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Critical thinking is internationally recognized as an important aspect of school education. Particularly in the United States, Scandinavian, and Asian countries, critical thinking is firmly anchored in school curricula. In this context, critical thinking is often aligned with critical thinking skills, which can be taught in structured programs and are comparable to strategies for self-regulated learning. Unlike in the United States, in German-speaking countries, critical thinking is a buzzword in pedagogical debates and is not firmly embedded in instructional contexts. There are desiderata for the entire educational system (theoretical, empirical, and school-practical). In the context of gifted education, development projects place a particular focus on the possibilities of design and investigation. Two projects will be presented, as well as exemplary implementation possibilities relevant to schools' diagnostic and didactic processes. The projects will be related to each other, and research perspectives are given.

Energy is a central concept across the sciences and an important goal of science education is to support all students so that they develop a full understanding of the energy concept. However, given the abstract and complex nature of the energy concept, only a few students develop an understanding so that they can use energy ideas to make sense of phenomena. Research into energy learning progressions aims at developing models of learning about energy to guide instruction so that students can be best supported in developing competence and has provided a rich model of how students' understanding of energy develops over time. Being largely based on cross-section data, however, the extent to which this model can guide instruction is limited, especially concerning the continued learning of students about energy. To address this gap - the limited evidence regarding what supports students' continued learning about energy - it was investigated how holding non-normative ideas and the integratedness of students' energy knowledge affect students' continued learning about energy. Drawing on data from a 4-year longitudinal study covering Grades 6-9 on students' learning about energy, diagnostic classification models were used to characterize students' non-normative idea profiles and the integratedness of their knowledge and then related both to their continued learning. The results suggest no detrimental effects of holding non-normative ideas and strong positive effects of holding integrated knowledge for students' continued learning about energy. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

Learning Analytics are an academic field with promising usage scenarios for many educational domains. At the same time, learning analytics come with threats such as the amplification of historically grown inequalities. A range of general guidelines for more equity-focused learning analytics have been proposed but fail to provide sufficiently clear guidance for practitioners. With this paper, we attempt to address this theory-practice gap through domain-specific (physics education) refinement of the general guidelines We propose a process as a starting point for this domain-specific refinement that can be applied to other domains as well. Our point of departure is a domain-specific analysis of historically grown inequalities in order to identify the most relevant diversity categories and evaluation criteria. Through two focal points for normative decision-making, namely equity and bias, we analyze two edge cases and highlight where domain-specific refinement of general guidance is necessary. Our synthesis reveals a necessity to work towards domain-specific standards and regulations for bias analyses and to develop counter-measures against (intersectional) discrimination. Ultimately, this should lead to a stronger equity-focused practice in future.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate work-related adaptive performance from a longitudinal process perspective. This paper clustered specific behavioral patterns following the introduction of a change and related them to retentivity as an individual cognitive ability. In addition, this paper investigated whether the occurrence of adaptation errors varied depending on the type of change content. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 35 participants collected in the simulated manufacturing environment of a Research and Application Center Industry 4.0 (RACI) were analyzed. The participants were required to learn and train a manufacturing process in the RACI and through an online training program. At a second measurement point in the RACI, specific manufacturing steps were subject to change and participants had to adapt their task execution. Adaptive performance was evaluated by counting the adaptation errors. Findings: The participants showed one of the following behavioral patterns--(1) no adaptation errors, (2) few adaptation errors, (3) repeated adaptation errors regarding the same actions, or (4) many adaptation errors distributed over many different actions. The latter ones had a very low retentivity compared to the other groups. Most of the adaptation errors were made when new actions were added to the manufacturing process. Originality/value: Our study adds empirical research on adaptive performance and its underlying processes. It contributes to a detailed understanding of different behaviors in change situations and derives implications for organizational change management.

People living alone are often depicted as prone to social isolation and poor well-being. Since previous research largely focused on comparisons between the living arrangements of older adults, evidence on differences within middle-aged adults living alone remains sparse. The present study used a person-centered approach to allow for a comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity of living alone in midlife. Middle-aged adults (N = 389; aged 35-60 years) reported on their personal networks, personality, and well-being and completed diaries on daily network interactions. Using latent class analysis, we constructed a network typology and examined differences in social motives, well-being, daily interaction quantity, and daily relationship quality. We found four structural network types: Individuals with diverse networks (highest in size, contact, proximity, and heterogeneity) felt less lonely than individuals with restricted (lowest in size, contact, proximity, and heterogeneity) or loose-knit networks (low in contact). Individuals with loose-knit networks reported poorer well-being than those in diverse or partner-focused networks (all partnered). We found little support for differences in social motives. All network types differed in daily interaction quantity but did not differ in daily relationship quality. The study highlights the heterogeneity of personal networks in middle-aged adults living alone. Possible implications for the social embeddedness and psychological adaptation of people living alone in midlife are discussed.

In turbulent environments, schools have to adapt to constantly changing conditions. According to ambidexterity theory, whether they are successful in this primarily depends on their leaders and how they manage the tension between the use of current knowledge (exploitation) and the search for new knowledge (exploration). Through unique top-down and bottom-up pathways, they thus influence the innovation outcome of a school. However, it is so far unclear whether these assumptions are correct. Using data from a panel of principals who are representative of Germany and were surveyed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we therefore investigate if and how school leaders adapted to the turbulent environment caused by the pandemic and evaluate the extent to which this had an impact on their schools' innovations in teaching and instruction. The results demonstrate that principals' exploration activities increased markedly during the pandemic, while their exploitation activities decreased noticeably. Further, a focus on the use and refinement of existing knowledge in comparatively predictable (pre-COVID-19) environments harmed principals' readiness to explore new knowledge in increasingly uncertain environments. Nevertheless, exploitation had positive consequences for the innovativeness of schools, and exploration goes along with more radical innovations in teaching and instruction. Our research suggests that schools that innovatively addressed the COVID-19 pandemic had school leaders who were able to quickly shift between the two modes of exploitation and exploration. A capacity to transition seamlessly between these modes of thinking and working thus appears to be vital for the longevity of schools.

