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Based on a research project comprising data from an interview study and a survey with teachers and school principals in four German federal states ("Bundesländer"), this paper questions the claim that the side effects of accountability in education are bound to high-stakes contexts, and also provides evidence of side effects occurring in no- and low-stakes contexts. The findings suggest that side effects cannot be fully explained by certain implementation features of accountability regimes (e.g., high stakes), but should rather be understood as a result of implementation features as well as systematic effects of accountability in education.

Purpose: There is a widely held belief that sustainable development (SD) policies are essential for universities to successfully engage in matters related to sustainability, and are an indicator of the extent to which they are active in this field. This paper aims to examine the evidence which currently exists to support this assumption. It surveys a sample of universities in Brazil, Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Africa and the UK and the USA to ascertain the extent to which universities that are active in the field of sustainable development have formal policies on sustainable development, and whether such policies are a pre-condition for successful sustainability efforts. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved 35 universities in seven countries (five universities respectively). A mixed-methods approach has been used, ranging from document analysis, website analysis, questionnaires and interviewing. Findings: Although only 60 per cent of the sampled universities had a policy that specifically addressed SD, this cannot be regarded as an indicator that the remaining 40 per cent are not engaged with substantial actions that address SD. Indeed, all of the universities in the sample, regardless of the existence of a SD formal policy, demonstrated engagement with environmental sustainability policies or procedures in some form or another. This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Despite this, it is one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed. Research limitations/implications: This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Practical implications: The findings provide some valuable insights into the connections between SD policies on the one hand and the practice of sustainable development in higher education institutions on the other. Social implications: Universities with SD policies can contribute to models of economic growth consistent with sustainable development. Originality/value: The study is the one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed.

Abstract: Aims: In the scientific community no consensus exists regarding the question whether excessive smartphone use (ESU) should be considered as a behavioral addiction. This position paper summarizes relevant aspects of previous research on ESU with respect to content and methodology. From this, recommendations are derived as to which approaches should be given greater consideration in future research work. Conclusions: Our recommendations include the following points: 1. Development and consistent use of smartphone-based measuring instruments that allow the collection of real-time usage data and the submission of time-controlled questionnaire, 2. Validation of these instruments in large representative samples in Germany, 3. Using real-time smartphone user data to address the question whether ESU can become addictive in nature, 4. Clarification of the central question of the extent to which ESN is specific (i. e., use of specific smartphone functions such as social networks) or generalized (in terms of a behavioral pattern of general smartphone overuse). In the long term, further studies on the neurobiology and long-term stability of ESN should be carried out before the classification of ESN as a behavioral addiction can be recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this keynote address given at the International Association for Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (IACSEE) Conference in July 2015, Sabine Manzel focused on participation and decision-making as key competences for democracy. She analysed with standardized videography how both of these competences are realized in classroom interaction.

This paper makes available to the broader educational community the instruments which have been originally designed and validated within the European project "CLIL for all: Attention to diversity in bilingual education" ("ADiBE") to determine how diversity is being catered to across a broad array of CLIL contexts in European Secondary Education (Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). They include three sets of questionnaires, interviews, and observation protocols and are qualitative and quantitative instruments whose design has been based on the latest research and which have undergone a carefully controlled double-fold pilot process for their validation (external ratings approach and pilot phase with a representative sample of 264 subjects). The questions included in the three sets of instruments are initially characterized, together with their format and main categories. The paper then details the steps undertaken for their research-based design and the double-fold pilot process followed for their validation. The questionnaires and interview and observation protocols are then presented in a format which is directly applicable in any CLIL classroom in order to determine the accessibility of bilingual programs for all types of achievers and to identify the chief difficulties and best practices in promoting inclusion in bilingual education.

This paper describes the development and validation of an instrument to assess how students deal with emotionally challenging classroom situations (the DECCS Questionnaire). The questionnaire is based on a vignette with one learning and one performance situation in a classroom, and is intended for students in grades 4 to 7. On a sample of N = 639 students (M[subscript age] = 10.6 years; SD = 1.25, 52.4% girls) in northwest Germany, factor analytic procedures for the subdimensions of students dealing with emotionally challenging classroom situations show that two factors can be distinguished each for students' appraisals, for students' adaptive behavior, for students' maladaptive behavior, and for students' desired teacher behavior. The questionnaire and subscales demonstrate good reliability and validity values. Thus, the DECCS questionnaire shows good psychometric properties and is well suited for determining how students deal with emotionally challenging classroom situations.

Four experiments were conducted to test whether recent developments in display technology would suffice to eliminate the well-known disadvantages in reading from screen as compared with paper. Proofreading speed and performance were equal for a TFT-LCD and a paper display, but there were more symptoms of eyestrain in the screen condition accompanied by a strong preference for paper (Experiment 1). These results were replicated using a longer reading duration (Experiment 2). Additional experiments were conducted to test hypotheses about the reasons for the higher amount of eyestrain associated with reading from screen. Reduced screen luminance did not change the pattern of results (Experiment 3), but positioning both displays in equal inclination angles eliminated the differences in eyestrain symptoms and increased proofreading speed in the screen condition (Experiment 4). A paper-like positioning of TFT-LCDs seems to enable unimpaired reading without evidence of increased physical strain. Practitioner Summary: Given the developments in screen technology, a re-assessment of the differences in proofreading speed and performance, well-being, and preference between computer screen and paper was conducted. State-of-the-art TFT-LCDs enable unimpaired reading, but a book-like positioning of screens seems necessary to minimise eyestrain symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing numbers of mobile students over the years made the provision of student services a key topic of interest for higher education institutions. In order to offer a better experience for international students, it is important to be aware of and assess their needs in relation to different sets of support services. The data used in this paper were gathered through the ESNsurvey 2016 project, a research venture focused on the experiences of participants in short-term student mobility in Europe. Responses were collected from 12,365 international students, who have participated in a short-term (3-12 months) study period abroad mostly through Europe's most promoted mobility program called ERASMUS+. For the purpose of this paper, the focus was only on the aspect of host university support services. The comments of 2,012 students about their experiences were analyzed using a probabilistic methodology known as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The findings reveal that some international students' concerns are not fully addressed by higher education institutions. The main problem areas identified with respect to host support services were admission, living costs, including accommodation and money concerns, and IT and bank issues. It is strongly recommended that universities address the problematic areas through student support services by assessing international students' opinions and needs.

