Institute for Educational Quality Improvement

This study provides a correlational meta ‐ analysis of 65 independently written or published studies on teacher stress between 1998 and 2003. We measured the relationships between teacher stress and numerous other constructs including coping, burnout, emotional responses, personality mediators, personal support, environmental structure, and background characteristics. A theoretical ‐ empirical model of construct relationships investigated across studies was developed and n = 2,527 correlational effect sizes were used to estimate the empirical relationships between the operationalized theoretical constructs. Results showed that the strongest association of teacher stressors exists with negatively oriented emotional responses confirming the central role of teachers’ coping mechanisms, personality mediators, and burnout potential according to our model of the stress cycle. Key words: stress, coping, teacher burn ‐ out, teacher emotional response Cette recherche fournit une meta ‐ analyse correlationnelle de 65 etudes, redigees ou publiees entre 1998 et 2003, sur le stress chez les enseignants. Les auteurs ont mesure les relations entre le stress des enseignants et de nombreux autres construits, dont l’adaptation au stress, l’epuisement professionnel, les reactions emotionnelles, les personality mediators, le soutien personnel, la structure du milieu et les antecedents. Un modele theorico ‐ empirique des relations entre les construits a ete elabore et des valeurs d’effets correlationnels de n = 2527 ont ete utilisees pour determiner les relations empiriques entre les construits theoriques operationalises. Les resultats demontrent que, pour les facteurs de stress chez les enseignants, l’association la plus importante se trouve du cote des reactions emotionnelles negatives, ce qui confirme le role cle des mecanismes d’adaptation au stress des enseignants, des personality mediators et du potentiel d’epuisement professionnel selon le modele du cycle du stress qui a ete utilise. Mots cles : stress, adaptation au stress, meta ‐ analyse, enseignants.

A meta-analysis of 69 data sets ( N = 125,308) was carried out on studies that simultaneously evaluate the effects of math and verbal achievements on math and verbal self-concepts. As predicted by the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model, math and verbal achievements were highly correlated overall (.67), but the correlation between math and verbal self-concepts (.10) was close to zero. Correlations between math and verbal achievement and correlations between achievements and self-concepts within the domains were more positive when grades instead of standardized test results were used as achievement indicators. A path analysis revealed support for the I/E model, with positive paths from achievement to the corresponding self-concepts (.61 for math, .49 for verbal) and negative paths from achievement in one subject to self-concept in the other subject (−.21 from math achievement on verbal self-concept, −.27 from verbal achievement to math self-concept). Furthermore, results showed that the I/E model is valid for different age groups, gender groups, and countries. The I/E model did not fit the data when self-efficacy measures were used instead of self-concept measures. These results demonstrate the broad scope of the I/E model as an adequate description of students’ self-evaluation processes as they are influenced by internal and external frames of reference.

Although both conscientiousness and domain-specific interest are believed to be major determinants of academic effort, they have rarely been brought together in empirical studies. In the present research, it was hypothesized that both interest and conscientiousness uniquely predict academic effort and statistically interact with each other to predict academic effort. In 4 studies with 2,557, 415, 1,025, and 1,531 students, respectively, conscientiousness and interest meaningfully and uniquely predicted academic effort. In addition, conscientiousness interacted with interest in a compensatory pattern, indicating that conscientiousness is especially important when a student finds a school subject uninteresting and that domain-specific interest plays a particularly important role for students low in conscientiousness.

The structure of academic self-concept (ASC) is assumed to be multidimensional and hierarchical. This methodological review considers the most central models depicting the structure of ASC: a higher-order factor model, the Marsh/Shavelson model, the nested Marsh/Shavelson model, a bifactor representation based on exploratory structural equation modeling, and a first-order factor model. We elaborate on how these models represent the theoretical assumptions on the structure of ASC and outline their inherent psychometric properties. We analyzed these models using a data set of German 10th - grade students (N = 1,232) including a wide range of domain-specific ASCs as well as general ASC. The correlations among ASCs and between ASCs and academic achievement varied depending on the structural model used. We conclude with discussing recommendations for research purposes and advantages and limitations of each ASC model. Our approach may also guide research on other affective or motivational constructs (e.g., academic anxiety or interest).

