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In March 2018, metal construction kits were distributed to all elementary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate as part of the project called "Technikkiste" [translation from German: technology box] to promote STEM education. At the end of the year 2018, three more expansion sets followed. So far, no requests have been made to schools, even after five years of the project's start as to how and whether they use this material. Therefore, an evaluation study was carried out in 2023, which was intended to find out the current usage behaviour with the kits as well as to get an impression of the teachers regarding the in-service training that took place as part of the project. For that 921 elementary schools were asked to participate in an online survey. 69 answered the questionnaire some more gave informal feedback. The results from the survey already show that only about 70% of the responders are even aware of the metal construction kits. Around 30% stated, that they were not familiar with the metal construction kits. In addition, only about 43% of the participants indicated that the kits have ever been used in the classroom at their school. One of the main reasons why they do not use the constructions kits is that the school has allegedly not received a kit or has too few for classroom use. This brief excerpt from the survey results already shows that the promotion project is not showing the success that the Ministry of Education had hoped for.

Various studies have shown that epistemological beliefs affect personal learning and teaching performances. Therefore, epistemological beliefs have become an attractive object of research with different methods of survey. A distinction can be made between denotative and connotative aspects of beliefs, the former being reflected upon, explicit beliefs, whereas the latter being associative and evaluative judgements on (in our case: mathematical) epistemological beliefs. The present study used the instrument Connotative Aspects of Epistemological Beliefs by Stahl and Bromme to collect data from university students in mathematics in the years of 2017, 2018 and 2019. The pseudo-longitudinal data analysis showed 1. that students hold different connotative beliefs regarding the two domains "mathematics at university" and "mathematics at school" regardless their study progress, 2. that the beliefs remain relatively stable within the domains overtime and 3. that -- considering the different mathematical programmes of study (e.g., pre-service teachers vs. mathematics majors) -- the students' connotative beliefs mainly differ regarding beliefs about the simplicity of mathematical knowledge at school.

Two middle school educators earned a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching fellowship. A Fulbright Finland Foundation inter-country travel grant provided the grantees with a unique opportunity to connect and collaborate at the University of Helsinki. Within this research, they described their inquiry experiences. The research included examining authentic student-centered learning continuums and phenomenon-based learning in Finland and teachers' adaptability in relation to meeting the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse math classrooms in the Netherlands. This paper summarizes how cross-cultural dialogues, classroom observations, and informal interviews with educators, students, and thought leaders informed each grantee's discovery of how student-centered learning is structured, delivered, and valued in Finland and the Netherlands. This article (1) describes how communication empowers middle school mathematics students, (2) analyzes the learning-to-learn framework, and (3) provides insights into how to utilize language diversity in a mathematics classroom.

Preparation for university studies is key to enabling adult refugees and asylum seekers to reestablish their educational and professional careers in the host country. While refugees' transition to higher education (HE) is embedded in multiple transitions regarding social position, educational career, and migration, related identities may compete. We investigate how this is manifested in stigma consciousness and precarious student self-identification and how these factors influence the transition to HE. We combine novel quantitative and qualitative data on refugee students in prestudy programs in Germany. The results show that stigma consciousness impedes student self-identification. Moreover, stigma consciousness moderates the effect of student self-identification on the likelihood of enrolling in university. Qualitative interviews show how refugee students use strategies to deal with the stigma that unfortunately reproduces stigmatizing attributions. We provide implications for further research, educational counseling, and prestudy programs for refugees as an integral part of adult education.

Migrant students tend to underperform in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and are less likely to pursue higher education in STEM when compared with their nonmigrant peers. Given the substantial increase in migration, this disparity has been a central concern in science education in many European countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an innovative science outreach program that brings together migrant students and STEM professionals with the same linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The program consists of one-off workshops that follow an inquiry-based approach and include hands-on activities and science communication in the students' heritage language. Using surveys with adapted scales and open-ended questions, we applied a randomized block design with waitlist control groups and repeated measures. Eighty-three Portuguese-speaking migrant students aged 6-17 years participated in the workshops in Germany and the United Kingdom. Results indicate that both the students and STEM professionals evaluated the program positively and that students who participated in the workshops tended to demonstrate an increase in their attainment value for science and an increase in their self-concept of ability for the heritage language 4 weeks after the intervention when compared with students in the control condition. These effects were particularly pronounced for students with low prior motivation to study science or speak the heritage language. Our results thus show that it is possible to foster migrant students' attainment value for science and increase their self-concept of ability regarding the heritage language through a brief science outreach intervention.

The integration of ethnic minority youth can only be successful if they are motivated to establish and maintain social relationships in important institutions such as school. At the same time, worries about negative stereotypes about one's ethnic group can undermine ethnic minority students' motivation to approach others. In the present study, we tested whether social identity threat predicts ethnic minority adolescents' social approach motivation via reduced sense of belonging. We also examined whether multiple social identities (i.e., high endorsement of ethnic and national identity) buffer against the negative effects of social identity threat. In a sample of 426 ethnic minority students from 36 9th-grade classes in Germany, social identity threat was indirectly related to social approach motivation via reduced sense of belonging to the school and class. The interplay of students' ethnic and national identity moderated the relationship of social identity threat and sense of belonging. The relationship was particularly negative for students who endorsed either ethnic or national identity. However, it was less negative for students with integrated multiple social identities and non-significant for students who identified neither with the ethnic nor the national group. Results generalized for social approach motivation towards ethnic majority and minority classmates. These patterns were only found for social approach motivation in face-to-face contact situations, but not in online situations. We discuss these findings in light of the literature on social identity threat and multiple social identities. Practical implications include measures to foster students' sense of belonging and to reduce social identity threat.