The alarming results of large studies such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012) point to an urgent need for writing support and call for specific and effective methods to foster writing competencies. The main purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative peer-assisted approach designed to foster text composition. Topping's (2001) step-by-step-algorithm was converted into a board game consisting of highly structured and motivating materials in order to encourage struggling writers to work on their text production skills. Our concept is based on two effective instructional strategies: "direct instruction" (Kame'enui, Fien, & Korgesaar, 2013) and "positive role modeling" (Macklem, 2011). In addition to describing our concept, this paper reports on initial experiences with this method in two German secondary school classes. A total of 47 fifth-grade students and their teachers were involved in a formative evaluation of our approach as a means of identifying strengths and weaknesses as seen by the participants. The feedback of both students and teachers was encouraging, giving rise to the hope that the concept presented in this paper can be smoothly implemented into everyday classroom routines and serve as an aid for children and youth with learning disabilities (LD) and other struggling writers to improve on their text production abilities. Our study was a pilot study and, consequently, we are unable to provide information on how effective the intervention actually is. Summative evaluation of the performance gains will be the subject of future research.

The role of industry in the higher education system is becoming more prevalent, as universities integrate a practical element into their curricula. However, the level of development of cooperative education and work-integrated learning varies from country to country. In Germany, cooperative education and work-integrated learning has a long tradition, due to vocational institutions having strong links with industry. In contrast, the work-integrated study models in Asia, such as in Thailand, offer limited levels of practical experience, as part of the higher education curricula. In addition, Thailand continues to experience a lack of skilled graduates, who are exposed to work-integrated learning during their studies. The study on which this paper is based seeks to benchmark study models in Thailand, against the German Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg (DHBW) study model, in order to identify development opportunities in the Thai model, focusing on the aim of meeting the needs of industry. The Office of Higher Education Commission in Thailand hopes to address the inherent issues, through implementing the recommendations made in this paper.

Purpose: To give an overview of the multicenter Prostate Cancer Outcomes (PCO) study, involving paper-based and web-based collection of patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) in patients undergoing local treatment for prostate cancer in certified centers in Germany. The PCO study is part of the larger Movember-funded TrueNTH Global Registry. The article reports on the study's design and provides a brief progress report after the first 2 years of data collection. Methods: Prostate cancer centers (PCCs) certified according to German Cancer Society requirements were invited to participate in collecting patient-reported information on symptoms and function before and at least once (at 12 months) after treatment. The data were matched with disease and treatment information. This report describes progress in patient inclusion, response rate, and variations between centers relative to online/paper use, and also data quality, including recruitment variations relative to treatment in the first participating PCCs. Results: PCC participation increased over time; 44 centers had transferred data for 3094 patients at the time of this report. Patient recruitment varied widely across centers. Recruitment was highest among patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. The completeness of the data was good, except for comorbidity information. Conclusions: The PCO study benefits from a quality improvement system first established over 10 years ago, requiring collection and harmonization of a predefined clinical dataset across centers. Nevertheless, establishing a PROM routine requires substantial effort on the part of providers and constant monitoring in order to achieve high-quality data. The findings reported here may be useful for guiding implementation in similar initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a project of Participatory Action Research (PAR) on lower secondary chemistry education. In this ongoing project, practicing teachers and university researchers in chemical education jointly carry out projects for developing and evaluating new lesson plans. The focus of the PAR group is to develop teaching/learning activities that are student-centred, integrate new media in the classroom, and invest on cooperative learning methods. The present attempt aimed to develop a context-based and cooperative learning approach for teaching electrochemistry to tenth-grade students, and the paper summarizes these activities, and the results from their testing and evaluation. Implications for teaching/learning in lower secondary chemistry are also discussed.

Introduction: A number of theoretical works focus on the potential revolutionary impact of the Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) upon Competitive Intelligence, but only a few empirical research papers can be found on it. Is the real impact still unknown, or is it too insignificant to talk about? The present paper searches for the answers to this question both in literature and on the field, focusing on the point where the impact is expected to be the greatest: Information Gathering. Method: Important empirical essays in academic literature were overviewed, including American and also French surveys. Based on literature, hypotheses were established and tested on an existing database, containing information on more than 500 firms collected over two consecutive years. The sample was constructed through telephone interviews and was destined to test the effect of information and communication technologies on several aspects of management. Analysis: Hypotheses were classed into seven groups with respect to the influence of external environment, internal structure and development of IT on the information acquisition activities of firms. Quantitative methods were used to carry out tests on the sample. Results: Internal structure shows only partial influence, but for IT and external environment, the correlation was high. On the other hand, firms are still underdeveloped. Conclusion: The presented results provide better understanding of the level of development of Information Gathering in firms and of the factors influencing it, and suggest new ways for further research in order to understand why firms are still underdeveloped.