Background: Formative assessments are needed to enable monitoring how student knowledge develops throughout a unit. Constructed response items which require learners to formulate their own free-text responses are well suited for testing their active knowledge. However, assessing such constructed responses in an automated fashion is a complex task and requires the application of natural language processing methodology. In this article, we implement and evaluate multiple machine learning models for coding energy knowledge in free-text responses of German K-12 students to items in formative science assessments which were conducted during synchronous online learning sessions. Dataset: The dataset we collected for this purpose consists of German constructed responses from 38 different items dealing with aspects of energy such as manifestation and transformation. The units and items were implemented with the help of project-based pedagogy and evidence-centered design, and the responses were coded for seven core ideas concerning the manifestation and transformation of energy. The data was collected from students in seventh, eighth and ninth grade. Methodology: We train various transformer- and feature-based models and compare their ability to recognize the respective ideas in students' writing. Moreover, as domain knowledge and its development can be formally modeled through knowledge networks, we evaluate how well the detection of the ideas within responses translated into accurate co-occurrence-based knowledge networks. Finally, in terms of the descriptive accuracy of our models, we inspect what features played a role for which prediction outcome and if the models pick up on undesired shortcuts. In addition to this, we analyze how much the models match human coders in what evidence within responses they consider important for their coding decisions. Results: A model based on a modified GBERT-large can achieve the overall most promising results, although descriptive accuracy varies much more than predictive accuracy for the different ideas assessed. For reasons of comparability, we also evaluate the same machine learning architecture using the SciEntsBank 3-Way benchmark with an English RoBERTa-large model, where it achieves state-of-the-art results in two out of three evaluation categories.

In light of the replication crisis in psychology, null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and "p"-values have been heavily criticized and various alternatives have been proposed, ranging from slight modifications of the current paradigm to banning "p"-values from journals. Since the physics education research community often relies on quantitative statistical approaches, the challenges the replication crisis poses to these approaches need to be considered. "p"-values suffer primarily from the fact that they carry little information by themselves and lend themselves to misinterpretations. As one alternative, Bayesian approaches have become increasingly popular as the posterior distributions they provide carry more relevant information than "p"-values. In this paper, we discuss practical issues related to "p-values" with respect to interpreting and communicating results and how these issues can be addressed using a Bayesian approach. Drawing on a science education data set, we demonstrate how Bayesian data analysis methods go beyond p-values and can help to make more valid conclusions and to communicate them more easily in a manner that lends itself to less misinterpretations.

Purpose: Following the current rise of Antisemitism globally and in Germany, this paper examines the current situation regarding Antisemitism in teacher education. The paper aims to make a contribution for the demand of an implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher education. Approach: Combining experience from university teacher training and the field of extracurricular political education we appoint perspectives for a sustainable implementation of education critical of Antisemitism in teacher training via best practice examples. We evaluate the potentials of field trips, international study groups and networks between university and agents located in civil society. Findings: The revised curricula for Social Sciences in the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia (and formerly Berlin) name current Antisemitism for the first time, indicating an urgent need for professionalization in Social Science teacher education where the facets of Antisemitism only play a minor role. Hence, expertise and existing resources must be stabilized, a structural implementation and funding is needed in order to target the challenging topic of Antisemitism. Research limitations/implications: This paper functions as a preliminary research in order to examine the given shape of Social Science teacher education and Antisemitism in Germany. A comprehensive, structured analyses of all teacher training facilities as well as extracurricular agents working in the field of education critical of Antisemitism could be useful in order to pool expertise. Nonetheless this paper encourages local collaborations between university and civil society actors.

The growing number of children in primary schools in Germany who have German as their second language (L2) has raised questions about the fairness of performance assessment. Fair tests are a prerequisite for distinguishing between L2 learning delay and a specific learning disability. We evaluated five commonly used reading and spelling tests for measurement invariance (MI) as a function of first language (German vs. other). Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses revealed strict MI for the Weingarten Basic Vocabulary Spelling Tests (WRTs) 3+ and 4+ and the Salzburger Reading (SLT) and Spelling (SRT) Tests, suggesting these instruments are suitable for assessing reading and spelling skills regardless of first language. The MI for A Reading Comprehension Test for First to Seventh Graders -- 2nd Edition (ELFE II) was partly strict with unequal intercepts for the text subscale. We discuss the implications of this finding for assessing reading performance of children with L2.

Purpose: In organisational and innovation research, the term "open innovation" refers to the inflow and outflow of knowledge to and from organisations--with open innovation theory suggesting active exchanges of knowledge with external actors leads to the development of exploitable new ideas. In the field of education, however, the exchange of knowledge with external parties represents a paradigm shift. In response, this article presents findings from research design to explore the nature and composition of school innovation networks, and the effects of such these networks on knowledge mobilisation. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on data from a representative random sample of 411 German school leaders. Respondents were asked to detail their engagement in open and closed innovation activity and their school's external collaborations during the last 12 months. A latent class distal outcome model was developed to examine whether different types of collaboration associate with different knowledge mobilisation processes. Findings: The study findings suggest that schools in Germany mainly use internal knowledge for innovation, with external knowledge exchange taking place on a very limited basis. Knowledge mobilisation varies depending on the innovation network. The authors use the findings to indicate new insights for how schools can further innovate learning and teaching in future. Originality/value: Although there is increasing discussion on Professional Learning Networks in schools, the discourse on knowledge mobilisation within educational networks is limited, making concept of open innovation so far completely absent from discourses on school improvement. This paper initiates the population of this new research space.