Past research repeatedly revealed students' struggles to understand chemical equilibria, especially concerning their dynamic nature. Black-box simulations have proven to be helpful here. However, the effect is strongly dependent on the quality of teaching, the design principles of which are not yet fully known. One aspect of debate concerns the nature of supportive learning tasks, which require students to activate, construct and reflect on their mental models to foster conceptual understanding. In this paper, we investigate how drawing-assisted simulation-based learning promotes conceptual understanding of chemical equilibria in comparison to single-choice tasks. Both types of supporting tasks involve simulation-based activities according to the German instructional design SIMMS ("Simulation-based Instruction for Mental Modelling in School"), which requires students to construct their own explanations and predictions on a chemical system before exploring it "via" molecular dynamics simulations and revising their explanations and predictions retrospectively. In a quasi-experimental intervention study with 174 German high school students of ten chemistry courses (tenth grade), two treatment groups (drawing group and single-choice group) were compared with a control group, assessing the progress in conceptual understanding during simulation-based learning "via" drawings and explanations as well as pre- and post-intervention "via" questionnaire. Our findings reveal similar effects of drawing tasks and elaborate single-choice tasks on conceptual understanding of chemical equilibria. For equilibrium dynamics specifically, simulation-based settings featuring drawing tasks seem to be slightly more effective than simulation-based settings featuring elaborate single-choice-tasks in fostering understanding. What is more, simulation-based settings on the divergent phenomenon of Le Chatelier (where different final states emerge from the same initial state, depending on the nature of external perturbation) seem to be more efficient than those on the convergent nature of chemical equilibria (where several initial states with different educt/product ratios yield the same final state in equilibrium) in fostering student understanding irrespective of the mode of the supportive learning task.

The objective of the current study was to identify an effective learning environment for kindergarten students as they acquire an initial understanding of scientific inquiry activities (SIA) and a simple (idealized) scientific inquiry cycle (SIC). The study aimed to examine (a) the effects of instructional support and (b) the role of similarity across scientific phenomena illustrating the SIA/SIC in helping children acquire an initial understanding. The study used a randomized group treatment design with children aged 5-6 years (N = 231). Similarity of scientific phenomena and specificity of instructional support related to the SIA/SIC were systematically varied across conditions. Results indicated that SIA/SIC-specific instructional support provided short-term benefits to children's knowledge about SIA and the SIC. In addition, results suggested that similarity of scientific phenomena interacted differentially with children's prior knowledge. More knowledgeable students benefited from variation in their understanding of the SIA/SIC, while similarity helped less knowledgeable children improve their content knowledge.

Disengaged responding poses a severe threat to the validity of educational large-scale assessments, because item responses from unmotivated test-takers do not reflect their actual ability. Existing identification approaches rely primarily on item response times, which bears the risk of misclassifying fast engaged or slow disengaged responses. Process data with its rich pool of additional information on the test-taking process could thus be used to improve existing identification approaches. In this study, three process data variables--text reread, item revisit, and answer change--were introduced as potential indicators of response engagement for multiple-choice items in a reading comprehension test. An extended latent class item response model for disengaged responding was developed by including the three new indicators as additional predictors of response engagement. In a sample of 1,932 German university students, the extended model indicated a better model fit than the baseline model, which included item response time as only indicator of response engagement. In the extended model, both item response time and text reread were significant predictors of response engagement. However, graphical analyses revealed no systematic differences in the item and person parameter estimation or item response classification between the models. These results suggest only a marginal improvement of the identification of disengaged responding by the new indicators. Implications of these results for future research on disengaged responding with process data are discussed.

The importance of emotional awareness (EA) and emotion regulation (ER) for children's and adolescents' development has been suggested in numerous studies, but longitudinal trajectories of these aspects of emotional competence have rarely been examined. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate developmental trends of EA and ER in early and middle adolescence over a 1-year period. Longitudinal increases of different aspects of EA (emotion differentiation, bodily unawareness, attention to others', and analyses of own emotions) and dysfunctional ER, and decreases of functional ER were expected. Furthermore, it was explored whether these trajectories as well as their initial levels were associated with gender and age. Three-wave longitudinal self-report data of N = 1,225 German adolescents (aged 10-15 years at initial assessment, 54% female) who had completed the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire and the Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire were analyzed. After establishing at least partial scalar measurement invariance for the longitudinal models, the second-order Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCMs) were computed. Regarding EA, increases of emotion differentiation and bodily unawareness, as well as adolescents' attention to others' emotions, but also a decrease of their willingness to analyze own emotions were found. For ER, results suggested stability of dysfunctional and decreases of functional strategies. Conditional LGCMs (including gender, age, and the interaction between both) indicated that the increase of emotion differentiation and the decrease in the use of selected functional ER strategies were more pronounced for younger participants. Gender differences were found only for baseline but not for developmental trends, and no significant interaction with age was found. Overall, this study illustrates the developmental trajectories of EA and ER over the course of 1 year and emphasizes that adolescents have difficulties in applying functional ER strategies with increasing age, despite improvements in EA.

Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by 'migrant background', a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging. This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psychological and educational research. Using a preregistered empirical example, we first compare selected social categories ('migrant background', family heritage, religion, citizenship, cultural identification, and generation status) in their potential to reveal participant heterogeneity. Second, we investigate differences in means and relations between variables (discrimination experiences, perceived societal Islamophobia, and national identity) and academic motivation among 1335 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M[subscript age] = 14.69). Regression analyses and multigroup SEM revealed differential experiences with and implications of discrimination for academic motivation. Results highlight the need for a deliberate, transparent use of social categories to make discrimination visible and centre participants' subjective experiences.