Patient-reported outcomes are an important tool in clinical research. In the setting of cancer treatments, benefit of therapy is essentially characterised by improvement of survival as well as quality of life ( QoL). A standardised instrument to assess QoL is the standardised QoL questionnaire of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment ( EORTC QLQ- C30 questionnaire). QoL instruments provide data on different aspects (domains) of the framework of QoL. Using these questionnaires in studies provides data on how a treatment affects QoL in a group of patients. The goal of our concept is to individualise QoL and to use validated instruments in order to integrate patients' perspectives and aims into treatment assessment, planning and control. We propose to use the domains of the EORTC QLQ- C30 and to ask the patient to determine which objectives besides survival are relevant for him and should be achieved by treatment. These individual goals can be used in a process of shared decision-making to choose and monitor treatment. In clinical studies, this approach would allow to recruit more patients who would most probably benefit from the therapy. In addition, supportive data could be gathered in correlation to treatment goals and actual benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although well researched in educational studies, inquiry-based learning, a student-centred way of teaching, is far away from being implemented in day-to-day science and mathematics teaching on a large scale. It is a challenge for teachers to adopt this new way of teaching in an often not supportive school context. Therefore it is important to provide high-quality professional development (PD) at a large scale. However, there is little empirical evidence about the effects of scaled-up professional development initiatives. Therefore, this paper presents an international research study for which long-term PD courses have been designed. These courses have been implemented across Europe in twelve different countries at scale by using the so-called "Cascade Model." Here, course leaders are educated, who in turn educate other teachers. The research study aimed at evaluating the overall impact the scaled-up PD had on teachers and at also identifying variables influencing this impact.

Researchers increasingly engage with the digital archives built by libraries, archives, and museums, but many institutions still seek to learn more about researchers' needs and practices with these digital collections. This paper presents a user assessment study for "Emblematica Online," a research digital library that provides digitized versions of emblem books from leading rare book collections. This paper examines the ways in which scholars engage with the special collections contained within "Emblematica Online" through analysis of interviews. The authors propose that the diverse and complex uses of digital special collections require libraries and archives to consider expanding the capabilities of their digital content and platforms.

This paper relates most closely to David Raffe's writing on "policy borrowing" across countries and across time and his illumination for policy purposes of transition concepts such as "pathways". The discussion makes the point that concepts can both illuminate empirical reality as well as distort it. The paper then moves on to issues of policy borrowing involving cross-national comparison drawing on the themes of historical, cultural and language difference, and the limitations this places on valid inference from statistical comparisons alone. The discussion embraces David's discussion of the merits of "home internationals" as a means of taking a step towards comparative understanding and the complications that language differences introduce. Examples will be taken from a late 1980s' comparative study involving the transition to work in Germany and England. In line with Melvin Kohn's principles for comparative research, the case is made for a combination of (quantitative) survey-based enquiry and (qualitative) case study to address the problems of comparative meaning and equivalence. The optimum solution is a "dialogue" between variables and cases as Charles Ragin describes it. Conclusions will finally be drawn about David's lasting contribution to the understanding and development of transition systems, processes, opportunities and rising inequalities.

Purpose: Increased school autonomy and accountability have been a common denominator of national reforms in otherwise heterogeneous governance systems in Europe and the USA. The paper argues that because schools serving disadvantaged communities (SSDCs) often have lower average performance, they are more often sanctioned or under closer scrutiny, but might also receive more additional resources. The purpose of this paper is to therefore analyze whether SSDCs have more or less autonomy than schools with a more advantageous context in four countries with heterogeneous autonomy and accountability policies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 school and student questionnaires from Finland, Germany, the UK, and the USA. The choice of countries is based on different governance models described by Glatter "et al." (2003). The data are used to identify SSDCs and analyze the reported autonomy in resource allocation and curriculum and assessment. Using regression analyses, patterns are analyzed for each country individually. They are then juxtaposed and compared. Differences are related back to the governance models of the respective countries. Findings: The results indicate an association between the communities the schools are serving and the autonomy either in the allocation of resources, or the curriculum and assessment. SSDCs appeared to have a little more autonomy than schools with a more advantageous context in Finland, Germany, and the UK, but less autonomy in the USA. The comparison suggests that in the USA, autonomy is rather a reward for schools that have the least amount of need, whereas in the other three countries it could be a result of strategies to improve schools in need. The paper discusses possible explanations in the policies and support structures for SSDCs. Originality/value: The effects of increased school autonomy and accountability on student achievement have been discussed at length. How different accountability policies affect the autonomy of schools with the highest needs has so far not been studied. The study can be understood as a first step to unravel this association. Following steps should include in-depth investigations of the mechanisms underlying increased or diminished autonomy for SSDCs, and the consequences for school improvement in these schools.

The increasing relevance of information and communication technologies (ICT) and society's transition towards an information or knowledge society have led to the emergence of new challenges for schools and school systems. Thus, the need for students to develop new forms of skills like "digital literacy" or "computer and information literacy" (CIL) is constantly gaining in importance. In the IEA's ("International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement") ICILS 2013 ("International Computer and Information Literacy Study"), the aforementioned competencies were investigated--along with CIL learning contexts and outcomes (such as school-level factors in different education systems)--for the first time for secondary schools by applying computer-based student tests. The research presented in this paper focuses on the school-level factors that support or hinder the use of ICT by teaching staff and students' CIL, drawing in the process on information obtained through school and teacher questionnaires. A multilevel approach was chosen for this research, drawing on representative data from four of the countries which participated in ICILS 2013, namely Australia, Germany, Norway and the Czech Republic. The results show that the relevance of school-level determinants for the use of ICT by teaching staff in schools differs between education systems. Only in Germany, for example, does pedagogical IT support seem to be crucial for the use of ICT in teaching. In the Czech Republic, the self-efficacy of teaching staff plays a key role, whereas in Australia, the participation of teaching staff in professional development activities can be identified as relevant for students' acquisition of CIL. The results also show a statistically significant correlation between the teachers' use of ICT in schools and students' CIL for Germany, yet indicate no significant effects for Australia, Norway and the Czech Republic. In addition to these and the more specific findings for the considered countries, the international comparison presented in this paper reveals both strengths and developmental potential for the selected education systems.