Science education research has repeatedly revealed students' problems with understanding the energy concept, in particular, their understanding of potential energy. Newer research suggests that teaching students fields as a means to store potential energy may promote a more consistent understanding of the energy concept. Yet, it is presently unknown if the helpfulness of fields is limited to particular manifestations of potential energy or if the conceptualization of potential energy as energy stored in fields may constitute a coherent approach that supports students' continued learning on energy. To address this issue, we carried out a quasi-experimental pre-post-test study with N = 64 students from grade 6, with students being assigned to one of two conditions (fields-based vs nonfields-based approach to energy instruction). We also compared students continued learning in a subsequent unit on electric energy. Our findings suggest that students in the fields approach not only outperformed students in the nonfields approach, they were, in particular, able to use their understanding of potential energy to make better sense of electric energy, a form of energy previously unknown to them. The results of our study imply that fields can help students develop a deeper understanding of energy, in particular potential energy, and support continued learning about energy; that is, the learning about additional forms of energy.

Assessment literacy is a crucial aspect of teachers' professional knowledge and relevant to fostering students' learning. Concerning experimentation, teachers have to be able to assess student achievement when students form hypotheses, design experiments, and analyze data. Therefore, teachers need to be familiar with criteria for experimentation as well as student conceptions of experimentation. The present study modeled and measured 495 German pre-service teachers' knowledge of what to assess regarding experimentation competences in biology. We applied an open-answer format for the measurement instrument. For modeling we used item response theory (IRT). We argue that "knowledge of what to assess" regarding experimentation competences is a one-dimensional construct and we provide evidence for the validity of the measurement. Furthermore, we describe qualitative findings of pre-service teachers' "knowledge of what to assess," in particular difficulties concerning the assessment of student conceptions as well as the use of scientific terms in the assessments. We discuss the findings in terms of implications for science teacher education and further research perspectives.

Gender-fair language makes women and other genders, their interests, and their achievements more visible and is particularly relevant to grammatical gender languages such as German, in which most nouns and personal pronouns are assigned to a specific gender. The present study tested the often repeated critical claims that gender-fair language impairs the comprehensibility and aesthetic appeal of videos. In an experiment with N = 105 students, participants watched a video on self-determination theory, either with masculine-only forms or using the glottal stop, a form of spoken gender-fair language that inserts an abrupt and sustained closure of the vocal cords in the larynx between the masculine form or the stem and the feminine ending of words (e.g. in German "Leser?innen", [approximately]fe?male readers). Subsequently, participants completed a questionnaire regarding the video's comprehensibility. The results show no statistically significant impairment regarding the general subjective comprehensibility (partial [eta-squared] < 0.01), the ease of ascribing meaning to the words (partial [eta-squared] < 0.01), the ease of decoding the syntax of the sentences (partial [eta-squared] = 0.03), or the aesthetic appeal of the videos (partial [eta-squared] = 0.02). The critics' claims are therefore questioned.

Both organizational and management research suggest that schools and their leaders need to be ambidextrous to secure prosperity and long-term survival in dynamic environments characterized by competition and innovation. In this context, ambidexterity refers to the ability to simultaneously pursue exploitation and exploration and thus to deliver efficiency, control and incremental improvements while embracing flexibility, autonomy and discontinuous innovation. Using a unique, randomized and representative data set of N = 405 principals, we present findings on principals' exploitation and exploration. The results indicate: (a) that principals engage far more often in exploitative than in explorative activities; (b) that exploitative activities in schools are executed at the expense of explorative activities; and (c) that explorative and ambidextrous activities of principals are positively associated with the (perceived) competition between schools. The study brings a novel perspective to educational research and demonstrates that applying the concept of ambidexterity has the potential to further our understanding of effective educational leadership and management.

Modern science standards emphasize knowledge-in-use, i.e., connecting scientific practices with content. For knowledge to become usable in knowledge-in-use performances, students need well organized knowledge networks that allow them to activate and connect sets of relevant ideas across contexts, i.e. students need integrated knowledge. We conducted a longitudinal interview study with 30 students in a 7th grade energy unit and used network analysis to investigate students' integrated knowledge, i.e., their knowledge networks. Linking these results with results from knowledge-in-use assessments, we found a strong connection between integrated knowledge and knowledge-in-use about energy. Further, we found evidence that well-connected ideas around the idea of energy transfer were particularly helpful for using energy ideas in the knowledge-in-use assessments. We present network analysis as a valuable extension of existing approaches to investigating students' knowledge networks and the connection between them and knowledge-in-use.

The Bunker "Valentin" in Farge, a suburb of Bremen, is one of the biggest relics of armament projects in the Second World War. Although it was built by up to 10,000 forced laborers under brutal conditions leading to a death toll of up to 1,600, it was primarily remembered as a technological masterpiece. This article describes the history of the bunker and how its remembrance changed over time. It assesses the formation of competing narratives of war technology and forced labor and explores the meaning of the material remains of the Second World War for the culture of remembrance of German war crimes at and after the end of the age of eyewitnesses.