Background: Evidence-based recommendations for a core outcome set (COS; minimum set of outcomes) for aphasia treatment research have been developed (the Research Outcome Measurement in Aphasia--ROMA, COS). Five recommended core outcome constructs: communication, language, quality of life, emotional well-being and patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment, were identified through three international consensus studies. Constructs were paired with outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) during an international consensus meeting (ROMA-1). Before the current study (ROMA-2), agreement had not been reached on OMIs for the constructs of communication or patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment. Aim: To establish consensus on a communication OMI for inclusion in the ROMA COS. Methods & Procedures: Research methods were based on recommendations from the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative. Participants with expertise in design and conduct of aphasia trials, measurement instrument development/testing and/or communication outcome measurement were recruited through an open call. Before the consensus meeting, participants agreed on a definition of communication, identified appropriate OMIs, extracted their measurement properties and established criteria for their quality assessment. During the consensus meeting they short-listed OMIs and participants without conflicts of interest voted on the two most highly ranked instruments. Consensus was defined a priori as agreement by [greater than or equal to] 70% of participants. Outcomes & Results: In total, 40 researchers from nine countries participated in ROMA-2 (including four facilitators and three-panel members who participated in pre-meeting activities only). A total of 20 OMIs were identified and evaluated. Eight short-listed communication measures were further evaluated for their measurement properties and ranked. Participants in the consensus meeting (n = 33) who did not have conflicts of interest (n = 29) voted on the top two ranked OMIs: The Scenario Test (TST) and the Communication Activities of Daily Living--3 (CADL-3). TST received 72% (n = 21) of 'yes' votes and the CADL-3 received 28% (n = 8) of 'yes' votes. Conclusions & Implications: Consensus was achieved that TST was the preferred communication OMI for inclusion in the ROMA COS. It is currently available in the original Dutch version and has been adapted into English, German and Greek. Further consideration must be given to the best way to measure communication in people with mild aphasia. Development of a patient-reported measure for satisfaction with/impact of treatment and multilingual versions of all OMIs of the COS is still required. Implementation of the ROMA COS would improve research outcome measurement and the quality, relevance, transparency, replicability and efficiency of aphasia treatment research.

In modern information societies, evaluating information, data, or knowledge claims is crucial. As these activities are influenced by epistemological beliefs, such beliefs are a key element of education in the sense that educational institutions intend to prepare students for professional and social life. Hence, this study aims to examine the development of students' epistemological beliefs about mathematics in the course of studying mathematics at university level. In a sequential cohort study, 1774 responses of mathematics students were surveyed in three consecutive years. The participants rated claims about the nature of mathematical knowledge in a spontaneous manner - a research procedure stimulating their connotative aspects of epistemological beliefs. Analyses showed that students hold different epistemological beliefs regarding 'mathematics as a scientific discipline' and 'mathematics as a school subject' -- with mathematics major students and future upper secondary school teachers rating 'mathematics as a school subject' to be relatively simple and superficial compared to future primary school and lower secondary school teachers. Nonetheless, all student groups find 'mathematics as a scientific discipline' to be significantly more complex and profound than 'mathematics as a school subject'. Interestingly, the domain-specific beliefs remain rather stable in the course of studies regardless of the students' study programme.

Recently, an increasing number of students from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds (SRABs) entering universities in settlement countries such as Australia and Germany have necessitated the establishment of a variety of supports, both as formal programs and informal ad-hoc networks. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the organisational conditions surrounding such supports. This study thus examined these conditions through the conceptual lens of organisational memory loss. Based on the two illustrative cases of Australia and Germany, it was described how building durable and responsive supports for SRABs is undermined by structural, ideological, and temporal imperatives that erode the possibilities for a sharable organisational memory. Furthermore, it was argued that similar to global arguments for durable pathways to settlement, universities need to develop and deliver lasting expertise and durable student supports by focusing on preserving organisational memory.

Following the refugee influx of 2015 and 2016, many German higher education organisations (HEOs) responded with support programmes for refugee students. In this context, refugees became formally and discursively differentiated from other international students. During later stages of the programmes, this differentiation became blurred, and discourse surrounding refugee students partly shifted back to framing them as international students, which is also represented in further support programme development. Based on a systems theoretical framework, this paper investigates the shifting organisational discourse on refugee students within the context of functional needs and structural changes at German HEOs. The analysis shows that structural development is strongly related to the way functional needs and ways to address them are constituted by discursive representations. It is based on 25 expert interviews with heads of international offices and first contacts for refugees at eight German HEOs.

Reading a word requires several component processes. The dual route cascaded (DRC) model provides a characterization of these component processes and their involvement in different reading routes. We tested how relevant precursor skills associated with these component processes predict the use of the sublexical and lexical route in beginning readers of a transparent orthography. More than 100 German first graders performed a battery of tasks tapping into precursor skills associated with the DRC components. Using factor analysis, we first verified that the tasks can be attributed to three sets of skills, capturing visual, sublexical, and lexico-semantic components, as the DRC suggests. We then used these sets of skills to predict differences in the reliance on sublexical and lexical reading in second grade as indicated by length and frequency effects. Results show that the set of sublexical skills in first grade especially predicts differences in the recognition of long frequent words at the end of second grade, whereas the set of lexico-semantic skills predicts differences in the reading of long infrequent words. The findings corroborate the attribution of specific precursor skills to the sublexical and lexical route and reveal their distinct impact on sublexical and lexical reading in beginning readers. The work thus empirically informs the developmental version of the DRC, especially regarding variability in trajectories of reading acquisition.