The paper investigates relations between higher education teachers' approaches to teaching and their emotions during teaching, as well as their emotion regulation strategies. Based on the assumption that the approaches hinge on emotional experiences with higher education teaching and learning, three studies assessed teachers' emotions, their emotion regulation strategies and their approaches to teaching with questionnaires. Study 1, with n = 145 German university teachers and teaching assistants, found relations between positive emotions and the student-oriented approach to teaching, but not with negative emotions. In addition, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were related to the student-oriented approach. Study 2, with n = 198 German teachers, replicated these findings and, in addition, found relations between perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress, and the student-oriented approach. Study 3, with n = 76 Australian and New Zealand teachers, again replicated and extended the findings by establishing a relation between negative emotions and the content-oriented approach to teaching. The results of all studies together indicate a significant emotional component of the approaches to teaching. Positive emotions are not only directly related to the student-oriented approach, but also partially mediate the relation between cognitive reappraisal and the student-oriented approach. This link seems to generalize to emotional components of empathy. In addition, the cultural-educational context seems to moderate the relations between negative emotions and the content-oriented approach to teaching. Limitations and directions for future research and educational practice are discussed.

Teaching online requires different skills, roles and competencies for online instructors compared to teaching in traditional learning environments. Universities should offer ongoing support in various forms to help academic staff through their online journey. This paper provides insights into a multinational faculty development program for teaching online, elaborating on results of expectancy and satisfaction surveys. From a local program to a subproject within the Swiss National Science Foundation Project Scopes, e-Tutor aimed at expanding competencies in online lecturing and providing OER material for training colleagues. Designed in the form of a descriptive case study, this research was conducted with 34 attendees of e-Tutor. Data was collected using an e-learning readiness and expectancy questionnaire, and open-ended questions after the program to measure satisfaction. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey data and content analysis for open-ended data. Participants considered e-Tutor a well-planned and targeted program with good theoretical and practical balance. Duration of such courses, opportunities for adaptation to real-life situations, and localization of the content are areas to be explored further. For future studies, it would also be interesting to see whether participants can apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills to create efficient online learning environments.

Despite advances made there is still an implementation gap with regard to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal educational systems at the school level. The present paper focuses on sustainability reporting as a recently emerging practice in the school sector. It presents the approach and findings of an exploratory interview study at three pioneer schools in Germany that have started to establish sustainability reporting mechanisms. The study has examined how the reporting process is evaluated by project managers with regard to its benefits and challenges. Findings support the potential of sustainability reporting at schools to contribute to an increase in students' participation in sustainability-related activities at school, create accountability concerning the school's efforts, help structure the existing sustainability projects and demonstrate new possible courses of action. The high expenditure of time, the teachers' high workload and lack of support given to the teachers have been identified as major challenges of the reporting process. Further directions for future research into reporting practices at schools are given.

During the post-formation phase, young ventures are often in danger of sliding into bankruptcy. The entrepreneur has to deal with a multitude of complex problems, decisions have to be made under time pressure or uncertainty, and upcoming crises have to be perceived in time. This paper presents seven critical incidents that are (1) realistic, typical, and likely to emerge during the first years of a start-up's existence, (2) assumed to cause severe financial crises for the new venture, but (3) possible to be overcome by the entrepreneur if he makes appropriate decisions. Seven incidents were developed on a theoretical basis and then empirically validated by questionnaires presented to (future) entrepreneurs and start-up counsellors (n = 627) as well as to a sample of students who are at least interested or even engaged in the field of entrepreneurship (n = 367). The incidents reveal likely challenges for entrepreneurs in the post-formation phase. This discovery opens new perspectives for preparing entrepreneurs to deal with the typical risks of the post-formation phase. For example, these lessons provide opportunity for an application within case-oriented courses of entrepreneurship in higher and vocational education and opportunity for reflection on probable emerging crises in start-up counselling.

Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering practices was accumulated from 350 interviews and 12 field studies performed by the principal investigator and by students conducting PhD and capstone research projects. Ethical research practice required that sharing and reuse of qualitative data be considered from the start. The researchers' interests and methods were aligned to maintain sufficient consistency to support subsequent analysis and re-analysis of data. Analysis helped to answer questions of fundamental significance for engineering educators: what do engineers do, and why are the performances of engineering enterprises so different in South Asia compared with similar enterprises in Australia? Analysis also demonstrated the overwhelming significance of technical collaboration in engineering practice. Conceiving engineering practice as a series of technical collaboration performances requires a more elaborate understanding of social interactions than is currently the case in engineering schools. Another finding is that global engineering competency could be better described in terms of "working with people who collaborate differently". Research helped to demonstrate that formal treatment of technical collaboration in an engineering curriculum could help avoid student misconceptions about engineering practice that hinder their subsequent engineering performances.

The ECO European Project funded by the European Commission is dedicated to bringing MOOCs to a new dimension by taking advantage of the new possibilities offered by the Social Web (O'Reilly, 2005). This paper focuses on the intercreative aspects of MOOCs. It takes a look at the characteristics of the new ECO MOOCs to see if they are designed and implemented within an intercreative environment. The methodology is quantitative and data collection was conducted using self-administered questionnaires with closed or semi-closed questions. This study includes the so-called sMOOCs, which stress intercreativity to work towards collective intelligence.