Previous findings on religious beliefs of teachers suggest a relation between individual religiosity and professional thinking and acting of teachers. Evidence beyond faith schools and teachers with Religious Education (RE) as a subject is scarce, suitable measuring instruments are also lacking. Therefore, this paper reports the development and validation of two scales assessing teachers' 'Beliefs regarding the appropriate role of religion in the school context' and 'Beliefs regarding the appropriate role of individual teachers' religiosity'. Data from N = 348 German teacher education students were analysed. We examined reliability and validity of both scales by employing correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, analysis of convergent and discriminant validity, measurement invariance analysis and structural equation modelling. For external validation, we examined the extent to which both scales are explained by the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) and RE as a subject studied. Our analyses support the reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of both scales. Moreover, both scales are substantially explained by the CRS while none of them is explained by RE as subject. Thus, the piloted scales may be applied in future studies investigating the role of religiosity regarding the professional thinking and acting of teachers.

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often co-occur and are associated with specific learning difficulties. Robust prevalence estimations do not yet exist. We studied how symptoms of DCD and/or ADHD are related to difficulties in reading, writing, and mathematics. Using the data from a large online study with a sample of 3,170 3rd and 4th grade children in Germany, including parent-reported DCD- and ADHD symptoms, we followed two approaches. In the categorical approach, we divided the children into groups with and without DCD and/or ADHD on the basis of cut-offs. The results showed that children without DCD/ADHD have fewer difficulties in all learning domains. Children with only DCD showed less learning difficulties than children with ADHD and the comorbid group. In the continuous approach, we performed a latent profile analysis on the basis of symptoms of fine and gross motor problems, inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and intelligence. This yielded four disability profiles of children with (1) no DCD- or ADHD-symptoms, (2) clinical ADHD-scores and above-average DCD, (3) above-average DCD and inattention, and (4) above-average ADHD. Profiles 2 and 3 appeared related to the lowest learning achievement. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Loneliness describes a perceived deficiency in quantitative or qualitative aspects of individuals' social relationships. Whereas the health-related consequences of loneliness are well-documented, surprisingly little is known about its interpersonal features and its consequences for relationship outcomes. In the present study, we investigated the association between loneliness and relationship experiences in partner relationships with a sample of 937 individuals from 480 mixed-sex couples. By employing actor-partner interdependence models and dyadic cross-lagged moderated multilevel models, we found higher loneliness to be robustly related to (a) lower relationship satisfaction for both oneself and the partner, (b) more self-reported, but not partner-reported conflicts, (c) lower average levels of one's own, but not the partner's closeness, and (d) less own self-disclosure. In contrast, loneliness was not associated with (a) sexual contact frequency, (b) average levels of physical affection, or (c) the daily dynamics between closeness and self-disclosure/physical affection. Thus, the results of the present study indicated that loneliness is primarily associated with the perception of the partner relationship but not its rather objective features or daily dynamics.

We examined the contribution of rapid automatized naming (RAN) components (articulation time, pause time, and pause time consistency) to reading fluency, reading comprehension, and spelling in a sample of 257 German children (139 boys, 118 girls; M[subscript age] = 5.60 years, SD = 0.31) followed from kindergarten to Grade 1. In kindergarten, children were assessed on measures of RAN (colors and objects), phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, phonological short-term memory, and paired-associate learning. Reading fluency, reading comprehension, and spelling were assessed at the end of Grade 1. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that pause time and pause time consistency continued to predict reading fluency, but not reading comprehension or spelling, after controlling for the effects of the other cognitive skills assessed in kindergarten. Articulation time did not add to the prediction of any literacy skills. These findings support previous research suggesting that, during the early phases of learning to read, pause time holds the key in the relation between RAN and reading fluency.

Fostering peer interaction and shared learning is an important aim of inclusive instruction. However, it has not been established whether it is possible to offer explicit and intensive support for low achievers in inclusive settings. This longitudinal study examined whether a structured program that includes cooperative learning fosters computational competence and flexible strategy use by low achievers in mathematics in inclusive classrooms. 126 persistent counters from 35 inclusive classrooms in grade 2 participated in a structured intervention lasting ten weeks, under three conditions: Cooperative learning (CL, students working in pairs during seatwork), individual learning (IND, students working individually during seatwork) and a control group (CG) with "business as usual." Even when there was substantial class-specific differential development during group-based interventions, between pre- and posttest, results showed no statistically significant main effects for either of the two intervention conditions relative to the control group. However, compared to the CG-group, the CL intervention showed a higher slope for pretest performance, indicating that students with a higher level of computation competence benefited relatively more from the CL intervention than students with similar preconditions in the CG. The results provide evidence that multiple approaches are needed; approaches which combine well-structured programs stimulating cooperative learning and shared learning situations with intensive and individualized measures are of benefit for students with very low mathematical competence.

Accidents caused by human errors illustrate the fragility of cognitive processing and its coordination by executive functions against stress. To better understand how core executive functions change over time, influence each other, and are affected by chronic stress exposure, a prospective cohort study was conducted from 2016 to 2019. Five hundred sixteen German adults aged 25-55 years (mean age/education age: 38.0/11.3 years, 67% females, 94% occupied, 20% smokers) completed at least one internet-based biannual assessment of response inhibition, updating, and set shifting using a Go/NoGo, spatial 2-Back, and Number-Letter task, respectively. Chronic stress exposure was indicated by self-reports on the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and hair cortisol concentrations (HCC). Statistical analyses were performed by multivariatestochastic differential equation modeling. All indicators of executive functions (task-specific RTs in target trials or their contrast to nontarget trials) and chronic stress showed intraindividual stability over time (12% to 63% of their variance was attributable to trait influences). With respect to lagged mutual associations, faster Go/NoGo target RTs predicted faster Number-Letter target RTs later in time, while faster Number-Letter target RTs predicted higher HCC later in time (both with maximum effect sizes of d [approximately equal to] 0.1 standard deviations). However, PSS was not predictive of later HCC and vice versa. None of the chronic stress indicators significantly predicted indicators of executive functions at subsequent time points. These findings suggest that set shifting is capable of modulating the body's physiological response to chronic stress exposure, whereas executive functions appear comparably robust against chronic stress exposure.

