Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

This paper investigates the development of teaching practice of the multinational staff delivering UK programmes in a higher education institution in Oman hosting these programmes. It presents a tool to evaluate the teaching practice, and points to those elements of an academic development framework that were found to be most useful in supporting staff in moving towards a student-centred, learning-focused teaching approach. The majority of the lecturers made this shift. We therefore conclude by arguing for long-term CPD aimed at enhancing teaching quality to be part and parcel of a partnership.     

The impact of global and local context information on the processing of deceptive actions in game sports

In basketball, the defender’s reaction to a pass is slower and more error prone if the attacking player gazes into the opposite direction. This so-called head-fake effect might be modulated by context information, that is, the frequency and the sequence of head fakes occurring. Accordingly, the present study investigates the head-fake effect for different frequency proportions (20% vs. 50% vs. 80%). The results show that the head-fake effect decreases when the head fake occurs more often. Furthermore, a potential influence of previous fake experience (i.e., congruency-sequence effect) on the size of the head-fake effect was investigated. Importantly, previous fake experience did not cause the frequency-based modulation of the general size of the head-fake effect. These findings bare important implications for sports practice, especially when it comes to instructing players about the tactical use of deceptive actions.     

Big Five personality traits as predictors of the academic success of university and college students in early childhood education

Academic success in early childhood teacher education is important because it provides a foundation for occupational development in terms of professional competence, the quality of educational practices, as well as career success. Consequently, identifying factors that can explain differences in academic success is an important research task. Previous research has indicated that the Big Five personality traits can predict academic success in tertiary education even when other predictors have been accounted for. However, there is a lack of research regarding students in early childhood education. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Big Five on the academic success of college and university students in Germany who were studying early childhood education. Data from 567 college students and 270 university students were used. Several socio-demographic variables and the school-leaving Grade Point Average (GPA) served as controls. As hypothesised, students with higher conscientiousness also had better college and university GPAs. Furthermore, higher conscientiousness was associated with higher study satisfaction but only for college students. Unexpectedly, neuroticism was not negatively related to study satisfaction. In addition, there were exploratory findings concerning the effects of agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness. The findings are discussed with respect to implications for research and practice. In particular, the consequences with regard to the preparation of students in early childhood education are discussed.     

Fostering collaborative teacher learning: A typology of school leadership

Previous research indicates that supportive school leadership is a key condition of collaborative teacher learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a typology of how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. We adopted an integrative perspective on leadership by examining both learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices that are supportive of collaborative teacher learning. Data were gathered by means of interviews with ten school leaders and a questionnaire that was completed by 39 teachers from six secondary schools in the Netherlands. The aim of the interviews was to identify to what extent school leaders applied learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices. The questionnaire measured teachers' perceptions of the role of school leaders in teacher learning. As an outcome of this study, we constructed a typology that provides insights into how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. Four types of school leaders were distinguished: (a) integrators of teacher learning, (b) facilitators of teacher learning, (c) managers of teacher learning, and (d) managers of daily school practice. Our findings suggest that integration of learning-centred leadership and distributed leadership practices can help school leaders to support collaborative teacher learning.     