Low-stakes assessments do not have consequences for the test-takers. Currently, motivational research indicates that a lack of test-taking motivation can decrease students’ performance in low-stakes assessments. However, little research has explored the domain-specific and situation-specific aspects of motivation simultaneously. Research examining differences in test-taking motivation among students in different types of schools is also limited. Our study therefore addressed the motivational determinants of test performance in low-stakes assessments, in general, as well as school-track-specific differences in particular. Drawing on national data from students who participated in a cross-national study of educational achievement, we conducted multiple regression analyses to predict the students’ test performance and the effort they invested in that test. We conducted the analyses for the entire sample as well as for the students in that sample separated according to the school track they were attending. The results showed that, after we had controlled for self-concept in mathematics, test-taking motivation was significantly, but relatively weakly, associated with test performance: Students achieved higher test performance the more effort they invested and the less worry they experienced during the test. We also found school-track-specific differences for invested effort. Test attractiveness seems to be a more important inducement to invest effort for students in nonacademic-track schools than for students in academic-track schools. The weak relationship between test-taking motivation and performance supports the validity of the applied low-stakes test. However, it seems that invested effort and worry are indispensable constructs for performance in low-stakes tests. For students of nonacademic tracks especially, an attractive and enjoyable test seems a crucial aspect of motivating them to expend their best effort. Implications for constructing low-stakes tests are discussed.

BACKGROUND: Personalised feedback constitutes an important component of E- and M-mental health applications (E = electronic and M = mobile computing and communication technologies) for disease prevention and management. It can be used to increase motivation, highlight risks, change attitudes and counterbalance the lack of personal contact in computerised health interventions. Research suggests that compared with targeted or generic feedback, personalised feedback is a more effective intervention component. AIMS: To discuss challenges and options for the generation and delivery of personalised feedback in E- and M-mental health interventions. Suggestions for the development of normative, summative and ipsative feedback are provided. RESULTS: We demonstrate how information from (multiple) assessments and/or data from comparable samples can be integrated into statistically supported and user-friendly feedback without including test scores. CONCLUSION: Proposals made in this paper need to be the subject of empirical studies and should be tested in terms of their feasibility, acceptability and efficacy.

This study explores various measures of the ethnic makeup in a classroom and their relationship with student outcomes. We examine whether measures of ethnic diversity are related to achievement (mathematics, reading) and feeling of belonging with one’s peers over and above commonly investigated composition characteristics. Multilevel analyses were based on data from a representative sample of 18,762 elementary school students in 903 classrooms. The proportion of minority students and diversity measures showed negative associations with student outcomes in separate models. Including diversity measures and the proportion of minority students, diversity of minority students mostly lost its significance. However, the results suggest that diversity measures may provide additional information over and above other classroom characteristics for some student outcomes. The various measures of diversity led to comparable results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

This study investigates the effect of bilingualism on learning English as a foreign language (L3), examining the impact of manner and sequence of bilingual acquisition and learning as well as language use practices in language minority children. With a sample of 1295 German eighth and ninth graders (bilingual: n = 456, monolingual: n = 839), we examined if certain aspects of bilingualism present an advantageous condition for learning English as a foreign language in bilingual language minority students. Controlling for socio-economic status, indicators of cultural capital, and gender, the regression analyses revealed higher L3 listening and reading outcomes for bilinguals who received formal instruction in their minority language, had acquired both languages in their first three years, and switched more often between their two languages, when compared to their other bilingual and monolingual peers. The discussion focuses on the importance for bilingual children in immigrant communities to have high proficiencies in both majority and minority languages in order to develop advantages in foreign language learning.

Zusammenfassung. Das Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrages bestand darin, anhand der längsschnittlich angelegten Studie Erhebungen zum Lese- und Mathematikverständnis–Entwicklungen in den Jahrgangsstufen 4 bis 6 in Berlin (ELEMENT) den Einfluss von Lesekompetenz auf die Kompetenzentwicklung in Mathematik bei Schülerinnen und Schülern von der 4. bis zur 6. Jahrgangsstufe (N = 3 169) zu analysieren. Darüber hinaus wurde untersucht, ob Kinder nicht-deutscher Familiensprache unter Kontrolle des sozioökonomischen Status (SES) und der allgemeinen kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten geringere Lernzuwächse in Mathematik erzielen als Kinder deutscher Familiensprache. Der Entwicklungsverlauf der Mathematikkompetenz wurde dabei anhand eines Wachstumskurvenmodells analysiert. Erwartungskonform zeigte sich, dass die Lesekompetenz, auch unter Kontrolle des SES und der allgemeinen kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten, nicht nur signifikant mit der mathematischen Ausgangskompetenz zusammenhing, sondern darüber hinaus auch einen signifikanten Beitrag zur Vorhersage der mathematischen Lernzuwachsraten aller Schülerinnen und Schüler leistete. Obwohl die bestehenden Kompetenzunterschiede in Mathematik zwischen Kindern nicht-deutscher Familiensprache und deutscher Familiensprache größtenteils auf die Lesekompetenz zurückführbar waren, vergrößerten sich die Disparitäten zwischen Kindern deutscher und Kindern nicht-deutscher Familiensprache nicht.

