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The RizbA scale combines psychometrics and art theory and enables a measurement of pictorial expression. This study explores its factor structure and a potential gap between theory and empirics. A sample of 275 pictorial works by artists and nonprofessionals was rated by 179 art experts. Three CFA path models were specified: models A and B based on the empirical results of previous studies, C on the theory of the initial study. Model C was additionally tested on a combined dataset. A and B did not converge, C was associated with fit indices as follows: RSMEA = .122, CFI = .712, TLI = .679, SRMR = .135, for the combined dataset: RSMEA = .086, CFI = .740, TLI = .696, SRMR = .084. Only model C partly suggests an acceptable fit. The results speak to a methodological gap between empirics and theory, that might be solved by a postdisciplinary measurement model. more...

Dropout rates in engineering degree programmes at universities are high, and skilled workers are needed. Universities try to prevent dropouts with different offers one of which is attending bridging courses. Research on the effects of these programmes is rare, especially in subject-specific programmes and study formats like cooperative education. Furthermore, the results are contradictory. We focus our research on Germany and use data from the project "Study Process -- Crossroads, Determinants of Success and Barriers While Studying at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University", which included 963 participants from the first academic year and matched data from a survey with university administration data on dropouts two years after enrolment. Different propensity score matching algorithms and entropy balancing show small, non-significant negative effects. Results are reflected and embedded in the current state of the research. New research questions are discussed and practical implications are considered. more...

Background: Recent research on boredom suggests that it can emerge in situations characterized by over- and under-challenge. In learning contexts, this implies that high boredom may be experienced both by low- and high-achieving students. Aims: This research aimed to explore the existence and prevalence of boredom due to being over- and under-challenged in mathematics, for which empirical evidence is lacking. Sample: We employed a sample of 1.407 students (fifth to ninth graders) from all three secondary school tracks (lower, middle and upper) in Bavaria (Germany). Methods: Boredom was assessed via self-report and achievement via a standardized mathematics test. We used latent profile analysis to identify groups characterized by different levels of boredom and achievement, and we additionally examined gender and school track as group membership predictors. Results: Results revealed four distinct groups, of which two showed considerably high boredom. One was coupled with low achievement on the test (i.e. 'over-challenged group', 13% of the total sample), and one was coupled with high achievement (i.e. 'under-challenged group', 21%). Furthermore, we found a low boredom and high achievement (i.e. 'well-off group', 27%) and a relatively low boredom low achievement group (i.e. 'indifferent group', 39%). Girls were overrepresented in the over-challenged group, and students from the upper school track were underrepresented in the under-challenged group. Conclusion: Our research emphasizes the need to openly discuss and further investigate boredom due to being over- and under-challenged. more...

The greenhouse effect is a complex scientific phenomenon that plays a crucial role in understanding climate change. Grasping students' understanding of this phenomenon on the content-specific level but also how students' conceptions are organized is vital for effective climate change education. This study addresses both levels and delves into the relationship between students' frameworks and knowledge pieces of the greenhouse effect through the analysis of multiple-choice questions, employing Bayesian correlations and multiple logistic regression. We thereby focus on specific types of conceptualizations of the greenhouse effect that have been identified in previous research and furthermore investigate the coherency of them. To do so, we analyzed answers of N = 604 grade 11 students in Austria and Germany and interpreted them from different theoretical perspectives. The findings showed that students hold various ideas about the greenhouse effect that are only seldom coherent, in particular when it comes to adequate ideas about the greenhouse effect. However, especially for a reflection-based framework of the greenhouse effect, our results demonstrate that students' conceptions show some form of coherency. We argue that our results can inform the development of effective teaching strategies that address students' existing knowledge and alternative conceptions. In terms of practical implications, the findings suggest that teaching strategies should provide opportunities for students to integrate their knowledge pieces into a more coherent understanding of the greenhouse effect. The study highlights the need for further investigation into the relationship between knowledge pieces and frameworks not only for the greenhouse effect, but for science education in general. more...

Unstructured out-of-school time (OST) science activities, such as reading a science book, watching a science television show, or researching on the internet about science, constitute a self-sustaining way for adolescents to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Although it is suggested that long-term engagement in such activities could have a broad influence on several STEM-related constructs, so far little is known about the impact of unstructured OST science engagement. The current study therefore investigated the effects of unstructured OST science engagement on the development of vocational interests, occupational aspirations, competencies, school achievement, and ability self-concepts. For this purpose, we used a large longitudinal subsample (N = 2,655) from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; Blossfeld & Roßbach, 2019) where students in Germany were assessed in Grades 9, 11, and 12. Following the recommendations of VanderWeele et al. (2020), we used an outcome-wide longitudinal design for causal inference: Outcome-wide effects of unstructured OST science activities were estimated while controlling for a set of joint confounders and pretest measures. Our findings show that unstructured OST science activities influence investigative vocational interests, but do not influence occupational aspirations, competencies, school grades, and ability self-concepts. The results suggest that adolescents with similar initial interest trait levels who engage in unstructured OST science activities develop a stronger interest toward STEM, compared to adolescents who do not engage in such activities. more...