Purpose: Concepts of values-based leadership posit that school principals' professional practice must be informed by values to ensure coherently purposeful activities. Contingency models stress the contextual dependency of professional practice and the need to match activities to local opportunities and constraints. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile both positions from an integrative perspective and to illustrate examples of "values-based contingency leadership" (Day et al., 2001). Design/methodology/approach: Analyses draw on survey data from 56 German schools in order to relate professional values stated by the principals as well as organizational features of their schools to teacher ratings on leadership behaviour (n = 910). Instead of scrutinizing singular variables in isolation, a typological approach serves to identify value profiles as well as organizational configurations. Analyses of variance are applied to examine the combined effects of both factors on leadership behaviour. Findings: Interactional effects in the sample indicate that contextual influences are not homogenous across differing value profiles of principals who operate under equal conditions. Descriptive patterns of leadership behaviour within each organizational configuration reveal how principals accentuate leadership activities according to their value profile. Research limitations/implications: Due to the low statistical power of the small sample, findings are clearly exploratory in nature. However, replication and extension studies seem fruitful, as effect sizes of value-context interactions are consistent with theoretical assumptions and not artificially inflated by common-source variance. Originality/value: This paper elaborates and exemplifies the moderating role of values in contextual influences on leadership behaviour. It also provides deeper insights into the content and structure of professional values advocated by school principals.

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how individual characteristics and perceived contextual conditions shape reflection in professional work, particularly in workplaces that provide a variety of work experiences related to changes. The authors examine the effects of personal initiative, self-efficacy and perceived psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors on individuals' reflection at work. Design/Methodology/Approach: A sample of 84 client advisors who had recently been affected by major changes in retail banking workplaces participated in the study. The participants completed a questionnaire consisting of instruments to map their self-rated personal initiative, self-efficacy beliefs, reflection at work and perception of psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors. The data were analysed by performing correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. Findings: The results revealed that both individuals' personal initiative and self-efficacy significantly positively affect reflection at work. An individual's perception of psychological safety--particularly among peers--positively predicts reflection. Originality/Value: This paper enriches the research on reflection in professional work, particularly against the backdrop of workplace changes. This is done by emphasising the power of individuals' proactive role and initiative-taking work behaviour; positive beliefs in their own capabilities, e.g. managing the various opportunities involved in workplace changes; and their perception of a psychologically safe environment within a work group that is characterised by interpersonal trust, mutual respect and supportive cooperation.

This paper focuses on the views of 16-17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video, which were shared with their counterparts. The findings show that the decision-making task served to deepen and modify students' views across all nationalities, and the students generally valued and learned from the sharing of views with students of the same age from around the world. However, an important discovery was that the German students' opinions often ran counter to those from the other 3 locations, and the paper cautions against making broad-sweeping generalisations about students' views on socioscientific issues.

Purpose: In Germany, principals' working environments are data-rich for school improvement purposes in a rather low-stakes test-regime. An effective use of externally as well as internally generated data, also known as data wise leadership, is considered to be a key competence of successful principals. The purpose of this paper is to describe data use practices in German schools, especially focussing on schools facing challenging circumstances. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on findings from two projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. A standardized questionnaire study was conducted to measure the usage of available data for school improvement quantitatively. The perceived usefulness, the reflection upon, and the use of information sources by principals were measured. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with school leaders from schools in deprived areas were conducted, transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis. Findings: The results showed that internal sources of information were used frequently while (international) student assessment, statewide comparative tests, and school inspections proved to be of relatively little use for the principals' professional practice. Moreover, there was a discrepancy between the perceived usefulness of information sources and the actual use of the data. Originality/value: In contrast to the USA, for example, research on educational leadership and principals' data use - particularly at schools in challenging circumstances - is rather limited in Germany. This paper seeks to take up this desideratum.

This paper focuses on a generational change taking place in the Polish academic profession: a change in behaviors and attitudes between two groups of academics. One was socialized to academia under the communist regime (1945-1989) and the other entered the profession in the post-1989 transition period. Academics of all age groups are beginning to learn how tough the competition for research funding is, but young academics ("academics under 40"), being the target of recent policy initiatives, need to learn faster. Current reforms present a clear preferred image for a new generation of Polish academics: highly motivated, embedded in international research networks, publishing mostly internationally, and heavily involved in the competition for academic recognition and research funding. In the long run, without such a radical approach, any international competition between young Polish academics (with a low research orientation and high teaching hours) and their young Western European colleagues (with a high research orientation and low teaching hours) seems inconceivable, as our data on the average academic productivity clearly demonstrate. The quantitative background of this paper comes from 3704 returned questionnaires and the qualitative background from 60 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The paper takes a European comparative approach and contrasts Poland with 10 Western European countries (using 17,211 returned questionnaires).

This paper reports on a small-scale project involving an online school exchange between two classes of 12-/13-year olds located in the North of England and the Ruhr area of Germany. The overarching aim of the project was to develop intercultural understanding in foreign language learning through communication in an online environment. Analysing data from website posts, lesson observations, student questionnaires and interviews, the paper investigates the extent to which the project realised this goal, and examines emerging practical and pedagogical issues. Comparing the processes and outcomes of this project in secondary education to similar projects in Higher Education (HE), the research found that the young people learnt more than older students about cultural similarities than differences. They were thus less likely to be party to cultural misunderstandings, developing friendly relationships and openness towards a people of a different culture. However, their failure to notice differences may have been due to a lack of in-depth discussion and absence of more demanding student tasks. The paper concludes that in order to develop more sophisticated intercultural learning, expertise derived from telecollaboration in HE needs to be adapted to the lower secondary school context, drawing particularly on auto-ethnography and ethnographic interviewing.