When a cognitive ability is assessed repeatedly, test scores and ability estimates are often observed to increase across test sessions. This phenomenon is known as the retest (or practice) effect. One explanation for retest effects is that situational test anxiety interferes with a testee's performance during earlier test sessions, thereby creating systematic measurement bias on the test items (interference hypothesis). Yet, the influence of anxiety diminishes with test repetitions. This explanation is controversial, since the presence of measurement bias during earlier measurement occasions cannot always be confirmed. It is argued that people from the lower end of the ability spectrum become aware of their deficits in test situations and therefore report higher anxiety (deficit hypothesis). In 2014, a structural equation model was proposed that specifically allows the comparison of these two hypotheses with regard to explanatory power for the negative anxiety--ability correlation found in cross-sectional assessments. We extended this model for usage in longitudinal studies to investigate the impact of test anxiety on test performance and on retest effects. A latent neighbor-change growth curve was implemented into the model that enables an estimation of retest effects between all pairs of successive test sessions. Systematic restrictions on model parameters allow testing the hypothetical reduction in anxiety interference over the test sessions, which can be compared to retest effect sizes. In an empirical study with seven measurement occasions, we found that a substantial reduction in interference upon the second test session was associated with the largest retest effect in a figural matrices test, which served as a proxy measure for general intelligence. However, smaller retest effects occurred up to the fourth test administration, whereas evidence for anxiety-induced measurement bias was only produced for the first two test sessions. Anxiety and ability were not negatively correlated at any time when the interference effects were controlled for. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

We analyse the predictive power of learning strategies for engineering students' performance in mathematics. Learning strategies play an important role in self-regulated learning. Based on a new learning strategy questionnaire that takes into account the specifics of mathematical learning at universities, we investigated what were the strategies that correlate with performance and predict future performance. We present data of a longitudinal study with N = 361 engineering students regressing their performance on students' use of their learning strategies as well as their prior performance. The results indicate that practicing but not repeating the content and resisting frustration predict students' performance. We discuss the findings with a specific view on what is tested and why some elaboration strategies might not be rewarded in exams.

This article addresses the formalisation of support structures for refugee students at German higher education organisations. After the refugee influx in 2015 and 2016, early support for refugees was characterised by often voluntary, informal, spontaneous activities by pioneers. Subsequently, the situation changed as higher education organisations adjusted to the new challenge and restructured their way of dealing with study-interested refugees. Based on 18 interviews with heads of international offices and with the holders of so-called first contact positions for refugees at eight German higher education organisations, we investigate -- drawing on organisation sociology -- these organisational responses to (prospective) refugee students. In a second step, we focus on the first contact positions as the smallest organisational units in this field of action and describe their tasks, their placement in the hierarchy, and the procedures for staffing. Our analysis shows that in response to the growing number of refugee applicants and the availability of external funding, support structures for refugees were formalised by creating and/or expanding existing organisational structures, including the establishment of first contacts as specific boundary positions and of new internal and external communication channels.

In recent years, the number of new asylum applications in Germany has risen with a peak in 2015. Many refugees arrive with high levels of prior education and corresponding educational aspirations. Hence, German universities and preparatory colleges (so-called 'Studienkollegs') have created additional preparatory courses and supporting services for refugees. Heretofore, little is known about the specific challenges for prospective refugee students seeking access to higher education in the German context. We focus on key individual, social, and institutional conditions for integrating refugees into the German higher education system. How do prospective refugee students value higher education? What are the key challenges and supporting factors on their way to higher education in Germany? Our analysis is based on 17 exploratory interviews with prospective refugee students, staff of higher education institutions and counselling services. We combine educational sociology and refugee studies and rely on the capability approach and its close relation to the conception of agency to theorize our empirical findings. Reconstructing the challenges and coping strategies along with the key concepts of the capability approach reveals the different strategies of prospective refugee students to achieve their aspirations as well as the frustrating institutional limits of agency. Finally, we will discuss implications for higher education policy in Germany.

This paper explores the role of higher education institutions in enhancing the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ecosystem in Brunei Darussalam, particularly with regard to improving the spirit of entrepreneurship and the motivation to seek opportunities independently to propel the country's transition economy forward. A qualitative methodology was adopted for data collection, using semi-structured interviews with Bruneian and German SME owner/managers and sales representatives. The economics perspective of the institutional framework was employed to identify the formal and informal constraints faced by SMEs in Brunei Darussalam. Recommendations are offered to inform the relevant stakeholders about the key issues faced by SMEs so that appropriate forms of guidance and benchmarking can be provided to facilitate the country's economic development.

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Purpose: Drug administration via feeding tubes is considered a process with many uncertainties. This review aimed to give a comprehensive overview of data available on feeding tube application and to carry out risk assessments for drug substances commonly administered to stroke patients. Methods: Drugs frequently administered via feeding tubes were identified through a retrospective analysis of discharge letters from a stroke unit. Physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, and stability properties of these drugs and data on drug-enteral nutrition interactions were systematically searched for in the European Pharmacopoeia, Hagers Handbook of Pharmaceutical Practice, Birchers clinical-pharmacological data compilation, and the Martindale Complete Drug Reference, as well as from databases including DrugBank, DrugDex, PubChem, Google Scholar, and PubMed. Results: Of the drugs most commonly administered via feeding tubes in the present stroke patient cohort, bisoprolol, candesartan, and ramipril could be considered the least critical due to their overall favourable properties. Acetylsalicylic acid, amlodipine, hydrochlorothiazide, omeprazole and esomeprazole, simvastatin, and torasemide pose risks based on pH or light-dependent instability or proposed food effects. The most critical drugs to be administered via feeding tubes are considered to be furosemide, levodopa, and levothyroxine as they show relevant instabilities under administration conditions and substantial food effects; the latter two even possess a narrow therapeutic index. However, little information is available on drug-tube and drug-formula interactions. Conclusion: Feeding tube administration of medications turned out to be a highly complex process with several unmet risks. Therefore, investigations that systematically assess these risk factors using clinically relevant model systems are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertebrate species knowledge, a key factor for conserving biodiversity, is a compulsory part of school curricula. This study evaluated the vertebrate species knowledge of sixth-grade German grammar school pupils (aged 11-13) to investigate the influence of socio-demographic factors (gender, size of hometown, mother tongue), personal expectations (favourite school subject, performance in biology, expected test results) and possibilities to do nature observations (favourite playing area, number of excursions to nature) on identification skills. In addition, the study examined whether schoolchildren's taxonomic knowledge changed over the years. In a species identification test, participants (N = 984) scored an average of 14.18 ± 3.82 out of 25 points. The results showed that their species knowledge was significantly influenced by their personal expectations on test performance, the school, favourite playing area, mother tongue and gender. Hometown size, the number of excursions to nature, favourite school subject and performance in biology did not significantly affect children's species knowledge. Mammals had the highest identification rates, whereas birds and reptiles were rather unknown. These results were compared with a similar dataset in 2006 indicating a 15% loss in pupils' species knowledge within the last decade. A change in the curriculum as a reason for this decline in taxonomic knowledge is discussed.