With the widespread use of masks in the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to understand how emotion recognition is affected by partial face covering. Since individuals with autism spectrum condition often tend to look at the lower half of the face, they are likely to be particularly restricted in emotion recognition by people wearing masks, since they are now forced to look at the upper half of the face. This study compared the recognition of basic and complex emotions in individuals with and without autism spectrum condition, when faces were presented uncovered, with face masks, or with sunglasses. We also used eye tracking to examine group differences in gaze patterns during emotion recognition. Individuals with autism spectrum condition were less accurate at recognizing emotions in all three conditions. Averaged across the three stimulus types, individuals with autism spectrum condition had greater difficulty recognizing anger, fear, pride, and embarrassment than control group. There was no group difference in emotion recognition between the three conditions. However, compared to individuals without autism spectrum condition, there was no evidence of either gaze avoidance or preference for the mouth region. Our results suggest that emotion recognition is reduced in individuals with autism spectrum condition, but this is not due to differences in gaze patterns. more...

Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM) is a discourseoriented learning environment that engages students from diverse cultural backgrounds to participate in collaborative knowledge construction. The objective is to evolve a thematic approach to course design that includes elements of open pedagogy, information literacy, and metaliteracy. IPILM invites participation from educators and learners from around the world and has witnessed an increase in participating countries. This paper describes the concept of IPILM and demonstrates the implementation of this approach in practice. The initiative was well received by students and is both feasible and sustainable as an intercultural learning endeavor. IPILM is an ongoing project and a work in progress that is an adaptable model which may be transferred to disparate fields of teaching and learning or adopted by international communities of instructors. more...

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become an essential issue for schools facing major challenges such as bridging the knowledge-action-gap. Interactive simulations could help to focus on action-oriented learning. As part of a design-based research (DBR) process, we investigated the learning potential of game elements within a digital educational game for ESD we are currently developing. The final game aims to convey specific aspects of ESD ranging from sustainable land use to personal power consumption. Seven groups of 2-3 secondary school students (9th and 10th grade, n = 18) played the educational game in an early prototype phase. Following the DBR approach, students were shown screenshots of specific game situations in subsequent group interviews to reveal their conceptions and conceptual developments regarding sustainability. To analyze the causes of possible learning processes, we used the retrospective query on the learning process and qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that the observed learning processes can be primarily traced back to feedback mechanisms and the visualization of processes that would be too complex and long-termed to be experienced by students in real-life. This is how a simulation game, which makes complex interrelations tangible, can contribute to ESD. The possibility to make decisions and act (digitally) within the game allowed students to experience immediate feedback and self-efficacy. Therefore, the easily accessible visualizations and the immediate feedback are essential elements for the final game. It appears however necessary to embed the game in well-structured reflective processes. The study also contributes to adaptive game-based learning as a growing branch of research in which game elements are adopted and adapted for learning based on learner characteristics and the thematic context. more...

The COVID-19 pandemic put academic institutions around the world in the difficult position of suddenly having to organize many lectures and examinations over online channels only, due to students' physical access to their campus buildings being restricted. While the search for possible solutions to this problem was often challenging, this situation also offered the unique opportunity to establish remote examination options, that might hold the potential to be continued even after the pandemic has hopefully ended. This report looks at how the Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS), one of the biggest universities of applied sciences in Germany, established its own solution for remote examination over the Internet. This report provides an overview of how MUAS developed its on-site competence- and application-oriented digital examination tool to work remotely during the pandemic, its general framework and experiences that were made during its inception. Included are descriptions of the technical setting of the solution, as well as some challenges that were had when implementing it and how those were resolved. As part of this research it was concluded, that support and administrative work for this kind of remote examination was much more intensive than for on-site digital examinations, but also lessened each subsequent semester. A well-organized support system makes it possible to offer remote digital examinations with good conditions regarding, for example, student equal opportunities and secure examination environments, although even now perfect conditions cannot be guaranteed. While not without its own deficiencies, MUAS new established system was lauded by many Bavarian educational facilities and is in the process of being deployed to other Bavarian universities. This paper serves to highlight a qualitative example of how e-learning approaches can be of use in the context of higher education examinations and hopefully provide ideas for others trying to establish their own similar solutions. more...