It is widely accepted that general intelligence and phonological awareness contribute to children's acquisition of reading and spelling skills. A further candidate in this regard is orthographic knowledge (i.e., the knowledge about permissible letter patterns). It consists of two components, word-specific (i.e., the knowledge of the spelling of specific words) and general orthographic knowledge (i.e., the knowledge about legal letter patterns of a writing system). Among German students, previous studies have shown that word-specific orthographic knowledge contributes to both reading and spelling. The results regarding general orthographic knowledge and its contribution to reading and spelling are inconsistent. The major goal of the present study was to determine the incremental predictive value of orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling skills among German elementary-school children (N = 66), over and above the contribution of general intelligence and phonological awareness. The second goal was to examine whether there is a difference between the two subtypes of orthographic knowledge in the amount of their respective contribution to reading and spelling performance. The results show that word-specific as well as general orthographic knowledge contribute to both reading and spelling performance, over and above intelligence and phonological awareness. Furthermore, it reveals that both word-specific and general orthographic knowledge explain more variance of spelling compared to reading. Possible explanations for these results, limitations, and implications of the study are being discussed.

Deficits in phonological information processing in upper elementary students with specific learning disabilities in reading or spelling may increase, decrease, or remain stable over time. The authors examined the development of phonological processing longitudinally in 209 students (109 with learning disabilities and 100 typically achieving; n = 127 boys) in Germany, from grade 3 to grade 5 (ages 8-11; mean age at recruitment = 8 years 6.78 months, SD = 5.39 months). Latent change score models revealed that the development of rapid automatized naming was best described as a decreasing deficit, whereas a persistent deficit in phonological awareness was observed. Differences between students with and without learning disabilities regarding the phonological loop increased over time. Further, there were no developmental differences as a function of reading versus spelling deficits. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Studies have shown that the Requirement of Controversy defined in the German Beutelsbach Consensus is repeatedly violated in the practice of teaching Civic Education. However, little is known about the impact that different teaching settings have on the quality of controversy in the classroom. In this article, two scenes of classroom discussions that deal with current topics are analysed and compared by using reconstructive research methods: the "Numbers of the Day" ["Zahlen des Tages"] as a teacher-centred classroom discussion and the "Weekly Newsreel" ["Wochenschau"] as a student-led classroom discussion. We could reconstruct an active prevention of controversy in the "Numbers of the Day". In contrary, the discussion in the "Weekly Newsreel" is developing in a modus of disagreement. By analysing the discussion with the documentary method, we show that this controversy is based on homogeneous (and so noncontroversial) shared orientations among the students. This leads to the result that the foreground of a discussion should be distinguished from its background of milieu-based orientations. This outcome raises new questions regarding controversy in Civic Education classrooms.

This study investigated factors influencing teachers' intention and willingness to teach about cancer in the context of the theory of planned behaviour. Because teaching about cancer is mandatory in Germany, we compared n=355 teachers' intention to teach about cancer under mandatory conditions and their willingness to teach about cancer if they had free choice. Teachers signalled strong intention and a strong willingness to teach about cancer. Teachers did not perceive teaching about cancer to be a burden and strongly considered it to be necessary. Structural equation modelling showed that perceived autonomy was the only significant predictor of teachers' intention, whereas attitude towards the perceived necessity to teach about cancer, attitude towards the perceived burden of teaching about cancer and social norm were significant predictors of willingness. We attributed these differences to the observation of a ceiling effect for intention but not for willingness. There were systematic differences among the variables predicting teachers' intention and willingness depending on whether the teachers had personal experience with cancer. Indirect measures yielded insights into which teacher beliefs affected the direct measures. We discuss implications for professional development, such as reducing the burden of teaching about cancer by adequately addressing emotionally-charged classroom situations.

This paper reports on findings from an analysis of trait-formation tasks in the genetic sections of high school biology textbooks. Drawing on studies exploring a range of problems in students' explanations of trait formation, we investigated trait-formation tasks and analysed their potential for knowledge integration and multi-level mechanistic reasoning. Among the 216 trait-formation tasks, 39 tasks (18%) were classified as integrative tasks addressing the relationships between genes, proteins and traits. The remaining 177 tasks (82%) were non-integrative tasks addressing selected aspects of the relationship between genes and proteins alone, respectively the relationship between proteins and traits alone. Among the non-integrative tasks, 64% addressed the molecular level alone and thus did not encourage students to address the higher levels of biological organisation. 13% of the non-integrative tasks (n = 23) and 5% of the integrative tasks (n = 2) addressed the role of the environment in trait formation. The findings are related to three main arguments from the genetics literature, concerning knowledge integration and multi-level mechanistic reasoning. As educational implications, we recommend that biology educators make use of integrative tasks to foster students' understanding of trait formation from an integrated model connecting genes, proteins, environmental factors and traits to overcome gene-centred and gene-deterministic beliefs.