In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new form of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), in higher education and beyond. Recognizing the limitations of standalone MOOCs, blended MOOCs (bMOOCs) that aim at bringing in-class (i.e. face-to-face) interactions and online learning components together have emerged as an alternative MOOC model of teaching and learning in a higher education context. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation details of a bMOOC course on "Teaching Methodologies" at Fayoum University, Egypt in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University, Germany, provided using the bMOOC platform L[superscript 2]P-bMOOC. In order to gauge the usability and effectiveness of the course, we employed an evaluation approach based on Conole's 12 dimensions rubrics, ISONORM 9241/110-S as a general usability evaluation, and a custom effectiveness questionnaire reflecting the different MOOC stakeholder perspectives.

In this paper we describe a "Train the Tutor" programme (TtT) for developing the metacognitive skills, facilitator skills, and tutor skills of students in a problem based learning (PBL) context. The purpose of the programme was to train 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students in psychology to become effective PBL tutors for "freshmen" (1st year psychology students). Based on the 3C3R concept of Hung (2006), various instructional problems have been designed and used in a 6 steps training programme. The programme has been evaluated both in a formative and summative approach through a quasi-experimental control group design with pre- and post-measurements before and after the training programme. The study was conducted as part of a curriculum re-design for promoting problem based learning in psychology courses for undergraduate students in a university of applied science. The results indicate the importance of metacognitive skills of the tutor for effectively facilitating the learning process in a PBL context.

The CEFR encourages teachers to resort to task-based activities in the language classroom. However, some resistance has been offered to this approach, due to lack of appropriate training and difficulty in meeting some basic practical conditions, as well as in finding resources and examples of good practices, as shown in a survey conducted within the scope of ETALAGE. PETALL (Pan European Task-based Activities in Language Learning [2013-2016]) seeks to construct a transnational strategy for ICT-based task design management and aims to design tasks that can be implemented in different educational contexts. This paper offers an overview of the internal evaluation procedures to be followed at different levels and stages of the project, and discusses the objectives, underlying principles and criteria applied.

This paper aims to provide Business English and EAP practitioners with a rationale for including the analysis of narrative elements in business addresses in their language teaching in order to encourage critical thinking in learners. By studying these elements, and the rhetorical function of the narrative in particular, students can become more aware of how the use of narratives can be part of a strategy to convey a particular message in order to influence perceptions and to enact change in a company (Moon 2010: 133). This is especially the case when the company has undergone a crisis (Hearit 1995). The business addresses chosen for the study are the annual reports of two global companies, BP and Toyota, both written post-crisis. According to a narrative analysis of both reports, outlined in the paper, there are significant differences between the two papers in the use and effect of rhetoric. The findings of a quantitative study show that Business English students are able to identify differences in rhetorical functions and corporate identity construction within the texts, suggesting that such a contrastive analysis can develop students' critical thinking skills. These findings are supported by a further small-scale study assessing potential classroom applications of the reports in which example activities and tasks were piloted with small groups of EAP students.

In 2002, English-medium degree programmes (EMDPs) became a permanent feature of German higher education (HE). While this action marked an important step towards government-supported institutionalisation of English in Germany, no formal strategy or guidelines governing the role of English in HE have been developed. To date, research in this area in Germany has been predominantly focused on the top-down perspectives of decision-makers comparatively few studies have been conducted into bottom-up perspectives of those directly experiencing such language policy and planning decisions. In this paper, empirical data resulting from a mixed-method case study conducted at a German HE institution will be analysed to reveal hitherto unexplored bottom-up insights into the lived reality of an EMDP in Germany. The paper begins with an introduction to such programmes in Germany, before outlining the methodology pursued and exploring demographics and participant motivations within the programme under investigation. Applying Spolsky's (2004, p. 39) framework for analysing language policy, the de facto language policy experienced by study participants is revealed, providing insights into daily linguistic practices within the programme, and the pragmatic and ideological roles that English and German play in participants' reported experiences. Uncovering this de facto language policy serves to provide policy-makers at the top level with bottom-up perspectives for future policy formulation which may lead to a more well-grounded language policy (Shohamy, 2009, p. 188).

This paper reports follow-up findings for an Mentalization based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention delivered to a community mental health sample. Parents completed the 12-week version of the Lighthouse Parenting Program (LPP) and were evaluated on parenting practices, parent-child relationships, parental mental health indicators, and child problem behaviour levels. We evaluated the extent to which improvements in mentalizing at follow-up mediated changes in parenting, parental adjustment, mental health, and child outcomes. Results included a reduction in parental coercive behaviours and child problems, improved parent-child relationship, and better parental psychological adjustment and mental health. Improvement in self-focused mentalizing were observed. Self-focused mentalizing mediated the changes in most outcomes from baseline to 3-month follow-up. These results provide strong preliminary evidence that the LPP improves parent and child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IRIS (Interests and Recruitment in Science; http://iris.fp-7.org/about-iris/) is a European 7th framework project focusing on the challenge that only few young people in general, and women in particular, choose an education and career in science and technology. Project IRIS aims to contribute to the improvement of recruitment, retention and gender equity patterns in higher education. To acquire information about the factors that influence the educational choice of young people, a questionnaire was developed by the IRIS consortium. The IRIS questionnaire is based on the model of achievement-related choices (Eccles, Barber, & Jozefowicz, 1999) and on the theory on the role of self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1997). These theories provide a framework for investigating the central aspects that influence an individual's educational choice. This paper reports the experience and findings of the IRIS survey conducted in Austria and Germany. The data are based on a questionnaire survey with 3680 first-year students. Additionally, interview data from Austrian biology students contribute qualitative data about supportive and hindering factors that influences the study choice. The findings indicate that experiences in the secondary school and good teachers are important in choosing a STEM study. To prevent drop-out key factors are relevance of the study choice for the own life, social and academic integration and supportive mentoring systems.

The inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in general education classrooms in Europe due to education policy and social developments is currently up for debate, especially in Germany. This paper addresses whether or not co-education of students with and without classroom problems and/or disabilities has negative consequences with respect to social and emotional situation within the classroom community. Although international research on inclusion shows an increased risk of social isolation for children with SEN, conclusions are not clear with German populations. In this study, 2,839 first graders were surveyed to determine if children with classroom behavior problems (CBP) and classroom learning difficulties (CLD) are more likely to be socially rejected than their peers. Sociometric interviews and a questionnaire were used to assess social integration, feeling of being accepted by the classroom teacher, academic self-concept, and classroom climate. Results reveal that first grade students with CBP and CLD experienced significantly higher levels of social rejection. An exploratory analysis based on the distribution of social and emotional differences between students with and without CBP and CLD supports these results at the classroom and school levels.

PROFILES is a project of teacher education and curriculum innovation funded by the FP7-programme of the European Union. The aim of PROFILES is implementing innovative science teaching practices incorporating a societal perspective and compassing inquiry-based science learning. The University of Bremen, Germany, as one of the partners, combines teacher continuous professional development with the research-based design of new teaching and learning modules for science teaching. This paper presents--as an exemplary case--how the University of Bremen is operating PROFILES. This case is illustrated according to the development of a teaching and learning module on sugar and sweeteners, incorporating the use of advertising in science education.

This paper has as its aim to analyze how CityVille, a videogame hosted on Facebook and oriented to the construction of a virtual city, can favor collaboration between gamers along with the exchange of strategies, equally contributing to learning transfer and skill acquisition. The first step consists in identifying the opportunities which the said game can offer in order to develop skills and promote learning formats linked with planning and resource management, after which a presentation is made of the opinions expressed by a sample of gamers (N = 105)--belonging to the Fans-CityVille community--about the priorities established by them to communicate with their neighbors and the skills that they believe to have acquired playing this game. 85.7% of them state that they communicate with others to share strategies and expand their city. Unlike women, who value collaboration, men prioritize competition. Designing their city has enhanced a number of gamer skills in different proportions: creative skills (71.4%); organizational ones (68.0%); skills associated with decision-making and problem-solving (67.0%); and interpersonal skills through interaction with others (61.9%). The CityVille game mode favors skill development and helps to create a ludic atmosphere of collaboration and optimal strategy exchange through communication between neighbors by strengthening their mutual relationships. Its formula moves away from the often-criticized competitive practices of other games.

Based on the concept of educational quality of the home learning environment, stimulating and responsive family time is crucial for children's development. In turn, time use depends on the developmental stages in childhood. International studies indicate that family patterns of time use are associated with a family's resources (i.e. level of education) and age of the children. To detect assumed time use patterns, this paper distinguishes between caring activities (basic care) and educational activities (play and teaching) of daily family life with children of various age groups (infants, preschool aged children, and primary school aged children). Data are drawn from the Time Use Survey in 2012/2013 conducted by the German Federal Statistical Office (N = 560). Tobit regression analyses show that time use for each activity differs between families with low and families with high level of education, referring to various child age groups. The results indicate that a 'developmental gradient' for time use in the home learning environment is evident.

This article investigates if online evaluation leads to different results than paper-and-pencil evaluation. Given that most previous studies confound the evaluation mode (online versus paper) with the evaluation situation (in class versus after class), we expected that evaluation results would be influenced only by the evaluation situation, whereas the very evaluation mode would not be relevant for the evaluation results. Analysing evaluations of a training programme for university teachers, we compared paper evaluations after class to either paper evaluations in class or online evaluations after class. The response rates were higher for the in-class compared to the after-class evaluations. Likewise, the scale ratings showed that paper evaluations after class were more negative than paper evaluations in class. In addition, participants wrote longer negative comments, but not positive comments, when evaluating after class compared to in class, independent of evaluation mode. The data support the hypothesis that only the evaluation situation, but not the evaluation mode, influences evaluation results.

Power over education and the upcoming generations has always been an important instrument in shaping religious and secular values. As a consequence, control over schools, pupils and teachers was, particularly in periods of war, an important means for bringing about acceptance of the new regime. The aim of this paper is to discuss priest-teachers' wartime memories of German interference in Belgian education during Second World War, on the basis of a survey conducted in the 1970s. By looking at teachers' memories, this paper contributes to a neglected field of study in the history of education and the historiography of Second World War. The analysis of the questionnaires illuminate how certain aspects of German educational policy were remembered by teachers and how they positioned themselves in the landscape of Second World War memory. As a result, this paper demonstrates that the survey not only offers an interesting source for investigating the war itself, but also sheds light on the changing post-war relationship between education, society and the state. (Contains 38 footnotes.)