Data and its applications are increasingly ubiquitous in the rapidly digitizing world and consequently, students across different disciplines face increasing demand to develop skills to answer both academia's and businesses' increasing need to collect, manage, evaluate, apply and extract knowledge from data and critically reflect upon the derived insights. On the basis of recent experiences at the University of Ttingen, Germany, we present a new approach to teach the relevant data science skills as an introductory service course at the university or advanced college level. We describe the outline of a complete course that relies on case studies and project work built around contemporary data sets, including openly available online teaching resources.

Purpose: Approaches to solving sustainability problems require a specific problem-solving mode, encompassing the complexity, fuzziness and interdisciplinary nature of the problem. This paper aims to promote a complex systems' view of addressing sustainability problems, in particular through the tool of network science, and provides an outline of an interdisciplinary training workshop. Design/methodology/approach: The topic of the workshop is the analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a political action plan. The authors are interested in the synergies and trade-offs between the goals, which are investigated through the structure of the underlying network. The authors use a teaching approach aligned with sustainable education and transformative learning. Findings: Methodologies from network science are experienced as valuable tools to familiarise students with complexity and to handle the proposed case study. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first work which uses network terminology and approaches to teach sustainability problems. This work highlights the potential of network science in sustainability education and contributes to accessible material.

Mentoring is seen as one possible solution to support the individual development of competences in higher education. To allow this support for a large number of students, scalable technologies should be used and made available in a so called "Mentoring Workbench." In order to analyze the requirements for this "Mentoring Workbench," this paper, firstly, depicts seven mentoring roles, which can complement typical learning and teaching processes at universities. Based on an analysis of existing mentoring applications, the authors, secondly, work out to which extent these roles can be supported by existing technical solutions. As the market for mentoring software only covers part of the mentoring roles, the paper, thirdly, outlines further considerations on the technical support of the mentoring roles presented. Finally, we give an outlook on the first steps of technical implementation.

Birds are one of the most important species that can help protect biodiversity. Although birds are important beings for biodiversity and human existence, there is a relatively less quantity of research that has investigated the interest in and attitudes toward birds. This study aims to investigate the knowledge level of and attitudes toward birds among students in countries at different levels of economic development. To collect the data, a Bird Knowledge Questionnaire and a Bird Attitude Questionnaire were developed and used by the researchers in this study. These questionnaires were administered to a total of 852 students from different countries, including Colombia, Germany, Slovakia, and Turkey. The results obtained in this study showed that Colombian students had the highest interest in birds as compared to students in Slovakia, Turkey, and Germany. Girls had consistently higher interest in birds than boys in all countries, but there were no gender differences in the cognitive domain. Our research suggests that factual knowledge about birds is not a necessary prerequisite for interest in birds, but animal-related activities show strong associations with an interest in birds.

In the present study, we investigate how spiders can be used to assess the effectiveness of restoring mesic grasslands on former urban lawns. We compile and analyze a comprehensive dataset, including both past and current data, focusing on the Aachen region. By systematically examining this data, we identify various indicators using different analytical methods. This approach allows us to distinguish distinct species communities, making them useful as diagnostic tools at various stages of habitat development. Additionally, we identify further parameters that are essential for evaluating meadow restoration in urban settings. We highlight the crucial importance of understanding the local species repertoire, as this knowledge is vital for setting realistic benchmarks for restoration projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of climate change, worldwide diseases, and the question of sustainable energy, scientific literacy has never been more important. The acquisition of scientific literacy starts in early childhood and depends on children's experiences in learning environments such as the parental home and kindergarten. The Starting Cohort 2 of the German National Educational Panel Study offers longitudinal data on the scientific literacy of 2,937 children from kindergarten to the third grade of primary school. We used linear latent growth curve models to analyse the data. The results show that the scientific literacy of kindergarten children grew over time and that kindergarten children already differed in their scientific literacy. Especially children from non-German-speaking homes or whose parents had lower levels of education or who came from homes with low cultural capital had a significantly lower level of scientific literacy in kindergarten. A scientific focus in kindergarten, on the other hand, had a positive effect on the scientific literacy of kindergarten children. Moreover, our study did not reveal any interindividual differences in the growth of scientific literacy over time. Thus, our study did not find any evidence to indicate that school had closed the initial gap in children's scientific literacy.

In this article we explore how primary school learners of English in Germany engage with examples of English that they were asked to locate in their local environments (their linguistic landscapes, LLs). In association with each located image, the learners completed a standardised worksheet in German that asked for brief written comments about its location, the reason why they had selected the image and why they thought that English had been used. Their written reflections demonstrate that these children are remarkably sophisticated in their analyses of linguistic, social and cultural aspects of what they found. They show that with nuanced pedagogies primary school children can benefit greatly from leaving the classroom to find language examples in the worlds around them.

The inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in schools is an ongoing challenge -- it demands the development of an adapted teaching and learning environment, which, in turn, requires a corresponding teacher education programme. Studies indicate that personal characteristics of the respective teachers are one of the main influencing factors on the classroom environment. This article reports on a study of the role of teacher-related factors, attitudes, concerns and efficacy in inclusion by testing existing survey instruments of 909 pre-service teachers in Germany. A confirmatory factor analysis was applied to new German translations of four instruments: "Attitudes Towards Inclusion Scale," "Intention to Teach in Inclusive Classroom Scale," "Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale," and the "Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices." With minor modifications, models demonstrated good fit measures and partial measurement invariance between special school pre-service teachers and general pre-service teachers. A combined model of all four scales confirmed that lower concerns were related to attitudes that are more positive, greater self-efficacy and stronger intentions to teaching inclusively. Implications for teacher-training and comparisons to other international samples are discussed.

Previous research has described the unique time perceptions of refugees. These have consequences for many areas of their lives: Perception of time should be expressed in the use of time, and ultimately affect the integration of refugees. The present study systematically explores this link between refugees' time perceptions and their manifestation in patterns of time use. Data from semi-structured interviews with 18 young Syrian and Afghan refugees in Germany and five Germans with migration background were used. Results show that refugees' time perceptions varied according to their ability to assimilate to the host country's temporal rhythm, as well as their perception of being in control of their lives. The analysis of time use showed two groups of respondents who invested a lot of time in structured activities (employment, education) and one group of those who did not. Respondents who mostly invested time in structured activities were likely to have time perceptions characterised by either assimilation to the host country rhythm or by the attempt to navigate both home and host country rhythm at the same time, while enjoying the freedom of engagement in activities that would not be available in the home country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Tobacco smoking represents a major cause for preventable death and morbidity. Results from non‐randomized studies suggest that smoking cessation therapy in a residential setting might be a new viable way to facilitate smoking abstinence. We aimed to test the effects of residential multicomponent group therapy for smoking cessation compared with outpatient group therapy. Design: Prospective parallel‐group open‐label randomized superiority trial, with assessments at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Setting: Recruitment throughout Germany via media advertisements. Participants: Adult smokers (≥10 cigarettes/day) randomly assigned to residential (n = 157) or outpatient (n = 158) therapy. 51.8% female; mean age 53.2 years; mean years of smoking 34.4. Intervention and Comparator: Residential 9‐day smoking cessation group therapy comprising six daily therapy sessions and supportive interventions for cessation and daily structure embedded in the routines of a somatic rehabilitation center, compared with weekly outpatient smoking cessation group therapy (3–7 weeks) provided in routine care courses close to the participants' places of residence, both including at least 9 h of behavioral therapy. Measurements Co‐primary outcomes were self‐reported continuous 6‐ and 12‐month abstinence (hierarchically ordered). Primary analyses were conducted in the therapy‐uptake population including participants who started therapy with sensitivity analyses in the intention‐to‐treat population of all randomized participants. Findings Intervention uptake rates were 87.3% (n = 137) in the residential and 60.1% (n = 95) in the outpatient group. In the therapy‐uptake population, abstinence rates were 46.7% in the residential versus 26.3% in the outpatient group at 6 months (odds ratio [OR] = 2.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.39–4.33, P = 0.0019) and 39.4% versus 24.2% at 12 months (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.14–3.64, P = 0.017). Biochemically validated abstinence rates at 12 months were 33.1% in the residential versus 17.4% in the outpatient group (OR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.22–4.51, P = 0.011). In the intention‐to‐treat population, self‐reported and biochemically validated abstinence rates at 12 months were 34.4% in the residential versus 14.6% in the outpatient group (OR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.77–5.34, P < 0.0001) and 28.6% versus 10.3% (OR = 3.48, 95% CI = 1.85–6.52, P = 0.0001), respectively. Conclusions: Residential therapy exclusively for smoking cessation is feasible and effective and could be a beneficial new treatment for smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies have described higher incidences of concussion, with more severe symptoms and worse outcomes in female athletes compared with male athletes. Purpose: To compile current knowledge about sex-specific differences in incidence, biomechanics, biomarkers, imaging, and outcomes of concussion in athletes participating in contact sports to better understand which fields should be explored in more detail. Study Design: Scoping review; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: The PubMed database was searched for articles published between January 2000 and November 2020 using the Medical Subject Headings terms "craniocerebral trauma" and "brain concussion" combined with the contact sports "football,""soccer,""hockey," and "boxing." Eligibility criteria were based on the recommendations of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. It focused on sex-specific differences within 5 major topics: (1) epidemiology, (2) biomechanics, (3) biomarkers, (4) imaging, and (5) specific concussion outcome variables, including neurocognitive performance, injury severity, and behavioral and psychological symptoms. Results: A total of 22 studies were included. Eight studies investigated the incidence of concussion, with 4 of the 8 finding a significantly higher incidence rate for female versus male athletes. Six studies that focused on biomechanics found that female athletes received fewer impacts with lower magnitudes. One study addressed biomarkers, showing that S100 calcium-binding protein B and neuron-specific enolase were increased after a game in female athletes, and the level of increase was similar to the changes found in male athletes. Based on the 3 imaging studies, affected brain tissue was greatest in areas associated with tau pathology in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. One study showed a lower hypointensity burden index after a season of ice hockey for female athletes, while another study showed more regions with white matter alterations. Seven studies examined concussion outcomes, with 4 studies showing more severe neuropsychological deficits; in addition, female athletes reported more and worse symptoms than male athletes. Conclusion: The results of this review indicated that female athletes had a higher risk of sustaining a concussion, although they received fewer impacts with lower magnitudes than male athletes. Biomarkers were able to be used equally for both sexes. Female athletes also had a higher neuropsychological deficit and increasingly worse symptoms after a concussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tipulidae, commonly known as true crane flies, represent one of the most species-rich dipteran families, boasting approximately 4,500 known species globally. Their larvae serve as vital decomposers across diverse ecosystems, prompting their frequent and close observation in biomonitoring programs. However, traditional morphological identification methods are laborious and time-consuming, underscoring the need for a comprehensive DNA barcode reference library to speed up species determination. In this study, we present the outcomes of the German Barcode of Life initiative focused on Tipulidae. Our DNA barcode library comprises 824 high-quality cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) barcodes encompassing 76 crane fly species, counting for