Student interest in plants is lacking. Therefore, we investigated potential drivers of situational interest in cultivated plants and interactions between different dimensions of interest, i.e. topic, context and learning activity. A total of 462 high school students (14-17 years of age) rated two sets of questionnaire items combining eight plants (representing topics) either with different contexts or with different activities. We used Rasch analyses and multivariate analyses of variance to investigate which dimension of interest drove the students' interest. Contexts were the dominant dimension of plant-context combinations. Students were most interested in plants in reference to the contexts 'risks and the assessment of risks' and 'impacts on the environment'. Plants were the dominant dimension of plant-activity combinations. Students were most interested in activities in reference to cannabis (psychoactive plant), cocoa (stimulant plant) and arnica (medicinal plant). For these three plants, the least interesting activity ('working with scientific texts') was more interesting than the most interesting activity ('completing a computer simulation') for the other five plants. Plants, thus, moderated the general level of interest students expressed in plant-activity combinations. We discuss the findings in terms of the choices educators can make for contextualizing plants and for selecting plants for classroom activities.

Students often have misconceptions about terrestrial carbon flows and there is a lack of coherence in students' explanations regarding the different levels of biological organisation at which these processes occur. In this study, problem-based teaching materials on the topic of terrestrial carbon flows were developed and tested with 15 students 18-19 years old (grade 12) using a pre/post-test design. Students focused on specific carbon flows in an ecosystem at the macro level (e.g. CO[subscript 2] fixation and heterotrophic respiration) including specific related concepts at the micro level (e.g. photosynthesis and cellular respiration). The findings indicate that the teaching materials improved the students' understanding of terrestrial carbon flows and their ability to reason across the different levels of biological organisation. On the basis of these findings, implications for teaching terrestrial carbon flows in biological education are discussed.

There is a large base of empirical evidence that points to the importance of school leadership with regard to functional schools and student achievement. Based on this importance, a change of principal can be a critical event for a school. This study seeks to answer the question if principal turnover is associated with a change in a school's teaching quality and the role of moderators and interactions in this regard. Based upon data from n = 10,036 high-stakes classroom observations gathered cross-sectionally within n = 101 primary schools at 2 time points, the results show that teaching quality seems to be buffered from direct effects of principal turnover to some extent. However, further analyses demonstrate that the change in principal leadership might have negative effects on teaching quality in low-socioeconomic-status schools when new principals try to apply strong instructional leadership.

Purpose: Over the past years "leadership for learning" (LFL) has become popular among educational scholars. LFL refers to the idea that effective leaders demonstrate a contextually contingent mix of instructional, transformational, and shared leadership practices that may have differential effects at various organizational levels. These assumptions have rarely been investigated within a coherent empirical design. We examine the shared and differential effects of LFL on teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which are relevant antecedents for learning, improvement, and change on all levels of a school. Method: Drawing on survey data (n[subscript teachers] = 3,746, n[subscript schools] = 126) from Germany and on well-established instruments like the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire or Teaching and Learning International Survey, multilevel associations of LFL and teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment were explored. This was done by applying doubly latent structural equation models. Findings: Our results indicate that (1) it is statistically necessary to model perceived leadership practices as a multilevel construct, (2) shared leadership is a strong predictor of individual and shared job satisfaction and organizational commitment of teachers whereas (3) individual consideration only shows significant associations on the individual level (4) that LFL is contextually sensitive. Implications for Research and Practice: Findings make a strong case for studying LFL within a multilevel framework and also for applying complex study and analytical designs, which should take the complexity of the theoretical assumptions into consideration all the way along from questionnaire design, through the process of data collection up to the point of data analysis.

The association between academic self-concept and achievement is assumed to be reciprocal. Typically, the association is analyzed by variants of the classical cross-lagged panel model. Results with more recently developed methodological approaches, for example, the random intercept cross-lagged panel model, its continuous-time implementation, and the latent change score model, are not available so far. The present study aimed to test the association between reading self-concept and reading achievement with different models to evaluate whether positive cross-lagged effects can be demonstrated with the alternative models. Drawing on a sample of 2,014 elementary students from Grade 1 to Grade 4, results of alternative models yielded noticeable differences. Support for reciprocal effects between reading self-concept and reading achievement was found using the classical and the full-forward cross-lagged panel models. No such effects were found in the other models. Thus, the reciprocal effect model can be called into question for elementary schoolchildren. The results are discussed with regard to the theoretical assumptions and appropriate methodological approaches.

In Germany, science education standards for students at the end of grade nine have been in existance since 2005. Some of these standards are dedicated to scientific inquiry (e.g. experimentation). They describe which abilities learners are expected to possess at the end of grade nine. In the USA, several documents describe standards for "Teaching Inquiry" (NGSS 2013, NRC 1996/2000/2007, AAAS 1989). Presently, comparable teaching standards for science teachers are mostly lacking in Germany. Further, there are hardly any instruments that allow for the assessment of specific competences pertaining to teaching experimental lessons and assessing student competences in experimentation. Therefore, the aim of the project described in this paper is to develop assessment instruments for biology teachers who are being trained at universities as well as in in-service teacher training programs with respect to i) analyzing experimental biology lessons, ii) planning experimental biology lessons, and iii) assessing student achievements in experimental biology lessons. The article gives insights into ongoing research with respect to assessing the quality of biology teacher education. Finally, the developed measurement instruments should allow for assessing the learning preconditions of future biology teachers. The instruments offer first starting points for the development of sensitive measures for longitudinal studies to investigate university teacher education and teacher traineeship in the subject of biology.

Individuals feel lonely when they perceive a discrepancy between their desired and their actually experienced quantity and quality of social relationships. Prior research has demonstrated the importance of loneliness for various health-related aspects. In the present article, we extend the existing literature on loneliness by investigating its role for predicting personality traits and their development from late adolescence to early midlife. Using data from a representative German sample (N = 12,402) sampling individuals from three different birth cohorts, we found loneliness to predict the levels of all Big Five traits except openness five years later. The effects of loneliness on the development of neuroticism and extraversion reached statistical significance but were only marginal in terms of effect size. Furthermore, we found that a self-regulatory focus geared to the prevention of negative events mediated the effects of loneliness on later levels of the Big Five.

