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The German school system employs centrally organized performance assessments (some of which are called "VERA") as a way of promoting lesson development. In recent years, several German federal states introduced a computer-based performance testing system which will replace the paper-pencil testing system in the future. Scores from computer-based testing are required to be equivalent to paper-pencil testing scores so that the new testing medium does not lead to disadvantages for students. Therefore, the current study aimed at investigating the size of the mode effect and the moderating impact of students' gender, academic achievement and mainly spoken language in everyday life. In addition, the variance of the mode effect across tasks was investigated. The study was conducted in four German federal states in 2019 using a field experimental design. The test scores of 5140 eighth-graders from 165 schools in the subject German were analysed. The results of multi-level modelling revealed that students' test scores in the computerized version of the VERA test were significantly lower than in the paper-pencil version. Students with a lower academic achievement were more disadvantaged by the VERA computerized test. The results were inconsistent regarding the interactions between testing mode and students' gender and mainly spoken language in everyday life. The variance of the mode effect across tasks was high. Research into different subjects and in other federal states and countries under different testing conditions might yield further evidence about the generalizability of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjoint processing of text and pictures is assumed to possess an inherent asymmetry, because text and pictures serve fundamentally different but complementary functions. Conjoint processing is assumed to start with general, coherence-oriented mental model construction. When certain tasks have to be solved, the mental model is adjusted to the task requirements by adaptive mental model elaboration. We hypothesized that, due to different constraints on cognitive processing, initial mental model construction is more text-driven than picture-driven, whereas adaptive mental model elaboration is more picturedriven than text-driven. We also hypothesized that there are more transitions between text and picture during initial model construction than during adaptive model elaboration and more task-picture transitions than task-text transitions during adaptive mental model elaboration. To test these hypotheses, we selected 6 text-picture units from textbooks on biology and geography, each combined with 3 comprehension items of different complexity. The units and corresponding items were presented to 204 students from Grades 5 to 8 from the higher tier and the lower tier of the German school system. The participants were required to answer the presented items 1 by 1. Their eye movements were analyzed in terms of fixations and transitions between texts, pictures, and items as dependent variables. The independent variables were school tier, grade, and order of presentation. The results confirmed our hypotheses. We presume that the benefits of learning from text and pictures are due to the inherent asymmetry, which allows the learner to combine the specific advantages of both forms of representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

375 students from 24 randomly selected classes of a three-tier secondary school system were tested in a longitudinal study for their text-picture integration and pure reading competence as well as verbal and spatial intelligence at grades 5–7. Data were analyzed according to the integrated model of text and picture comprehension using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Results indicate that text-picture integration comprises higher spatial cognitive demands than pure reading. School tiers differed in terms of competency levels, but also in terms of growth rates of text-picture integration competence. Differences between lower tiers and higher tiers for text-picture integration competence became smaller from grade to grade, whereas developmental trajectories of reading competence ran parallel to each other. The study reveals that the skills for the conjoint processing of text and pictures develop in a way that might help especially poorer students in lower school tiers to catch up with their mates in higher tiers as compared to the competence of pure reading. Text-picture integration seems to provide gradually better opportunities for less capable learners to compensate for previous lags in their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between grade and the ability of text-picture integration in terms of task completion and the pattern of using textual and pictorial information. Children (N = 144) from secondary schools were recruited from grade 5 and grade 8. Analyzing the time spent with the multimedia unit prior to an incorrect response, this study suggests that 5th graders tend to give up relatively early compared to 8th graders. Furthermore, early incorrect responses were more prevalent among students of the non-academic track and were predicted by a low proportion of fixations on the text in mental model construction and on the picture in adaptive mental model specification. An inappropriate approach of integrating text and picture can thus be the reason for giving up early. The work provides a basis for (1) automated feedback during the course of working on a multimedia unit. (2) Instructional design should be adapted to the characteristics of student groups to support text-picture integration and to avoid giving up early. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Evaluation of a follow-up classroom observation in a low-stakes inspection system. • Evaluation of a follow-up classroom observation by using an experimental design. • The effectiveness of the follow-up classroom observation is low. • The effectiveness seems to be higher for schools with poorer prerequisites. • Teachers' perceived usefulness of the follow-up classroom observation is rather low. School inspection is an external evaluation method that aims to promote the improvement of instruction in several European countries. One typical feature of a school inspection is classroom observation. In order to improve the effectiveness of school inspections in enhancing classroom practices in Lower Saxony (a large federal state in Northern Germany), a follow-up classroom observation was implemented at several secondary schools. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects of this treatment on lesson development and its perceived usefulness using an online questionnaire. In total, 436 teachers in the treatment group and 161 teachers in the control group participated in the study. The results show a very small effect of follow-up classroom observations on lesson development in schools. Teachers rate the usefulness of this intervention as rather low. However, follow-up classroom observations seem to have a larger impact on lesson development in schools with a lower level of cooperation among teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examined the different functions of text and pictures during text–picture integration in multimedia learning. In Study 1, 144 secondary school students (age = 11 to 14 years; 72 females, 72 males) received six text–picture units under two conditions. In the delayed-question condition, students first read the units without a specific question (no-question phase), to stimulate initial coherence-oriented mental model construction. Afterward the question was presented (question-answering phase), to stimulate task-adaptive mental model specification. In the preposed-question condition, students received a specific question from the beginning, stimulating both kinds of processing. Analyses of the participants' eye movement patterns confirmed the assumption that students allocated a higher percentage of available resources to text processing during the initial mental model construction than during adaptive model specification. Conversely, students allocated a higher percentage of available resources to picture processing during adaptive mental model specification than during the initial mental model construction. In Study 2 (N = 12, age = 12 to 16; seven females, five males), we ruled out that these findings were due to the effect of rereading, by implementing a no-question phase either once or twice. To sum up, texts seem to provide more explicit conceptual guidance in mental model construction than pictures do, whereas pictures support mental model adaptation more than text does, by providing flexible access to specific information for task-oriented updates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]