Students' well-being, learning activities, and learning success are key student outcomes that can be affected by challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it is vital to investigate the role of important personal (resilience, self-efficacy) and social resources (support from family, friends, teachers, important other) for central student outcomes (life satisfaction as a vital aspect of well-being, learning activities, and learning success) alongside perception of the COVID-19 situation. While the pandemic affected all of society, adolescents as a group who face core developmental challenges were especially vulnerable towards being negatively affected by the pandemic. Thus, analyses are based on 220 adolescent students (60.9% female, 37.7% male, 1.4% diverse) in Germany who were 16.21 years old on average (SD = 0.88) at time of data collection in May 2021. Students filled out an online questionnaire on sociodemographics and variables of interest. Path models revealed that perceiving the COVID-19 pandemic as stressful was negatively related to life satisfaction ([beta] = -0.27). Furthermore, perceiving the COVID-19 pandemic as stressful was negatively related to students' self-efficacy ([beta] = -0.22) and positively to support from an important other ([beta] = 0.32). Moreover, several resources were mainly positively related to our central student outcomes ([beta] = 0.13-0.41), and perception of the COVID-19 situation mediated two of those relations. Results underscore the importance of students' self-efficacy, which was related to all student outcomes. Furthermore, the results and methodological issues can impact further research and practice. more...

Students experience many difficulties learning the fundamental relationships in Newtonian mechanics, partly due to preexisting mental models that originate from their everyday lives. These preconceptions often persist even after instruction in mechanics and lead to a supposed incompatibility between physics lessons in school and personal experiences. This article presents research that focuses on students' concept knowledge and conceptual understanding in the field of Newtonian dynamics. Interventions are presented that discuss authentic experiments with friction using different software as a tool. Overall, the interventions lead to an increase in conceptual understanding with a large effect size. A hierarchical linear model (HLM) is used to identify factors that lead to a larger or smaller increase in conceptual understanding of the topic. With the HLM, we infer that the pretest score, the students' interest in how physical properties interrelate (interest in "theoretical physics"), prior physics performance (in kinematics in this case, measured in the physics grade), and the (intrinsic and extraneous) cognitive load influence the post-test score. We discuss possible explanations as to why these factors influence students' conceptual change. more...

Based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, this study examined the effectiveness of a brief psychological intervention to reduce study-related stress and enhance well-being. Our three-hour intervention taught students psychological strategies to cope with stress specifically tailored to their study situation. Our sample (N = 56) was comprised of advanced law students who were within a 12-to-18-month period of exam preparation. We applied a randomized controlled trial which included an intervention and an active waitlist control group. Students gave self-reports immediately before and after the intervention, as well as at baseline, one, and two weeks later (post and follow-up). Repeated-measure analyses of variance revealed a significant stress reduction right after the intervention but no significant improvement in well-being. Post-measurement showed a reverse pattern in that the intervention significantly enhanced students' well-being but did not reduce their stress. Intervention effects remained stable at follow-up. The waitlist control group also showed lower levels of stress and higher levels of well-being after receiving the intervention. Overall, the brief intervention showed short-term effectiveness, boosting study-related well-being in particular. These results expand previous findings demonstrating the effectiveness of brief interventions during study periods with chronic stress characteristics. more...

For students, studying abroad has its advantages but might also have unwanted adverse effects, such as social isolation and loneliness. We comparatively analyse the role of emotional support in understanding loneliness among Chinese international students and local students in Germany from a gender perspective. Based on a unique sample, our findings suggest that Chinese international students experience higher levels of loneliness than local students. Female Chinese international students are less lonely compared to male ones, whereas the opposite is true for local students. Surprisingly, having a higher number of emotionally supportive ties is associated with higher levels of loneliness for all students. Our subgroup analysis further revealed that the relationship between emotional support and loneliness varies by gender and student status. Female local students benefit from having more emotionally supportive ties, while the opposite is true for female Chinese international students. We recommend conducting a longitudinal study for examining the causality of the relationship between networks and loneliness in the future. Our findings have implications for universities and higher education research in addressing loneliness among students. more...

This study examined how adolescents' emotions in mathematics develop over time. Growth curve modeling was applied to longitudinal data collected annually from 2002 to 2006 (Grades 5-9; N = 3425 German adolescents; M[subscript age] = 11.7, 15.6 years at the first and last waves, respectively; 50.0% female). Results indicated that enjoyment and pride decreased over time (Glass's [delta]s = -0.86, -0.71). In contrast, negative emotions exhibited more complex patterns: Anger, boredom, and hopelessness increased ([delta]s = 0.52, 0.79, 0.26), shame decreased ([delta] = -0.12), and anxiety remained stable ([delta] = 0.00). These change trajectories of emotions were associated with change trajectories of perceived control, intrinsic value, achievement value, and achievement in mathematics. Implications and future directions are discussed. more...