Well-developed phonological awareness skills are a core prerequisite for early literacy development. Although effective phonological awareness training programs exist, children at risk often do not reach similar levels of phonological awareness after the intervention as children with normally developed skills. Based on theoretical considerations and first promising results the present study explores effects of an early musical training in combination with a conventional phonological training in children with weak phonological awareness skills. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design and measurements across a period of two years, we tested the effects of two interventions: a consecutive combination of a musical and a phonological training and a phonological training alone. The design made it possible to disentangle effects of the musical training alone as well the effects of its combination with the phonological training. The outcome measures of these groups were compared with the control group with multivariate analyses, controlling for a number of background variables. The sample included N = 424 German-speaking children aged 4 to 5 years at the beginning of the study. We found a positive relationship between musical abilities and phonological awareness. Yet, whereas the well-established phonological training produced the expected effects, adding a musical training did not contribute significantly to phonological awareness development. Training effects were partly dependent on the initial level of phonological awareness. Possible reasons for the lack of training effects in the musical part of the combination condition as well as practical implications for early literacy education are discussed.

Abstract This article examines the relationship between ethnic classroom composition and students’ language-related achievement. We investigate whether minority language use among classmates accounts for effects of ethnic composition on minority students’ German reading comprehension and their proficiency in the minority languages Russian and Turkish. We employ multilevel models using cross-sectional data from a sample of ninth-grade students participating in the German National Educational Panel Study. Our findings indicate that students’ minority language background rather than their ethnic origin accounts for ethnic composition effects. We find a negative relationship between the ethno-lingual classroom composition and students’ German reading comprehension, but the association is small and limited to minority students. Moreover, the ethno-lingual classroom composition is positively correlated with minority language proficiency, specifically among Turkish-speaking students. These associations are substantially reduced after controlling for students’ minority language use with their classmates, indicating that a higher proportion of minority language students in a classroom provides additional opportunities for acquiring or maintaining higher levels of proficiency in the minority language. Overall, the ethnic classroom composition does not appear to substantially reinforce existing inequalities between minority and majority students.

Als wesentlicher Erklärungsfaktor für die geringeren mathematischen Leistungen von Lernenden nicht-deutscher Herkunftssprache werden häufig ihre schwachen sprachlichen Kompetenzen in der Instruktionssprache angenommen. Die Studie geht der Frage nach, welche sprachlichen Teilkompetenzen mit den mathematischen Leistungen von Kindern nicht-deutscher Herkunftssprache zusammenhängen. In einer Stichprobe von 370 Drittklässlern nicht-deutscher Herkunftssprache zeigte sich, dass nicht nur das Leseverstehen, sondern auch Wortschatzkenntnisse, nicht jedoch Grammatikkompetenzen mit den mathematischen Leistungen zusammenhängen. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass nicht nur die Leistungen in sprachlich anspruchsvollen, sondern auch die Leistungen in sprachlich wenig anspruchsvollen Mathematikaufgaben mit den sprachlichen Kompetenzen der Lernenden zusammenhängen. Insgesamt stützt das Befundmuster die Annahme, dass für Zweitsprachenlernende sprachliche Fähigkeiten nicht nur zur Bewältigung der sprachlichen Anforderungen, sondern auch zur Erfüllung der mathematischen Anforderungen der Testaufgaben notwendig sind.

