging in extracurricular sports. To our knowledge there are no German-language instruments that can be used to record the promotion of the three psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, the degree of satisfaction and the resulting self-determined motivation. Therefore, the aim of this research is the development of a efficient, German-language questionnaire measuring the aforementioned constructs. The result is a questionnaire of 30 items including two need-support scales, three need-satisfaction scales and four scales regarding the motivational orientation. The scales extracted by factor analysis show satisfying internal consistencies. Preliminary construct validation is reported concerning individual vs. team sports for the need-support and need-satisfaction scales as well as proof of the simplex structure concerning motivational orientation.     

Muscularity,Heavy Athletics and Urban Leisure in Ethiopia, 1950s–1970s

This article focuses on the development of heavy athletics in urban Ethiopia during Haile Selassie's reign. In an attempt to modernise the country, educational institutions and missionary movements such as the Young Men's Christian Association were used to create healthy citizen bodies. By focusing on weightlifting, bodybuilding and wrestling, the article shows different trajectories of institutionalisation due to specific ideas about modernity and global sports. As a way of showcasing self-improvement, and by lucrative bodybuilding performances, urban leisure arguably paved the way in Ethiopia for the muscular male body as an ‘acceptable' aesthetic form.     

“Pupils should have respect for you,although I have no idea how to achieve this?”: The ideals and experiences shaping a teacher’s professional identity

The aim of the study was to understand the development of professional identity of prospective teachers, their ideals and experiences during interactions with their surrounding learning environment, including university studies and pedagogical placement during their 5-year studies. We also aimed at understanding how students with different motivational pathways to teacher education may be supported to explore teaching as a possible career choice. The findings reported in this article emerged primarily from interviews with 13 student teachers at the end of their teacher education programme. Survey responses collected during earlier stages of the study were utilised to provide data about the student teachers’ professional development prior to the point of the interviews. The findings of the study point to various concerns and dilemmas, which in turn suggest that student teachers take different identity development routes. The study identified four possible “identity routes” to becoming a teacher. The implications of different identity routes on teacher education are discussed.