Objectives: The primary aim was to investigate the variability in language development in children aged 5-7.5 years after bilateral cochlear implantation (CI) up to the age of 2 years, and any impact of the age at implantation and additional noncognitive or anatomical disorders at implantation. Design: Data of 84 congenitally deaf children that had received simultaneous bilateral CI at the age of [less than or equal to] 24 months were included in this retrospective study. The results of language comprehension acquisition were evaluated using a standardized German language acquisition test for normal hearing preschoolers and first graders. Data on speech perception of monosyllables and sentences in quiet and noise were added. Results: In a monosyllabic test, the children achieved a median performance of 75.0 ± 12.88%. In the sentence test in quiet, the median performance was 89 ± 12.69%, but dropped to 54 ± 18.92% in noise. A simple analysis showed a significant main effect of age at implantation on monosyllabic word comprehension (p < 0.001), but no significant effect of comorbidities that lacked cognitive effects (p = 0.24). Language acquisition values correspond to the normal range of children with normal hearing. Approximately 25% of the variability in the language acquisition tests is due to the outcome of the monosyllabic speech perception test. Conclusions: Congenitally deaf children who were fitted bilaterally in the 1st year of life can develop age-appropriate language skills by the time they start school. The high variability in the data is partly due to the age of implantation, but additional factors such as cognitive factors (e.g., working memory) are likely to influence the variability. more...

This study used a single-case design to investigate the effectiveness of Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRC) in addressing elementary school children's disruptive behavior. The study, conducted in a German elementary school, involved ten second-grade students identified by their teachers as exhibiting disruptive behaviors. The procedures included training teachers in the implementation of DBRC, setting specific behavioral goals for each student, and using the Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) to assess General Disruptive Behavior (GDB) and Specific Goal Behavior (SGB). The DBRC was implemented over 120 days, with daily monitoring and feedback provided to students. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in both variables. The data analysis was conducted using regression-based analyses and the Non-Overlap of All Pairs (NAP). This study confirms the effectiveness of DBRC in mitigating disruptive behaviors and achieving specific behavioral goals, thereby contributing valuable insights into the application of this evidence-based intervention within the German elementary school system. It also highlights the utility of the single-case design in educational research. more...

What do pupils learn from bilingual interventions of civic education? This paper addresses this question by analyzing survey responses of 301 pupils who participated in a bilingual role-play about a televised debate on the 2022 French presidential election in French foreign language classes. The study shows, first, that the intervention significantly strengthened the specific interest in the election campaign. Second, both internal efficacy and subjective knowledge increased, as did, third, pupils' actual knowledge about the election. Fourth, it appears that the pupils were able to sharpen their understanding of French political culture. However, it should also be noted that all other constructs that can be attributed to intercultural learning did not experience any changes as a result of participation in the intervention. This is also true for participants' general interest in politics, basal and advanced participation intentions, and external efficacy. I identify subjective knowledge about the French presidential election, internal efficacy, advanced participation intentions, and pupils' cultural self-reflexivity as key drivers for strengthening intercultural understanding about the French political culture. Our paper concludes by discussing the limitations of the study and its implications for empirical research and practice in bilingual civic education. more...

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills comprise a broad set of abilities that are essential for building and maintaining relationships, regulating emotions, selecting and pursuing goals, or exploring novel stimuli. Toward an improved SEB skill assessment, Soto and colleagues recently introduced the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI). Measuring 32 facets from 5 domains with 192 items (assessment duration: [approximately]15 min), BESSI constitutes the most extensive SEB inventory to date. However, so far, BESSI exists only in English. In three studies, we comprehensively validated a novel German-language adaptation, BESSI-G. Moreover, we expanded evidence on BESSI in three ways by (1) assessing the psychometric properties of the 32 individual skill facets, in addition to their domain-level structure; (2) providing first insights into the temporal stabilities of the 32 facets over 1.5 and 8 months; and (3) investigating the domains' and facets' associations with intelligence, in addition to personality traits. Results show that BESSI-G exhibits good psychometric properties (unidimensionality, reliability, factorial validity). Its domain-level structure is highly similar to that of the English-language source version. The facets show high temporal stabilities, convergent validity with personality traits, and discriminant validity with fluid and crystallized intelligence. We discuss implications for research on SEB skills. more...

Research as a social process suggests that the collective research agenda of a discipline is shaped by its structural features which thus helps to explain why we actually discuss what we discuss within an academic domain. This assumption also substantially informs publication patterns and co-authorship networks in German civic education research: Who are the most central researchers? What groups of collaborating researchers exist? How do these clusters diverge in their characteristics? The article addresses these questions by drawing on an encompassing dataset that considers multiple publication types including book publications, journal articles and chapters in edited volumes with more than 3000 contributions and 900 authors published between 2014 and 2020 in German civic education research. Using bibliometrics, different techniques of network analysis and consensus graph clustering methods, the analysis reveals patterns of co-authorship and presents the first systematic mapping of the discipline. In this way, the most important research clusters, their characteristics and the major researchers in the domain of civic education research in Germany are assessed. more...