Social comparisons with peers are important sources of self-development during adolescence. Many previous studies showed that students' academic self-concepts (ASC) form by contrasting one's own achievement with the average of one's class or school (the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect [BFLPE]). Based on social comparison theory, however, we would expect some peers to be more likely social comparison targets than other peers, for example, because they are more visible or students perceive them as similar to themselves. In this study, we used sociometric data to analyze which peers play the most important role for social comparison effects on ASC. We examined how the average achievement of friends, study partners, peers perceived as popular by the student, as well as same-gender and same-ethnic peers affect the general ASC and how these effects compare to the effect of the classroom's average achievement. The study was based on a German longitudinal sample of 2,438 students (44% no recent immigrant background, 19% Turkish immigrant background, 10% Eastern European immigrant background, 27% other immigrant background) from 117 school classes that were followed from grade 9 to 10. Results from longitudinal social network analysis do not confirm substantial incremental effects of specific types of peers, while class average achievement showed a stable negative effect (confirming the BFLPE). In addition, we could provide evidence for social selection effects based on ASC. We conclude that classrooms provide a specific setting that imposes social comparisons with the "generalized peer" rather than with specific subgroups of peers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Diese Arbeit untersucht, ob sich Lehrkräfte anhand der von ihnen besuchten Fortbildungsveranstaltungen zu Gruppen ordnen lassen, die distinkte inhaltliche Fortbildungsschwerpunkte abbilden. Darüber hinaus wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich Lehrkräfte dieser Gruppen systematisch unterscheiden. Grundlage dieser Untersuchung bildete eine Lehrerbefragung, die im Rahmen des IQB-Ländervergleichs Sprachen im Jahr 2009 stattfand und an der 2 076 Lehrkräfte der Fächer Deutsch und Englisch teilnahmen. Es konnten fünf Gruppen bestimmt werden, die sich in den inhaltlichen Schwerpunkten der Fortbildungen und der Teilnahmeaktivität unterscheiden. Besonders bedeutsam waren unter diesen Gruppen diejenigen mit der höchsten und geringsten Fortbildungsbeteiligung. Lehrkräfte mit Fortbildungen in allen Themenbereichen waren selbstwirksamer und kooperierten stärker in ihrem Fachkollegium. Im Gegensatz dazu zeigten Lehrkräfte ohne Fortbildungsbeteiligung ein entsprechend reziprokes Muster.

Academic self-concept (ASC) is characterized by the dual nature of stability and change. That is, students strive for consistency in their self-concept but also receive achievement feedback that leads to changes in ASC. Only a few previous studies have scrutinized the stability of ASC. The STARTS model (Stable, AutoRegressive Trait, and State) disentangles three sources of variation that underlie individual differences in a construct across time: (a) a time-invariant stable component, (b) a time-varying, partly stable component, and (c) an occasion-specific state component. This study is the first to analyze the stability of ASC with the STARTS model. Rather than selecting a single data set, we followed the idea of using an integrative data analysis (IDA) and applied the STARTS model to 11 longitudinal studies that included more than 20,000 students. Our results show that there is a substantial proportion of stable trait variance in both mathematical (26%) and verbal self-concept (24%)—that is, some sources of individual differences in ASC are completely stable (e.g., genes, preschool environment). The largest part of the variation in ASC across time could be attributed to factors that systematically changed in an autoregressive way (e.g., achievement feedback). Mathematical self-concept showed higher stability than verbal self-concept as a result of a smaller proportion of occasion-specific state variance. The IDA also revealed substantial heterogeneity across studies. We argue that disentangling stable and temporally changing aspects of ASC is important not only for informing theory but also for assessing the potential of psychological interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Abstract As Western societies become more ethnically and culturally diverse, understanding the acculturation of immigrant youth is essential for fostering social cohesion. How the cultural identity formation of ethnic minority adolescents relates to their academic, social, and psychological adjustment is an important and as yet unresolved research question. This study examined to what extent identifying with the heritage and/or host culture is an individual resource or risk factor for the adjustment of immigrant youth in Germany. A random sample of 15–17-year-olds ( N = 1992; M age_w1 = 15.3 years, SD = 0.64; 44.5% girls; 44.7% students with immigrant background) was assessed twice: at the end of 9th and 10th grade. Academic performance and three dimensions of social/psychological adjustment (school attachment, self-esteem, and life satisfaction) were examined. Results showed that biculturalism was the modal identification pattern. Contrary to expectations, cultural identification did not differ systematically with perceived distance from the majority culture. Multivariate structural equation modeling revealed that both heritage and host identification can be developmental resources, but that their effects are dependent on the dimension of adjustment; biculturalism only proved to be a cumulative resource for school attachment. The domain specificity of the findings challenges the generalization claims of predominant acculturation theories.