This study investigates students' conceptions of the carbon cycle with regard to the components they believe to be relevant to the carbon cycle, how they interrelate these components, the ways in which they trace carbon atoms, and the different levels of biological organisation they consider when doing so. A total of 142 students aged 13-16 years (grades 8-10) participated in the study. A total of 130 students completed the diagnostic task, and an additional 12 students completed both the diagnostic task and were interviewed. The primary results show that the students identified few components of the carbon cycle, tended to trace carbon atoms exclusively at the level of the organism, and had difficulties identifying organic carbon compounds, especially during processes in which carbon compounds are transformed. Considering the main educational implications, we recommend using an instructional strategy that traces carbon atoms across the different levels of biological organisation whilst connecting fragmented knowledge by integrating knowledge from physiology, biochemistry and ecology when teaching the carbon cycle.

The large number of newly arrived people from other countries, particularly children and youth, represents a major challenge for schools and school systems in the EU-28. The present study, conducted in Germany, investigated this situation using the critical incident technique. Critical incidents were collected in group discussions with teachers and principals about challenging events in the context of growing migration. The incidents, including their perceived causes and consequences, were categorised using qualitative content analysis. Events that were frequently present in teachers' everyday work included various types of conflicts concerning pupils, difficult cooperation between teachers and parents and parents banning their children from taking part in particular school activities. The identified causes for such events were diverse, including misunderstandings, diverging cultural and religious concepts, language barriers, structural constraints and some pupils' traumatic experiences influencing the school community. The described incidents had far-reaching consequences, especially for parent-school cooperation and for pupils' integration in the classroom community and academic and personal development. The final part of this article discusses and illustrates how the results can contribute to developing ideas and measures to deal with the identified challenges.

Children's development is fostered by both high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings and high quality home learning environments. As we know little about the interrelations between these two environments, we examine whether the child's attendance in a high quality ECEC arrangement relates to the quality of her home learning environment. Using rich NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development data, we show that ECEC quality is associated with the home learning environment, even after taking into account the lagged dependent variable and a rich set of control variables.

This study addresses preschool teachers' self-efficacy beliefs in assessment and promotion of children's early language, social-emotional, and mathematical skills. The aim of the study was to find out to what extent preschool teachers believe to be able to assess and promote those skills, respectively. In a sample of 368 German preschool teachers, average scores in all scales were quite homogenously high. However, average scores of self-efficacy beliefs between the domains differed, with self-efficacy beliefs regarding language skills being the strongest. Self-efficacy beliefs regarding assessment were stronger than in promotion in the social-emotional and the mathematical domain, but not in language. Yet, confirmatory factor analyses indicate that self-efficacy beliefs regarding assessment were highly correlated with self-efficacy beliefs regarding promotion of skills in all three domains. Possible explanations for these results and ideas for further research are discussed.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between high school students' understanding of carbon compounds, including their transformations, and their ability to trace matter in the carbon cycle. The rationale of this study is based on the hypothesis that the students' lack of knowledge about carbon compounds and their transformations limits the students' ability to trace carbon in the carbon cycle. A total of 16 students aged 14-16 years (grade 9) from two different secondary schools were interviewed about carbon compounds, and they were asked to trace matter in the carbon cycle in response to a written diagnostic task. We argue that students' lack of knowledge about carbon compounds and their transformations is responsible for their construction of the carbon cycle as either a gas-gas or solid-solid cycle. Educational implications are discussed.

The present study compares career choice motives of future early childhood educators studying for a tertiary qualification. Suitable analyses of this kind are still missing. Diverging training systems, traditions and professional images in the different countries are related to certain motives. These motives are categorised according to a theory that is used as a theoretical framework. The study takes into account 468 student teachers from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Romania and is methodologically based on variance analyses. Overall, intrinsic motives were found to be of greater significance. This applies equally to all countries. Furthermore, addressee-related motives are more pronounced among Swiss and German prospective early childhood educators than among those from Sweden or Romania. On the contrary, extrinsic motives have a stronger presence among Romanian student teachers. Income and prestige, as the only exceptions, are important for students from Sweden and Switzerland. The results are discussed referring to country-specific working conditions and the current status of professionalisation processes existing in problem areas.

Critical thinking is internationally recognized as an important aspect of school education. Particularly in the United States, Scandinavian, and Asian countries, critical thinking is firmly anchored in school curricula. In this context, critical thinking is often aligned with critical thinking skills, which can be taught in structured programs and are comparable to strategies for self-regulated learning. Unlike in the United States, in German-speaking countries, critical thinking is a buzzword in pedagogical debates and is not firmly embedded in instructional contexts. There are desiderata for the entire educational system (theoretical, empirical, and school-practical). In the context of gifted education, development projects place a particular focus on the possibilities of design and investigation. Two projects will be presented, as well as exemplary implementation possibilities relevant to schools' diagnostic and didactic processes. The projects will be related to each other, and research perspectives are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eight six-year old German children with development disabilities regarding such number competencies as have been demonstrated to be among the most relevant precursor skills for the acquisition of elementary mathematics received intensive training with the program "Mengen, zählen, Zahlen" ["quantities, counting, numbers"] (MZZ, Krajewski, Nieding, & Schneider, 2007). In 24 30-minute training sessions administered across an interval of eight weeks, four children received the full program. Using a pretest-posttest control group design, the effectiveness of the training was demonstrated with a large effect size (d = 4.6). In addition, a shortened training of the waiting control group (n = 4) after finishing the principal evaluation replicated the appropriateness of the MZZ program (d = 2.5) as a means of remediating early number competence deficiencies at the onset of formal schooling.