The emotion of boredom has sparked considerable interest in research on teaching and learning, but boredom during tests and exams has not yet been examined. Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that students may experience significant levels of boredom during testing ("test boredom"; Hypothesis 1) and that test boredom may be significantly related to theoretically hypothesized antecedents (control and value appraisals; Hypothesis 2) and outcomes (performance; Hypothesis 3). We further hypothesized that test boredom was more detrimental when students felt overchallenged during the test than when they felt underchallenged ("abundance hypothesis"; Hypothesis 4). We tested these hypotheses in two studies (Study 1: N = 208 eighth graders; 54% female; Study 2: N = 1,612 fifth to 10th graders, 47% female) using both trait and state measures of test boredom in mathematics and their proposed antecedents and outcomes. In support of Hypothesis 1, participants reported statistically significant levels of boredom during tests. Furthermore, the relations of test boredom with its control and value antecedents (i.e., being over- or underchallenged, facets of value) were in line with our assumptions (Hypothesis 2). In support of Hypothesis 3, test boredom was significantly negatively related to academic achievement (grades). In line with Hypothesis 4, test scores were negatively related to boredom due to being overchallenged but unrelated, or even positively related, to boredom due to being underchallenged. Directions for future research on test boredom as well as practical implications are outlined. more...

Peer Instruction, first introduced by Eric Mazur in the late '90s, is a method aiming at active student participation in lectures. It includes conceptual questions (so-called ConcepTests) presented to the students, who vote on answer alternatives presented to them and then discuss their answers in small groups. As professors have been reported to implement several variants of this method, it is highly desirable to understand the specific effects of the individual elements of the method (tasks, voting, and discussions in small groups). In the present study, we focus on the role of the discussion phase (peer discussion). Our study implemented two conditions: Peer Instruction in classical fashion, and a variant, in which peer discussion was replaced with instructional explanation by a tutor. Students in a course on Real Analysis were randomly assigned to the two conditions for two semesters. As far as learning outcomes are concerned, we do not measure these in terms of voting results within Peer Instruction cycles but we are focusing on transfer in terms of results in the final exams of the two semesters. Interestingly, we found no significant difference between the two conditions. Additionally, we had positive evaluations of the use of Peer Instruction in both variants, with no significant differences between the groups either. Regarding affective variables and learning strategies, no difference in the development could be detected. As an important practical implication, these results show that both implemented variants of the Peer Instruction method are justifiable as far as learning outcomes, measured by exam results, or students' assessment of the method are concerned. Our results put the widespread belief that it is mainly the peer discussion that accounts for the success of the use of ConcepTests into question. more...

While all higher education was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad programs were uniquely challenged by the associated restrictions and limitations. This case study integrates a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogy approach and virtual reality (VR) technologies into the curriculum redesign process to transform a business study abroad course into an online format. Using VR technology, U.S. students and their international partners in Germany, Brazil, and India created and shared cultural exchange virtual tours. The redesigned online study abroad course engaged students in active learning activities and cultivated students' intercultural competence development. more...

Tasks play a central role in the mathematics classroom. Especially when teaching in a heterogeneous mathematics class, teachers should be able to find, select, modify, and assign tasks adequately. The focus in this paper is on adaptivity to cognitively activate all learners at the individual level, and on teachers' abilities to allow for such adaptivity by means of selecting appropriate tasks. More specifically, when planning lesson phases for practice and consolidation, teachers may consider which tasks have differentiation potential and can thus be completed by all students at the same time but at different levels. In order to analyse teachers' strategies in this regard, we investigated the task features that teachers may consider when assessing the differentiation potential of exercise tasks. We first deductively constructed rating categories based on the literature on instructionally relevant features of adaptive tasks. Then, we inductively extended and refined the constructed categories by analysing teachers' reasoning based on a sample of 78 in-service teachers at secondary schools. We validated the resulting 22 categories by determining interrater reliability. Our findings indicate that teachers consider a broad spectrum of task features when analysing the differentiation potential of tasks. However, only some of these features are directly relevant with regard to using adaptive tasks as a differentiation strategy. Our results also show that many teachers arrived at conclusions about the differentiation potential of tasks that were different from task-design experts. Based on our findings regarding teachers' perspectives on the differentiation potential of tasks and on certain task features, we discuss how these findings may have arisen and how important the knowledge about the deep structure of adaptive tasks is for teachers' professional development. more...