System thinking is usually investigated by using questionnaires, video analysis, or interviews. Recently, concept-mapping (CM) was suggested as an adequate instrument for analysing students' system thinking. However, there are different ways with which to use this method. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether particular features of CM practices affect the valid assessment of students' system thinking. The particular features analysed were the medium (computer versus paper-pencil) and the directedness (highly directed versus nondirected) of CM practices. These features were evaluated with respect to their influence on (a) students' performance in CM and (b) the validity of different CM practices for system thinking. One hundred fifty-four German fourth graders (mean age: 9.95 years) and 93 eighth graders (mean age: 14.07 years) participated in the study following an experimental pre-test-post-test design. Three variations of CM practices were applied: (a) highly directed computer mapping, (b) highly directed paper-pencil mapping, and (c) nondirected paper-pencil mapping. In addition to the CM task, a paper-pencil questionnaire was employed to investigate the validity of the CM practices. Results showed that the computer positively influenced student performance in CM when compared with paper-pencil. By contrast, there was no difference between highly directed and nondirected mapping. Whereas the medium rarely influenced the validity of CM for system thinking, high directedness showed a positive influence. Considering the limitations and benefits of particular CM practices, we suggest highly directed and computer-based CM as an appropriate assessment tool--in particular, with regard to large-scale assessments of system thinking. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

This paper discusses the results of a study of the requirements for developing a remote radio frequency (RF) laboratory for electrical engineering students. It investigates students' preferred usage of the technical content of a state-of-the-art RF laboratory. The results of this study are compared to previous findings, which dealt with other user groups (technicians in technical colleges and engineers in the RF domain). Based on the results of these analyses, seven essential principles for designing and developing such a laboratory were identified. As a case study, these principles were then implemented into a remote laboratory system. In this paper, the implementation examples are also provided and discussed. The primary aim of this study is to guide remote laboratory platform developers toward the most effective instructional design. This study also determined, from the remote laboratory system case study, what the requirements are of such a laboratory from the students' perspective. (Contains 11 tables and 4 figures.)

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the differences between African and European students with regard to their entrepreneurial intentions, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, role models and entrepreneurial experience. It also aims to set the scene for future comparative research between developing and developed countries in the area of graduate entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative empirical research design was applied, using self-administered questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed to first-year business students at universities in three African countries that are either developing (Uganda and Kenya) or emerging (South Africa) and four European developed nations (Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Portugal). Findings: The results indicate that students from developing/emerging economies are more likely to envisage future careers as entrepreneurs and are more positive towards entrepreneurship than their industrialised European counterparts, even though motivators for employment/self-employment are similar across the samples. The type of role models used and the extent of entrepreneurial experience varied between individual countries. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the use of a convenience sample and its restriction on the use of statistics, a single data collection point and a sample across seven countries on two continents. Practical implications: The results lead to universal and country-specific recommendations relating to the improvement of student-oriented entrepreneurship activities within universities. Originality/value: The paper extends research on graduate entrepreneurship by providing an international comparison of entrepreneurship intentions, attitudes and experiences between developing/emerging and developed nations, leading to suggestions on how to foster an entrepreneurial spirit and assist new-venture creations for students. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

This paper presents a comprehensive usability study conducted within the context of a Europe-wide project. The design of the evaluated e-learning platform is based on an innovative approach to the education of young Europeans by integrating into the curricula of a Europe-wide network of 14 schools different state-of-the-art technologies in e-learning. The evaluation methodology brings together end-user assessments and expert inspections, thus providing a detailed students', teachers' and experts' feedback. User testing integrates six empirical methods into a laboratory-based test. Usability inspection ascertains usability problems by means of recognized heuristics and enables an "educational evaluation" of the platform by means of three sets of criteria. The paper aims to present the effectiveness of the engaged evaluation methods as applied to e-learning platforms. It offers implications from the empirical findings of the user-based methods together with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the employed inspection methods. Special attention is given to the aspect of educational evaluation. The conducted critical usability examination of a large-scale e-learning system across several countries in Europe revealed which of the chosen assessment methods should be combined to provide constructive and valuable improvement suggestions. A more significant contribution of this research is that the used evaluation approach proved successful, providing some general findings and know-how from the experience and could be reused by other researches because of its thorough structure. As there are relatively few existing accounts of usability assessment in the e-learning context, this paper adds to the body of knowledge. (Contains 15 figures.)

The starting point of the paper is the co-construction of gender and technology, that is, the theory that the usage of and the attitude to certain kinds of technology are a way to "do" one's gender. A survey is presented that supports the assumption that with the routinization of e-learning in higher education e-learning loses its character as a technology, which can be used for gender performance. With the routinization of its usage e-learning is becoming a gender-neutral tool with no outstanding technological appeal. However, though doing gender may disappear in certain fields the co-construction of gender and technology is still valid as basic structure. Furthermore, the results show that e-learning meanwhile supports the attitude we call "study as consumption", that is, the expectation that the main e-learning features are usual services to be provided by the educational institution. This attitude is to be found among male and female students alike.

This paper presents an intervention study whose aim was to promote teacher beliefs about mathematics and learning mathematics and student competences in mathematical modeling. In the intervention, teachers received written curriculum materials about mathematical modeling. The concept underlying the materials was based on constructivist ideas and findings from mathematics education. Teacher beliefs about mathematics, learning and self-efficacy were expected to have a major impact on their classroom practices. We therefore assessed teacher beliefs about the usefulness of mathematics, learning (constructivist and socio-constructivist beliefs) and teacher self-efficacy when teaching modeling (teacher or class level variable). The student level variables assessed were modeling competence and other individual factors, such as basic mathematical skills and cognitive abilities. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured in a pre-post control group design using multilevel structural equation modeling. The results showed no direct effect of the intervention on student modeling competence. However, they did reveal that the intervention had a significant effect on teacher beliefs about learning (constructivist and socio-constructivist view) and an effect of these teacher beliefs about learning on student modeling competence. Further, the results showed that students' gains in modeling competence is not only mediated by teacher beliefs, but also influenced by individual factors. Implications for teaching as well as limitations of the study are discussed.