Christian pedagogy? A research report on the Christian profile of an educational institution in Germany

The article reports about an empirical study among the educational staff of one of Germany’s biggest Christian educational institutions, the ‘Christliche Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands e.V.’ (Christian Youth Work of Germany, CJD). It tried to find out what ideas and attitudes the respondents had concerning the Christian profile of the institution and their own educational work. To this end, a questionnaire with mainly closed-ended and some open-ended questions was administered to the 6000 educational staff. The 934 responses are not representative but still give illuminating insights into the chances and problems of a ‘Christian pedagogy’ as proclaimed by the CJD. They show that a Christian profile of education is approved of by most of the CJD staff, even by many of those who do not believe in God. The results are interpreted and discussed in the context of current developments in Germany’s denominational private school sector, but imply perspectives for an international context as well.     

A 30-Minute Physical Education Program Improves Students' Executive Attention

Physical activity is not only beneficial to physical health but also to cognitive functions. In particular, executive functions that are closely related to learning achievement can be improved by acute and recurring physical activity. We examined the effects of a single 30-min physical education program in contrast to a 5-min movement break on working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition of attention and behavioral tendencies of eighty-one 13- to 14-year-old students in grade 7 in Germany. Results indicate that the maintenance of on-task attention in the face of distraction was improved by an aerobic endurance exercise-based physical education program but not by a short aerobic movement break. This suggests that the duration of a school sports program is decisive for improving students' executive attention.     

Value orientations and studying in school–leisure conflict: A study with samples from five countries

The relations between students' value orientations and experiences of motivational interference during studying following conflicts between learning and leisure activities were investigated in a self-report study. Overall, 1075 adolescents, mostly from Catholic schools, in Bosnia–Herzegovina (n = 203), India (n = 200), Paraguay (n = 96), Spain (n = 442), and the US (n = 134), participated. The samples varied substantially in terms of modern and postmodern value orientations, experience of motivational interference during studying, and time invested in studying. By controlling for age, gender, and economic capital, postmodern value orientation was positively related to conflict frequency and experience of motivational interference during learning, and negatively related to time investment. For modern value orientation, the relations were almost reversed. Despite the considerable differences between the sample means, the study revealed some consistency in the relations between the variables across the samples, which indicates that most of the relations can be generalized.     

Integration Von Allgemeiner Und Beruflicher Bildung In Westlichen Industrienationen

Zusammenfassung Bisher besteht in vielen Ländern eine Ungleichheit in den beruflichen Abschlüssen des beruflichen Schulwesens und des Allgemeinbildenden Schulwesens. Inzwischen kann man in einigen Industrieländern Entwicklungen beobachten, allgemeine und berufliche Bildung zu verbinden. Es erscheint günstig, am Anfang der Ausbildung eine breite berufliche Grundlagenausbildung in Verbindung mit Allgemeinbildung zu vermitteln, und erst danach eine Spezialisierung vorzunehmen. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Beispiele aus Schweden, den USA (Career Education), der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Dänemark und der Republik Irland dargestellt.

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Up to now in many countries there exists no equality between vocational education and general education in the educational system. In the meantime in some industrial countries a development can be observed to integrate vocational and general education in schools. It seems favourable to offer a broad vocational education in connection with general education at the beginning, and to specialize afterwards. In order to demonstrate this development examples are presented from Sweden, the USA (Career Education), the Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland.

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Résumé Dans de nombreux pays l'égalité entre enseignement professionnel et enseignement général n'est pas encore un fait accompli. Par ailleurs, dans certains pays industrialisés, on a pu observer une tendance à intégrer dans les écoles ces deux types d'enseignement. Il paraît avantageux, au début, de dispenser un enseignement professionnel sommaire en rapport avec l'enseignement général, et de passer à la spécialisation plus tard. L'auteur appuie son exposé d'exemples empruntés à la Suède, aux USA (Career Education), à la République Fédérale d'Allemagne, au Danemark et à la République d'Irlande.

     

The filament forming reactions of vimentin tetramers studied in a serial-inlet microflow device by small angle x-ray scattering