Many people use satellite images in their professional and everyday lives, and school curricula often require their use. Yet, the ways teachers actually use satellite images in the classroom is often limited, if they use them at all. The YCHANGE project trained teachers to use remote sensing data by themselves and to use it in their classrooms. The project partners created a remote sensing curriculum which suggests how teachers can develop their students' skills in this area of geography. This curriculum is based on existing research and school curricula. The project partners created and published sample learning units, and the project webpage also offered the possibility for teachers to publish student-created projects. YCHANGE training event participants in Switzerland and Germany filled out an online survey. Most participants said they improved their ability to read satellite images and use them in the classroom. However, participants' evaluation of the YCHANGE materials and training events was mixed. The study shows some differences among the Swiss language regions, and significant differences between Germany and Switzerland. For example, our training events introduced the participants to the web application BLIF. On average, the German participants liked BLIF, but the participants in Switzerland rated BLIF significantly worse. We therefore recommend that future research compare remote sensing, as well as other areas of geography education, among different countries and language regions. more...

Entrepreneurship is considered a critical factor in stimulating economic growth and creating employment. Entrepreneurship education is viewed as one of the key instruments for increasing entrepreneurial intention and activities. However, it remains unclear which elements of entrepreneurship education are most influential in shaping a participant's intention to start a venture. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of entrepreneurship education and the mediating role of alertness, inspiration, social networks and the acquisition of knowledge and skills (the rational "learning" component of entrepreneurship education) in a participant's intention to start a venture. Drawing on entrepreneurship education theory, the author proposes that entrepreneurship education increases entrepreneurial intention if it induces a perceived increase in alertness, inspiration, social networks or knowledge and skills among participants. The empirical results of the multiple hierarchical regression analysis provide support for a full mediation effect of inspiration, social networks and knowledge and skills on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. These findings contribute to research in entrepreneurship education, enhance understanding of the main success factors in entrepreneurship education and offer useful insights for practitioners when developing effective entrepreneurship programs. more...

Poor single-leg balance performance is associated with an increased risk of sustaining lower limb injuries in team sports. However, it is unclear whether this relationship is modified by the level of training experience (years of training experience). The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether soccer players' single-leg balance performance is related to lower limb injuries in noncontact situations with different levels of training experience. Subelite young male soccer players performed the Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test with the dominant and the nondominant leg at the beginning of the preseason. Due to COVID-19 rules, the occurrence of lower limb injuries during the second half of the competitive season was documented. The odds of injury were calculated based on a previously reported Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test cut-off score for side-to-side anterior reach difference ([greater than or equal to]4 cm). Twelve soccer players sustained a lower leg injury in noncontact situations. Only four of them had an anterior reach difference equal to or above the cut-off score. Soccer training experience has no significant influence on the association between Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test anterior reach asymmetry and noncontact lower limb injury in young male players. more...

Agent-based modeling is a promising tool for familiarizing students with complex systems as well as programming skills. Human-environment systems, for instance, entail complex interdependencies that need to be considered when modeling these systems. This complexity is often neglected in teaching modeling approaches. For a heterogeneous group of master's students at a German university, we pre-built an agent-based model. In class, this was used to teach modeling impacts of land use policies and markets on ecosystem services. As part of the course, the students had to perform small research projects with the model in groups of two. This study aims to evaluate how well students could deal with the complexity involved in the model based on their group work outcomes. Chosen indicators were, e.g., the appropriateness of their research goals, the suitability of the methods applied, and how well they acknowledged the limitations. Our study results revealed that teaching complex systems does not need to be done with too simplistic models. Most students, even with little background in modeling and programming, were able to deal with the complex model setup, conduct small research projects, and have a thoughtful discussion on the limitations involved. With adequate theoretical input during lectures, we recommend using models that do not hide the complexity of the systems but foster a realistic simplification of the interactions. more...

Few have examined how students perceive or make sense of their formal educational travel experiences, resulting in a dearth of knowledge about perceived educational value of experiences. To rectify this situation, this study addressed how students make meaning during their education abroad (EA) experience. Employing a constructivist grounded theory approach, students were found to process their experiences through four meaning-making structures labeled, "Seeking Novelty," "Actually Being," "Securing/Blending," and "Living in a State of Awe," all of which contributed to experiencing awe during their EA experience. The authors propose the Education Abroad Meaning-Making Framework, which can be used to understand students' experiences while on EA and to serve as a theoretical foundation upon which further research on EA can be conducted. They also discuss implications of the Framework for pre- and post-experience advising, program, and curriculum development. more...