ca. 54% of the German tipulid fauna. Our results significantly increased the number of European tipulid species available in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) by 14%. Additionally, the number of barcodes from European tipulid specimens more than doubled, with an increase of 118%, bolstering the DNA resource for future identification inquiries. Employing diverse species delimitation algorithms — including the multi-rate Poisson tree processes model (mPTP), Barcode Index Number assignments (BIN), Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP), and the TaxCI R-script — we successfully match 76-86% of the morphologically identified species. Further validation through neighbor-joining tree topology analysis and comparison with 712 additional European tipulid barcodes yield a remarkable 89% success rate for the species identification of German tipulids based on COI barcodes. This comprehensive DNA barcode dataset not only enhances species identification accuracy but also serves as a pivotal resource for ecological and biomonitoring studies, fostering a deeper understanding of crane fly diversity and distribution across terrestrial landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To address the declining numbers of general practitioners (GPs) in rural areas and a lack of medical students pursuing a career in primary care, a general practice-based curriculum coupled with additional university admissions for students has been established at three universities in Hesse, Germany. This study aims to analyze potential topics which students striving to become a GP will benefit from. Teaching such topics will prepare them for their chosen career and working in rural areas. We aimed to explore the views of both specialists and GPs on chief topics and necessary skills in primary care. Methods: In our study we used semi-structured interviews with outpatient specialists and specialists in clinical practice and semi-structured group interviews with GPs in training. The topic guide addressed contents of the curriculum for medical students with an extracurricular focus (addressing additional topics) on primary care. Data analysis was carried out using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Results: GPs in training and specialists agreed on the importance of knowledge in the fields of medical history, physical examination, communication as well as common diseases in primary care. Essential competences mentioned were: inducing medical treatment, decision-making and triage, conducting structured conversations, having patient knowledge (hard skills) as well as an interest in continuous learning, empathy, personal commitment, listening and down-to-earthness (soft skills). Case reports, symptom-based learning, practical training, lessons with simulated patients and the integration of role models were regarded as useful teaching methods. Conclusions: General practice-based curriculums should not only focus on the transfer of knowledge. Equally important is the training of soft and hard skills to prepare future GPs for their work in primary care. Special teaching methods as well as practical training should be the heart of a newly established curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Securing the airway in the emergency department (ED) is a high-stakes procedure; however, the primary success and complication rate are largely unknown in Germany. The aim of this study was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected resuscitation room data for endotracheal intubation (ETI) regarding indications, performance and complications. Method: Between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2023 all ETIs conducted in the ED (Kliniken Maria Hilf, Moenchengladbach, Germany) were analyzed following approval by the ethics committee (EK 23-369). Primary intubations performed by the anesthesiology department were excluded. The core medical team of the ED underwent a six-week training program including a two-week anesthesia rotation prior to performing ETI in the ED. There were standard operating procedures (SOP) for both rapid sequence induction (RSI) and airway exchange with a placed laryngeal tube (LT) utilizing video laryngoscopy (C-Mac, Storz), rocuronium for relaxation and primary intubation with an elastic bougie. The primary success rate, overall success rate and intubation-related complications were analyzed. Additionally, the factor of consultant ED staff and residents was evaluated with respect to the primary success rate. Results: During the study period 499 patients were intubated by the core ED team and 28 patients underwent airway exchange from LT to ETI. Primary success could be achieved in 489/499 (98.0%) ETI and in 25/28 (89.3%) LT exchange patients. Surgically achieved securing of the airway was carried out in 5/527 (0.9%) patients in a cannot intubate situation and 11/527 (2.2%) patients suffered cardiac arrest minutes after the ETI. The overall first pass success rate of endotracheal tube placement was 514/527 (97.4%). The comparison of the primary success of consultants (168/175; 96.0%) vs. residents 320/325 (98.5%) yielded no significant differences (p = 0.08). Conclusion: In clinical acute and emergency medicine, a standardized approach utilizing video laryngoscopy and a bougie following a structured training concept, can achieve an above-average high primary success rate with simultaneous low severe complications in the high-risk collective of critically ill emergency patients in an intrahospital setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its very beginning in 2018, the Fridays for Future movement has been known for youth-led climate activism. This article examines the young activists' activities in Germany between 2019 and 2021. 13 problem-centred interviews were conducted with activists aged between 14 and 23, along with approximately 50 h of participant observation on strikes and meetings of local FFF groups. Based on this data, this article focuses on the young activists' perceptions, demands and practices with regard to individual responsibility taken on via an ecological lifestyle. Taking an ethnographic, praxeological perspective, interaction situations are discussed to examine how the young activists are made responsible for ecological transformation on an individual level, and how this relates to legitimate participation in the movement. The results comprise three types of practices: the embodiment of individual responsibility, coherence checks and the maintaining of ambivalence. Overall, the study finds that the climate activists create and are confronted with certain normative demands concerning their lifestyle. This phenomenon is expressed as a paradoxical ambivalence between dissociation from and affirmation of those demands. The analysis thus enables insights into movement-related lifestyle practices and uncovers contradictions resulting from the individualisation of responsibility that have received little attention so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of "teacher professionalism" is one of the most crucial ones in quality education research. It has a potential to generate results that could inform and hence enhance the practice in classrooms. Thus, research in this field needs reliable instruments to measure the professional knowledge of our teachers to be able to generate reliable results for our research problems. Not many instruments have been developed with regard to this topic. At the same time, an adequate validation of the instrument developed is often missing (Schilling & Hill, 2007). Hence, in a bigger project "ProwiN" (German acronym for professional knowledge of science teachers), test instruments for measuring science teachers' pedagogical, pedagogical content and content knowledge (PK, PCK, and CK) were developed for the subjects biology, chemistry and physics. The present study tested the validity of some of these items which were used to measure the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of biology teachers. These items focused on measuring teachers' professional knowledge by analyzing 1) teachers' "knowledge about student understanding" (or lack of understanding) of several topics in biology and 2) "knowledge about instructional strategies" like the use of models or experiments. The content validity of these instruments was examined by think-aloud interviews with American and German Biology teachers (N = 11). This study shows a high content validity for these items. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the scope for adapting the conceptual framework of these items to measure biology teachers' PCK in other countries.

