Soziale Ungleichheit beim Zugang in eine Berufsausbildung: Welche Bedeutung haben die Institutionen?

The corporatistic governance model of nonacademic vocational training, which is predominant in Germany, has produced heterogeneous and complex conditions for the access to vocational training. Which training programs are offered and the selection of applicants is largely determined by the training companies themselves. Adolescents interested in vocational training are thus confronted with diverse admission requirements. Which resources they can and have to use in order to receive a training position is significantly determined by the respective admission requirements. The present paper elucidates key institutional conditions of the access to vocational training which can serve as explanations for the (re-)production of social inequalities in the transition process from school to vocational training. In particular, the inequalities with respect the admission to vocation training along the lines of educational degrees, gender, as well as regional, social, and ethnic backgrounds are investigated.     

Hochschulerneuerung nach der Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten?

The unification of the two German states in October 1990 had a significant impact on educational politics. The combination of two educational and university systems that were based on clearly divergent political and social foundations lay ahead. The thesis is discussed here that the unification of FRG and GDR could not lead to the renewal of universities in Germany but only to an adaptation of eastern society to western society. But with the foundation of a Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Technical University of Dresden (Land Saxony) successful attempts to renewals at an intermediate level are also presented. The author describes the production and realization of a project he helped to develop and at the same time addresses the emerging problems the new faculty triggered.     

THE DEPICTION OF SEX ROLES IN AMERICAN AND GERMAN MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS*

This study provides a quantitative content analysis of the depictionsof sex roles in the American news magazine Time and the WestGerman news magazine Stern from 1969 to 1988. The underlyingassumption of the study is that advertisements reflect changesin social reality. While most studies focus on explicit aspectsof gender role depictions such as jobs, activities, interactionsand situations, this content analysis also covers implicit aspectsof role depictions such as posture, gestures, and facial expression.Some authors have claimed that these are powerful means of transmittingtraditional sex role stereotypes of women as being submissiveand of men as being dominant. Results indicate that while therehave been considerable changes in the explicit presentationof male and female roles, the implicit presentation remainedquite consistent over the 20-year period. According to thesefindings, sex roles may have changed primarily on the surface,while nonverbal sex role stereotypes still linger on. Differencesbetween the developments in Germany and the US are outlined.     

The Very Best of Me: Longitudinal Associations of Perfectionism and Identity Processes in Adolescence

Personality and identity formation are intricately linked in adolescent development. The personality disposition of perfectionism has been associated with identity processes, but their longitudinal interplay in adolescence has not yet been investigated. This four-wave study, with 5- to 6-month intervals between each wave (N = 744 Caucasian adolescents, M_age = 15.2 years, 55% girls), examined associations between perfectionism (self-oriented and socially prescribed) and identity processes in the domain of future plans. Self-oriented perfectionism predicted increases in commitment making, identification with commitment, and exploration in depth. Socially prescribed perfectionism showed bidirectional positive relations with ruminative exploration. Exploration in depth predicted increases in socially prescribed perfectionism. Findings suggest that perfectionism is an important personality disposition in adolescent identity formation unfolding over time.     

Framework for Empirical Research on Science Teaching and Learning

In view of the research on education—and subject-related education in particular—that has been conducted in recent years, it would seem useful to describe the current state and future trends of research on science teaching and learning. In the present article, research findings are described, the deficits of science education are analyzed, and medium- and long-term research goals are specified from the perspective of an interdisciplinary cooperative effort between specialists in the fields of empirical educational research; the psychology of learning and instruction; and biology, chemistry, and physics education. Revised and supplemented version of Fischer, H. E., Klemm, K., Leutner, D., Sumfleth, E., Tiemann, R., and Wirth, J. (2003). Naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Lehr-Lernforschung: Defizite und Desiderata [Natural science-didactical learning research: Deficits and desiderata]. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 9, 179–208.