It can be suggested that pre-service primary school teachers' sense of belonging to science may be influential to their professionalization within university-based teacher education programs, which intend to prepare them for teaching natural sciences in primary school. Nevertheless, because only few studies have examined teachers' sense of belonging to science so far, further research in this regard seems both reasonable and necessary. To this end, there is a need for instruments enabling a valid assessment of pre-service primary school teachers' sense of belonging to science. However, existing sense-of-belonging-to-science instruments require a comparatively long time on task due to their significant number of items. Consequently, the applicability of these instruments within research is limited because surveys in educational contexts must often be brief and economical. The research we present in this article aims to tackle this issue by examining on an exploratory level whether and to what extent pre-service primary school teachers' sense of belonging to science can be validly assessed using a single-item instrument. In doing so we report qualitative, as well as quantitative, findings that provide evidence regarding the validity of our instrument. Implications of the present study for future research are outlined at the end of this article. more...

Cooperative education programs are usually based on a partnership between companies and universities. Dropouts have a particular impact here, for example the loss of junior staff in the companies. Most dropouts in cooperative education occur in the first academic year. In this multicausal dropout process, the influence of the cooperation partner is less pronounced in research. Consequently, we shed light on perspectives of organizational commitment to the company and motivational aspects in the academic fields of economics and engineering. We analyze collected data using a cross-sectional study design and estimated cox regression analysis on 2263 first-year students at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Germany with 149 dropouts. Our analysis presents associations between affective commitment to the company, relatedness and competence at the university, and demographic and performance control variables with dropping out. Findings are contextualized within the current state of research. Practical implications are discussed in our study. more...

Inside the action learning community there are many very open accounts and considerations of specific challenges and general phenomena such as power, emotion, action and learning. 'Am I doing it right' (Pedler and Abbott 2008 ["Am I Doing it Right? Facilitating Action Learning for Service Improvement." "Leadership in Health Services" 21: 185-199]) is a key question for reflective practitioners, and they are invited to report experiences and 'produce theory from practice'. Despite all that information and reflection there is, from my perspective, a lack of information about how to become a facilitator. Even when looking back on their own early career challenges, such as Daniel Scott (2019a) ["Becoming a Midwife to Wisdom: A Retrospective Account of Practice of an Action Learning Facilitator, Action Learning." "Research and Practice" 16 (2): 151-158] most authors seem to be facilitators already, On my journey I identified some crucial experiences and conditions. These are highly individual and personal and they must, therefore, be actual, lived experiences. But I consider some of them to be generally applicable and believe they can help others when thinking about to become an action learning facilitator and/or to train action learning facilitators. more...

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European countries (England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Portugal). Results revealed that parental perspectives largely converged with quality features discussed in ECEC research. Process quality features were mentioned more frequently than structural features for all children 0- to 6-years-old in almost all countries. However, care-oriented features were mentioned more frequently for under 3 years, and educational-oriented features were mentioned more frequently for the older group. Regarding structural features, patterns of responses across the two age groups were similar in most countries. Age differences were not more pronounced in countries with a split governance system. [This article was written with the CARE research team.] more...

Open educational resources (OER) and digital education (DE) have shown the ability to improve teaching and learning possibilities, particularly in light of unpredictably occurring events. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that universities were experiencing technological, socio-psychological, and didactic issues. In order to promote, enrich, and improve DE and OER for crises and beyond, this research article addresses specifically the target audiences of students and teachers in Library and Information Science (LIS) programs in Germany. A qualitative approach with interviews and focus groups was applied to identify, analyze and compare students' and professors' attitudes, experiences and problems in remote teaching and learning during a crisis. The results showed that LIS professors from our sample are experienced and innovative regarding the use of DE during a period of crisis. However, diverse obstacles for the use and production of OER for online education become visible. Students' first difficulties with online learning could be resolved and show how quickly they were able to adjust to the new teaching environment. Both LIS professors and students recognize the advantages of employing DE and OER in higher education. They emphasize positive learning experiences based on flexibility when integrating DE and OER in LIS programs. more...

Whether high quantities of center-based care cause behavior problems is a controversial question. Studies using covariate adjustment for selection factors have detected relations between center care and behavior problems, but studies with stronger internal validity less often find such evidence. We examined whether within-child changes in hours in center-based care predicted changes in externalizing problems in toddlers and preschoolers (N = 10,105; 49% female; data collection 1993-2012) in seven studies, including from Germany, Netherlands, Norway, two from Canada and two from the U.S. Race/ethnicity data were only collected in the United States (57% and 80% White; 42% and 13% African-American; 1.2% and 5% Latinx). Meta-analyses showed no association (r = 0.00, p = 0.88) between hours in center-based care and externalizing problems. more...

