Developmental Personality Types From Childhood to Adolescence: Associations With Parenting and Adjustment

This study examined whether changes in children's self‐reported Big Five dimensions are represented by (developmental) personality types, using a cohort‐sequential design with three measurement occasions across 5 years (four cohorts, 9–12 years at T1; N = 523). Correlates of, and gender differences in, type membership were examined. Latent class growth modeling yielded three personality types: Resilients (highest initial levels on all Big Five), Overcontrollers (lowest Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Imagination), and Undercontrollers (lowest Benevolence, Conscientiousness). Gender differences in type membership were small. Warm parenting, but not overreactive discipline, in childhood was associated with type membership. The types differed in adjustment problems by the end of middle adolescence. Personality change more likely occurs at the level of dimensions within types than in type membership.     

Preschool and primary school influences on the development of children's early numeracy skills between the ages of 3 and 7 years in Germany

Few studies have investigated how preschool and primary school interact to influence children's cognitive development. The present investigation explores German children's numeracy skills between age 3 (1st year of preschool) and age 7 (1st year of primary school). We first identified the influence of preschool experience on development while controlling for child factors, family background, and the quality of the home learning environment (HLE). We then considered how the instructional quality of primary schools influences numeracy. We finally analysed how preschool and primary school interact. We sampled 547 children who attended 97 German preschools. Latent growth curve analyses identified child and family factors related to age 3 numeracy and development to age 7: gender, migration background, socioeconomic status (SES), mother education, HLE. The effects of preschool on numeracy development persist until age 7 with notable effects from process quality. Strengthened efforts are needed to ensure high quality preschool education in Germany.     

The Gendering of Excellence Through Quality Criteria: The case of the Swiss National Science Foundation Professorships in Switzerland

The Swiss National Science Foundation Professorships Programme is presented as a programme that aims to promote outstanding young scholars to professorial positions. Academic excellence is presented as the main selection criterion. The emphasis put on the research portfolio and on the age of the candidates means that the beneficiaries of these professorships put forward an image of excellence that is more embedded in data-based sciences, than in the humanities and social sciences, thus strengthening the domination of a sector of scientific activity essentially occupied by men over the sector that has opened up more widely to women. This paper aims to deconstruct the criteria of academic excellence as they appear in this programme, and to show that what seem to be quality criteria are inspired by a specific model. These biases tend to undermine the gender equality aims of the programme.     

A modified refutation text design: effects on instructional efficiency for experts and novices

Recently, cognitive load theory has been considered within conceptual change research. Although the effectiveness of refutation texts (RT) has been proven, the conceptual change process involved and the influencing factors remain unclear. To contribute to this research, we investigate the efficiency of pupils working with a modified RT design in which the alternative and scientific conceptions are not explicitly contrasted, and we examine the level of learner expertise as a possible influencing factor. We investigated the efficiency based on the scientific conceptions learned and the mental effort invested (reflecting cognitive load) during instruction (N = 195, 9th graders). Only pupils with high prior knowledge (experts) showed low efficiency and higher mental effort when dealing with alternative conceptions. Our results indicate that the experts did not profit from the mental effort they invested in the learning process, whereas the novices seemed to profit from their invested mental effort.     

Evaluating virtual reality and augmented reality training for industrial maintenance and assembly tasks

The current study evaluated the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) platforms, developed within the scope of the SKILLS Integrated Project, for industrial maintenance and assembly (IMA) tasks training. VR and AR systems are now widely regarded as promising training platforms for complex and highly demanding IMA tasks. However, there is a need to empirically evaluate their efficiency and effectiveness compared to traditional training methods. Forty expert technicians were randomly assigned to four training groups in an electronic actuator assembly task: VR (training with the VR platform twice), Control-VR (watching a filmed demonstration twice), AR (training with the AR platform once), and Control-AR (training with the real actuator and the aid of a filmed demonstration once). A post-training test evaluated performance in the real task. Results demonstrate that, in general, the VR and AR training groups required longer training time compared to the Control-VR and Control-AR groups, respectively. There were fewer unsolved errors in the AR group compared to the Control-AR group, and no significant differences in final performance between the VR and Control-VR groups, probably due to a ceiling effect created by the use of two training trials in the selected task for participants who were expert technicians. The results suggest that use of the AR platform for training IMA tasks should be encouraged and use of the VR platform for that purpose should be further evaluated.     

Manifest: Strategische Bedeutung des Software Engineering für die Medizin

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Inklusion im Sportunterricht

This review article provides an overview of the state of research in the English and German languages on inclusive physical education lessons. Studies published in journals and collected works between 2005 and 2014 were included. A systematic literature search was carried out and articles were selected according to predetermined criteria. A total of 74 articles were included in this review and categorized into the 3 superordinate topics attitude, lessons and qualifications. The compact presentation of the results revealed a tendency towards a positive attitude on inclusive physical education lessons of all participants questioned; however, teaching staff were critical of the concrete implementation of inclusive lessons and admitted that they had been insufficiently prepared for this during training. Pupils also expressed positive as well as negative experiences for participation in inclusive physical education lessons; however, some study results indicated that the acceptance of children with disabilities as well as their effectiveness of learning and physical activity can be improved by special interventional approaches. A core topic of inclusive lessons is a cooperation between the various participants. In this way problems are revealed, which can partly be attributed to the sometimes less clearly defined task profile and to discipline-specific training deficits of some participants. Finally, based on a critically constructive discussion, recommendations on further research approaches on inclusive physical education lessons in German-speaking regions are presented.