In the course of elementary school, children start to develop an academic self-concept reflecting their motivation, thoughts, and feelings about a specific domain. For the domain of mathematics, gender differences can emerge which are characterized by a less pronounced math self-concept for girls. However, studies are rather sparse regarding the early years of elementary school education, hence, the point in time when such gender differences emerge yet remains a matter of debate. In our study, we found that the math self-concept of elementary school children (n = 81) declined from first to second grade. While no differences in math achievement were observed between girls and boys, it became apparent that girls' math self-concept was already less pronounced than the math self-concept of boys in the first years of elementary school. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering such gender differences even at the beginning of school education.

The authors of this article begin with an introduction to the holistic concept of family literacy and learning and its implementation in various international contexts, paying special attention to the key role played by the notions of lifelong learning and intergenerational learning. The international trends and experiences they outline inspired and underpinned the concept of a prize-winning Family Literacy project called FLY, which was piloted in 2004 in Hamburg, Germany. FLY aims to build bridges between preschools, schools and families by actively involving parents and other family members in children's literacy education. Its three main pillars are: (1) parents' participation in their children's classes; (2) special sessions for parents (without their children); and (3) joint out-of-school activities for teachers, parents and children. These three pillars help families from migrant backgrounds, in particular, to develop a better understanding of German schools and to play a more active role in school life. To illustrate how the FLY concept is integrated into everyday school life, the authors showcase one participating Hamburg school before presenting their own recent study on the impact of FLY in a group of Hamburg primary schools with several years of FLY experience. The results of the evaluation clearly indicate that the project's main objectives have been achieved: (1) parents of children in FLY schools feel more involved in their children's learning and are offered more opportunities to take part in school activities; (2) the quality of teaching in these schools has improved, with instruction developing a more skills-based focus due to markedly better classroom management und a more supportive learning environment; and (3) children in FLY schools are more likely to have opportunities to accumulate experience in out-of-school contexts and to be exposed to environments that stimulate and enhance their literacy skills in a tangible way.

The present study is aimed at identifying demands and tasks that are considered important by experts in the field of interculturalism for the successful development of schools. Although different theoretical models about intercultural school development, incorporating various conditions and dimensions, have already been suggested, gaps in research on the specific content of various administrative levels of school as an educational institution can still be identified. In order to fill those gaps, we conducted group discussions with small groups of experts in the field of interculturalism. Experts were matched into three groups so that each represents a high level of diversity regarding their particular expertise. Results from the discussions were investigated by applying content analysis. Based on the revealed findings, five fields of action can be established that are essential for the process of intercultural school development. The revealed areas covered a variety of factors, ranging from individual reflection to developmental processes of a school as an organization. In the present study, those facets are interpreted as conditions under which successful intercultural school development processes can be established. While most content areas can be mapped to the existing theoretical models, they add further information with regard to the content of the theoretical dimensions. This is particularly the case at the individual level. Resulting practical implications are explained and further discussed on the basis of inevitable future research.

Based on the finding that children with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) have deficits in working memory (WM), the question arises as to whether these children differ from typical learners only in the level or also in the developmental trajectories of WM functioning. To this end, the WM of 80 children with MLD and 71 typical learners was assessed longitudinally from third to fifth grade. Typical learners outperformed children with MLD in the phonological, visuospatial and central executive WM functioning in third grade. Latent change analyses indicated that both phonological and central executive WM functioning developed in a parallel pattern in children with MLD and in typical learners. In contrast, visuospatial WM functioning revealed a different development in children with and without MLD since the gap between both groups decreased over time. Overall, despite starting at a lower level, the WM functioning in children with MLD did not develop more slowly.

Enrichment programs provide learning opportunities for a broader or deeper examination of curricular or extracurricular topics and are popular in gifted education. Herein, we investigated the effectiveness of a statewide extracurricular enrichment program for gifted elementary school children in Germany. The program implemented a "grass roots" strategy by which local units developed and offered the enrichment courses, which spanned a broad array of topics. The courses targeted different outcomes, including students' cognitive abilities, school achievement, interests, creativity, self-control, self-concept, and social competencies. We compared third-grade students attending the enrichment program (N =423) with nonattending third-grade students (N = 2,328) by means of a propensity score analysis. Specifically, we controlled for potential selection effects and estimated the average causal effect of the enrichment program for children attending the program. The findings revealed positive program effects on academic achievement but not on the other targeted outcomes.

The teleological bias, a major learning obstacle, involves explaining biological phenomena in terms of purposes and goals. To probe the teleological bias, researchers have used acceptance judgement tasks and preference judgement tasks. In the present study, such tasks were used with German high school students (N = 353) for 10 phenomena from human biology, that were explained both teleologically and causally. A sub-sample (n = 26) was interviewed about the reasons for their preferences. The results showed that the students favoured teleological explanations over causal explanations. Although the students explained their preference judgements etiologically (i.e. teleologically and causally), they also referred to a wide range of non-etiological criteria (i.e. familiarity, complexity, relevance and five more criteria). When elaborating on their preference for causal explanations, the students often focused not on the causality of the phenomenon, but on mechanisms whose complexity they found attractive. When explaining their preference for teleological explanations, they often focused not teleologically on purposes and goals, but rather on functions, which they found familiar and relevant. Generally, students' preference judgments rarely allowed for making inferences about causal reasoning and teleological reasoning, an issue that is controversial in the literature. Given that students were largely unaware of causality and teleology, their attention must be directed towards distinguishing between etiological and non-etiological reasoning. Implications for educational practice as well as for future research are discussed.