Abstract Adolescents’ loneliness and self-harm have received considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic with concerns that the socioecological changes taking place would contribute to an escalation of both loneliness and self-harm. However, empirical evidence is scant. We estimated the prevalence of loneliness and self-harm in adolescent school pupils and investigated the association of loneliness and change in loneliness during the UK’s first lockdown with self-harm during lockdown in a cross-sectional school survey (OxWell) involving 10,460 12–18-year-olds from south England. Loneliness was measured with four items. Self-harm was ascertained through a detailed questionnaire. The prevalence of loneliness and self-harm were estimated applying post-stratification weights to account for differences between the study sample and the target population. The associations between indicators of loneliness and self-harm were examined using mixed effect models. 1,896 of 10,460 adolescents (18.1%) reported feeling lonely ‘often’ (weighted proportion 16.8%). 3,802/10,460 (36.4%; weighted proportion 35%) felt more lonely since lockdown. Self-harm during lockdown was reported by 787/10,460 adolescents (7.5%; weighted proportion 6.7%). Controlling for confounders, adolescents who reported feeling lonely ‘often’ [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.8, 95% CI 2.1–3.9, p < 0.0001] or ‘sometimes’ (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.5–3.2, p < 0.0001) were more likely to self-harm during lockdown relative to adolescents who reported ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ feeling lonely. Exacerbation in loneliness during lockdown was associated with an increase in the odds of self-harm during lockdown. Loneliness, heightened loneliness and self-harm were common during lockdown and closely linked. It is important to support schools in address loneliness and self-harm as part of efforts to improve well-being as the long tail of the pandemic continues to impact on child and adolescent mental health. Understanding how loneliness and self-harm may co-vary could be important for future self-harm reduction strategies in young persons.

This paper investigates how the importance attached to personal goals differs according to the person’s independent or interdependent self. Results of one questionnaire study and two priming studies showed that, overall, independents considered their goals more important than interdependents. A closer analysis revealed, however, that interdependents assigned more relevance to social goals (e.g., harmony with others), than to individual goals (e.g., to be successful), whereas independents attached equal importance to both types of goals.

To depict the situation during the school closures in spring 2020 that were implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19, we conducted a self-constructed online survey on distance teaching among teachers regarding their teaching practices in this new situation, the challenges they experienced, and the prerequisites for successful distance teaching. The sample consisted of voluntarily participating German elementary ( n = 857) and secondary school teachers ( n = 1,590) from a sample of randomly drawn schools in four federal states in Germany. We describe the main survey findings and examine the importance of different distance teaching aspects for teacher reports of students attaining their learning objectives and students’ learning progress during distance teaching. Our results particularly highlight the necessity for students and teachers to remain in contact in all the surveyed school types. In elementary school, regular contact between teachers and parents is similarly important. The key challenges highlighted inadequate digitalization, the participation of all students, and students’ motivation. Correspondingly, adequate technical equipment for schools, teachers, and students, together with teachers’ and students’ competence to use technical devices and digital media as well as students’ motivation to participate in distance learning were found to be necessary prerequisites for successful distance teaching. We conclude that efforts should be devoted to enabling teachers and students to better communicate using digital devices, for example, expanding the digital infrastructure in combination with training teachers and students in the use of technical devices and digital media.

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag beschäftigen wir uns mit der Frage, ob Studiengebühren Studienberechtigte in Deutschland von einem Studium abhalten. Auf Basis der HIS-Studienberechtigtenbefragungen 2002 bis 2008 wird quasi-experimentell der Effekt von Studiengebühren auf die Studierneigung untersucht. Die Analysen machen sich die zwischen den Bundesländern variierende Einführung von Studiengebühren zunutze und wenden ein Difference-in-Differences- Schätzverfahren an. Keine der durchgeführten Analysen liefert empirische Evidenz dafür, dass es durch die Einführung von Studiengebühren zu einem Rückgang der Studierneigung gekommen ist − weder insgesamt noch für Subgruppen wie Frauen oder Studienberechtigte ohne akademischen Hintergrund.