This study investigated whether text-picture integration is facilitated when text and pictures are presented simultaneously instead of sequentially. Participants memorized general and specific sentences and pictures. It was expected that due to text-picture integration, participants should falsely recognize specific versions of the sentences and pictures even after having studied only their general versions before. Sentences and pictures were presented simultaneously or sequentially with the picture either preceding or following the corresponding sentence. Contrary to expectations, text-picture integration was only observed for picture recognition and was not influenced by temporal contiguity. Findings are explained by the use of simple materials that did not sufficiently tax working-memory capacity to allow for any benefit of a simultaneous text-picture presentation to occur.

Given the globalization of science education and the different cultures between China and Germany, we tried to compare and explain the differences on teacher questions and real life instances in biology lessons between the two countries from a culture-related perspective. 22 biology teachers from China and 21 biology teachers from Germany participated in this study. Each teacher was videotaped for one lesson on the unit blood and circulatory system. Before the teaching unit, students' prior knowledge was tested with a pretest. After the teaching unit, students' content knowledge was tested with a posttest. The aim of the knowledge tests here was for the better selection of the four samples for qualitative comparison in the two countries. The quantitative analysis showed that more lower-order teacher questions and more real life instances that were introduced after learning relevant concepts were in Chinese lessons than in German lessons. There were no significant differences in the frequency of higher-order questions or real life instances that were introduced before learning concepts. Qualitative analysis showed that both German teachers guided students to analyze the reasoning process of Landsteiner experiment, but nor Chinese teachers did that. The findings reflected the subtle influence of culture on classroom teaching. Relatively, Chinese biology teachers focused more on learning content and the application of the content in real life; German biology teachers emphasized more on invoking students' reasoning and divergent thinking.

Social approach and social avoidance goals (i.e., approach of positive and avoidance of negative outcomes in social situations) are important predictors of the feeling of being socially integrated or isolated. However, little is known about the development of these goals across adulthood. In a large diary study with N = 744 young (18-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years), and older adults (60-83 years), we tested the hypothesis that the adaptiveness of social goals changes across adulthood: Social approach goals were hypothesized to be adaptive during young adulthood when adult social relationships are to be established. In contrast, social avoidance goals were hypothesized to become more adaptive with age as people are increasingly motivated to avoid interpersonal tension. Our findings support these hypotheses: Social approach goals were positively and social avoidance goals negatively associated with younger but not with middle-aged and older adults' daily social well-being. These results were robust across different situations (positive, negative) and different types of relationships (close, peripheral). The study highlights the changing role of social approach and avoidance goals for daily social well-being across adulthood.

Migrant students tend to underperform in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and are less likely to pursue higher education in STEM when compared with their nonmigrant peers. Given the substantial increase in migration, this disparity has been a central concern in science education in many European countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an innovative science outreach program that brings together migrant students and STEM professionals with the same linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The program consists of one‐off workshops that follow an inquiry‐based approach and include hands‐on activities and science communication in the students' heritage language. Using surveys with adapted scales and open‐ended questions, we applied a randomized block design with waitlist control groups and repeated measures. Eighty‐three Portuguese‐speaking migrant students aged 6–17 years participated in the workshops in Germany and the United Kingdom. Results indicate that both the students and STEM professionals evaluated the program positively and that students who participated in the workshops tended to demonstrate an increase in their attainment value for science and an increase in their self‐concept of ability for the heritage language 4 weeks after the intervention when compared with students in the control condition. These effects were particularly pronounced for students with low prior motivation to study science or speak the heritage language. Our results thus show that it is possible to foster migrant students' attainment value for science and increase their self‐concept of ability regarding the heritage language through a brief science outreach intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The integration of ethnic minority youth can only be successful if they are motivated to establish and maintain social relationships in important institutions such as school. At the same time, worries about negative stereotypes about one's ethnic group can undermine ethnic minority students' motivation to approach others. In the present study, we tested whether social identity threat predicts ethnic minority adolescents' social approach motivation via reduced sense of belonging. We also examined whether multiple social identities (i.e., high endorsement of ethnic and national idenitiy) buffer against the negative effects of social identity threat. In a sample of 426 ethnic minority students from 36 9th -grade classes in Germany, social identity threat was indirectly related to social approach motivation via reduced sense of belonging to the school and class. The interplay of students' ethnic and national identity moderated the relationship of social identity threat and sense of belonging. The relationship was particularly negative for students who endorsed either ethnic or national identity. However, it was less negative for students with integrated multiple social identities and non-significant for students who identified neither with the ethnic nor the national group. Results generalized for social approach motivation towards ethnic majority and minority classmates. These patterns were only found for social approach motivation in face-to-face contact situations, but not in online situations. We discuss these findings in light of the literature on social identity threat and multiple social identities. Practical implications include measures to foster students' sense of belonging and to reduce social identity threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]