The structural organization of metazoan cells and their shape are established through the coordinated interaction of a composite network consisting of three individual filament systems, collectively termed the cytoskeleton. Specifically, microtubules and actin filaments, which assemble from monomeric globular proteins, provide polar structures that serve motor proteins as tracks. In contrast, intermediate filaments (IFs) assemble from highly charged, extended coiled coils in a hierarchical assembly mechanism of lateral and longitudinal interaction steps into non-polar structures. IF proteins are expressed in a distinctly tissue-specific way and thereby serve to generate the precise plasticity of the respective cells and tissues. Accordingly, in the cell, numerous parameters such as pH and salt concentration are adjusted such that the generation of functional networks is ensured. Here, we transfer the problem for the mesenchymal IF protein vimentin to an in vitro setting and combine small angle x-ray scattering with microfluidics and finite element method simulations. Our approach is adapted to resolve the early assembly steps, which take place in the sub-second to second range. In particular, we reveal the influence of ion species and concentrations on the assembly. By tuning the flow rates and thus concentration profiles, we find a minimal critical salt concentration for the initiation of the assembly. Furthermore, our analysis of the surface sensitive Porod regime in the x-ray data reveals that the formation of first assembly intermediates, so-called unit length filaments, is not a one-step reaction but consists of distinct consecutive lateral association steps followed by radial compaction as well as smoothening of the surface of the full-width filament.     

Observing justice in the primary school classroom

Justice-related situations are a part of students? everyday life. In order to test the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of (in)justice in school, valid measures of justice are needed. To our knowledge, this is the first study to develop an observer low inference rating instrument that can be applied to measure justice in the primary classroom. In two pre-studies, justice-relevant situations in the classroom were extracted and observable indicators for these situations were developed. In the main study, this instrument was used to observe 208 primary school students with regard to their experiences of justice or injustice. In addition to this, other measures of justice were developed to examine the convergence between observer low inference ratings of classroom justice and high inference rating instruments for teachers, students, and external observers.Factor analyses and correlations between the different indices of the observer low inference rating and the high inference rating items suggested that incidents of justice and injustice in the classroom do not tend to co-occur frequently. Teachers do not appear to have a general tendency to treat a child more or less justly across a large number of situations.The findings suggest that a comprehensive assessment of classroom justice requires a multi-method approach where the justice ratings of students, teachers and external observers are all taken into consideration.     

THE DETERMINATION AND EVALUATION OF RESULTS IN THE STUDY PROCESS

Student assessment and grading schemes in higher education institutions should be adapted and applied in such a way that they stimulate students to achieve to the utmost of their abilities. It is not sufficient to simply give a grade to a student for a task accomplished or even to give him an average grade for a series of tasks accomplished during a given time period, a semester, for instance. Rather it is necessary to create an action framework of a kind which links the performance dynamic of both students and teachers so as to ensure the accurate determination, evaluation, and analysis of the joint student‐teacher performance behaviour in such a way that the individual procedures subject to evaluation can be grouped into joint procedures which stimulate self‐determination self‐evaluation, and self‐analysis on the part of students, teachers, and eventually, the employers of graduates. The authors have designed two models which illustrate optimum evaluation procedures of the kind which they favour.     

Differentiation in the Making: Consequences of School Segregation of Roma in the Czech Republic,Hungary, and Slovakia

This article examines how various forms of ethnic segregation in education affect everyday life and future aspirations of Roma youth in three Central and Eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It draws on a comparative European investigation about the diverging experiences and paths of ethnic minority youth in Europe (EDUMIGROM¹¹EDUMIGROM “Ethnic differences in education and diverging paths for ethnic minority youth in an enlarged Europe” was an FP7-funded research led by Prof. Júlia Szalai and Viola Zentai at the Center for Policy Studies (CPS), Central European University (CEU), between 2008 and 2011. The author was a member of the coordinating team at CPS, CEU. www.edumigrom.eu.). The article investigates how segregation actually comes about in Central and Eastern Europe and looks at ways in which various forms of separation shape the everyday experiences and future aspirations of youth through the lenses of 14–15-year-old Roma students and their teachers. It reveals that studying in segregated Roma schools limits young Romas’ chances for further education and deprives them of interethnic social networks. Meanwhile, studying in segregated classes of ethnically mixed schools has a devastating effect on the development of young people’s identity, self-esteem, and interethnic relationships.     

Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen für die Gestaltung universit?rer Curricula

Die bereits im Zuge der Autonomie-St?rkung der Universit?ten durch das UOG 1993 im Rahmen der Erlassung des UniStG 1997 vorgenommene Aufwertung der Selbstregelungskompetenzen der Universit?ten bei der Gestaltung des Studienrechts, findet in der Fassung der studienrechtlichen Vorgaben des UnivG 2002 seine konsequente Fortsetzung. Diese Ausweitung der Selbstregelungskompetenzen geht im rechtsstaatlichen Sinne typischerweise (als Gegengewicht) mit besonderen Anforderungen an Rechtsschutz und Rechtssicherheit einher. Insofern hat der universit?re Verordnungsgeber auch auf die in den Gesetzesgrundlagen zum Ausdruck kommenden Wertungen und Grunds?tze eingehend Bedacht zu nehmen.