Mathematikleistung und mathematischer Unterricht in Deutschland und Japan

Die TIMS-Studie war durch ihre Modellierung darauf angelegt, nicht nur ein „Ranking“ der teilnehmenden L?nder zu liefern, sondern auch Erkl?rungsans?tze für unterschiedliche Schulleistungen innerhalb und zwischen verschiedenen Kulturen. Die analytische Aussagekraft der TIMS-Studie ist in Deutschland u.a. besonders stark, weil sich Deutschland — neben Japan und den USA — an der erg?nzenden TIMS-VIDEO-Studie beteiligte. In zuf?llig aus der TIMSS-Stichprobe ausgew?hlten Schulen wurde jeweils eine Mathematikstunde im achten Jahrgang auf Video aufgezeichnet. In einem Teil der deutschen Stichprobe wurden darüber hinaus Zweit-und Drittstunden videographiert. Die videographierten Unterrichtstunden wurden digitalisiert, transkribiert und in einem iterativen Prozess zwischen Induktion und Deduktion je nach Fragestellung kategorisiert und unter Verwendung einer Software zur Analyse von Videomaterialien vercodet. Durch die Verknüpfung unterschiedlicher Datens?tze und insbesondere durch die Einbeziehung der Videos, die über Transkription, Codierung und Rating vielf?ltige interpretative, qualitative wie quantitative Auswertungen zulassen, bietet die TIMS-Studie ungew?hnliche M?glichkeiten für methodenübergreifende Analysen und somit für Triangulation. Die Nutzung quantitativer und qualitativer Auswertungsverfahren für Zusammenhangs-und Kausalanalysen, ist insbesondere durch Verknüpfung von Daten aus standardisierten Tests und Frageb?gen einerseits und qualitativen Kategorisierungen von Ereignissen in den videographierten Unterrichtssequenzen andererseits m?glich. In diesem Beitrag wird dieser Ansatz anhand der Frage. ob der Mathematikunterricht in verschiedenen Kulturen unterschiedliche inhaltliche und kognitive Schwerpunkte ausweist, im Detail verfolgt. Mit der von uns vorgenommenen Methodenkombination k?nnen verschiedene Arten der Triangulation skizziert werden. Neben den additiven Komponenten der Triangulation — die Untersuchung eines bzw. verschiedener Merkmale aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive unter Verwendung qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden — wird hier besonders die Prüfung von Erkl?rungsans?tzen durch die Kombination unterschiedlicher qualitativer und quantitativer Analysen dargestellt. Dabei steht nicht die Best?tigung der Ergebnisse des einen Verfahrens durch die Analysen des anderen Vorgehens im Vordergrund, sondern die wechselseitige Absicherung von Interpretationen durch den Einsatz verschiedener Forschungsdesigns unter Verwendung qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden.     

Auswahlbibliografie

Auswahlbibliografie

Auswahlbibliografie     

Prediction of the P-leaching potential of arable soils in areas with high livestock densities

Due to long-term positive P-balances many surface soils in areas with high livestock density in Germany are oversupplied with available P, creating a potential for vertical P losses by leaching. In extensive studies to characterize the endangering of ground water to P pollution by chemical soil parameters it is shown that the available P content and the P concentration of the soil solution in the deeper soil layers, as indicators of the P-leaching potential, cannot be satisfactorily predicted from the available P content of the topsoils. The P equilibrium concentration in the soil solution directly above ground water table or the pipe drainage system highly depends on the relative saturation of the P-sorption capacity in this layer. A saturation index of 〈20% normally corresponds with P equilibrium concentrations of〈0.2 mg P/L. Phytoremediation may reduce the P leaching potential of P-enriched soils only over a very long period.     

Data-driven estimates of global nitrous oxide emissions from croplands

Croplands are the single largest anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) globally, yet their estimates remain difficult to verify when using Tier 1 and 3 methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, we re-evaluate global cropland-N₂O emissions in 1961–2014, using N-rate-dependent emission factors (EFs) upscaled from 1206 field observations in 180 global distributed sites and high-resolution N inputs disaggregated from sub-national surveys covering 15593 administrative units. Our results confirm IPCC Tier 1 default EFs for upland crops in 1990–2014, but give a ∼15% lower EF in 1961–1989 and a ∼67% larger EF for paddy rice over the full period. Associated emissions (0.82 ± 0.34 Tg N yr^–1) are probably one-quarter lower than IPCC Tier 1 global inventories but close to Tier 3 estimates. The use of survey-based gridded N-input data contributes 58% of this emission reduction, the rest being explained by the use of observation-based non-linear EFs. We conclude that upscaling N₂O emissions from site-level observations to global croplands provides a new benchmark for constraining IPCC Tier 1 and 3 methods. The detailed spatial distribution of emission data is expected to inform advancement towards more realistic and effective mitigation pathways.