The way medical students learn anatomy is constantly evolving. Nowadays, technologies such as tablets support established learning methods like drawing. In this study, the effect of drawing on a tablet on medical students' anatomy learning was investigated compared to drawing or summarizing on paper. The quality of drawings or summaries was assessed as a measure of the quality of strategy implementation. Learning outcome was measured with an anatomy test, both immediately afterward and after 4-6 weeks to assess its sustainability. There were no significant group differences in learning outcome at both measurement points. For all groups, there was a significant medium strength correlation between the quality of the drawings or summaries and the learning outcome (p < 0.05). Further analysis revealed that the quality of strategy implementation moderated outcomes in the delayed test: When poorly implemented, drawing on a tablet (M = 48.81) was associated with lower learning outcome than drawing on paper (M = 58.95); The latter (M = 58.89) was related to higher learning outcome than writing summaries (M = 45.59). In case of high-quality strategy implementation, drawing on a tablet (M = 60.98) outperformed drawing on paper (M = 52.67), which in turn was outperformed by writing summaries (M = 62.62). To conclude, drawing on a tablet serves as a viable alternative to paper-based methods for learning anatomy if students can make adequate use of this strategy. Future research needs to identify how to support student drawing, for instance, by offering scaffolds with adaptive feedback to enhance learning. more...

Hands-on courses utilizing preserved human tissues for educational training offer an important pathway to acquire basic anatomical knowledge. Owing to the reevaluation of formaldehyde limits by the European Commission, a joint approach was chosen by the German-speaking anatomies in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) to find commonalities among embalming protocols and infrastructure. A survey comprising 537 items was circulated to all anatomies in German-speaking Europe. Clusters were established for "ethanol"-, formaldehyde-based ("FA"), and "other" embalming procedures, depending on the chemicals considered the most relevant for each protocol. The logistical framework, volumes of chemicals, and infrastructure were found to be highly diverse between the groups and protocols. Formaldehyde quantities deployed per annum were three-fold higher in the "FA" (223 L/a) compared to the "ethanol" (71.0 L/a) group, but not for "other" (97.8 L/a), though the volumes injected per body were similar. "FA" was strongly related to table-borne air ventilation and total fixative volumes =1000 L. "Ethanol" was strongly related to total fixative volumes >1000 L, ceiling- and floor-borne air ventilation, and explosion-proof facilities. Air ventilation was found to be installed symmetrically in the mortuary and dissection facilities. Certain predictors exist for the interplay between the embalming used in a given infrastructure and technical measures. The here-established cluster analysis may serve as decision supportive tool when considering altering embalming protocols or establishing joint protocols between institutions, following a best practice approach to cater toward best-suited tissue characteristics for educational purposes, while simultaneously addressing future demands on exposure limits. more...

We examine the impact of a gamified mobile learning application on students' exam success in a mandatory introductory accounting course. The app was developed with the particular needs of first-year students in mind. It provides elements like quizzes as well as organizational and communicative elements helping students structure their daily life at university. The results indicate that serious app users achieve a significantly higher score in the final exam than non-serious users. We apply three approaches, including OLS and 2SLS regression, and an identification strategy based on students who re-take the course to show the app's positive effect. Especially the 2SLS approach, which addresses the issue of self-selection, may add valuable insights into the use of mobile technology in accounting education. This study not only contributes to the ongoing research on the effects of mobile technology in higher education but also sheds light on the determinants of student success. more...

Tests in educational contexts often start with easy tasks, assuming that this fosters positive experiences--a sense of control, higher valuing of the test, and more positive and less negative emotions. Although intuitive and widespread, this assumption lacks an empirical basis and a theoretical framework. We conducted a field experiment and randomly assigned 208 students to an easy-to-difficult or a difficult-to-easy condition in a mathematics test. Perceived challenge was measured along with control appraisals, value appraisals, and emotions (enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, boredom). While students starting with easy tasks felt less challenged than students starting with difficult tasks in Part 1, no differences emerged regarding control and value appraisals and emotions. In Part 2, students who had started with easy tasks proceeded to difficult tasks and reported a higher level of challenge, less value and control, and less positive and more negative emotions than students who proceeded from difficult-to-easy tasks. Control and value appraisals mediated the differences between the two conditions, especially regarding positive emotions. These results cast doubt on the preference for easy-to-difficult over difficult-to-easy task orders, revealing their potential for causing adverse experiences at the end of the test (e.g., reflecting contrast effects). more...

This paper explores the mobilisation of crisis response and related rhetoric in contemporary European teacher education. Using a critical vertical case analysis of illustrative national, regional, and institutional crisis-mediation settings (Switzerland, Germany, Ireland), we examine how crisis-informed policy response addresses global challenges like teacher shortages and digitalization. Employing an assemblage approach, we foreground how such responses exemplify moves to rethink, remake and redesign teacher education systems and programmes. Our discussions underscore the potential and the problematic aspects of crisis-based policy action to reshape teacher education and emphasize the role of universities and administrative institutions in fostering sustainable change. The study reveals particularly the influence of local contexts and cultures in shaping policy solutions and the dangers of excluding key actors within university teacher education from these conversations and actions. This discussion aims to inspire innovative and culturally-responsive transformations in teacher education practices and policies within Europe, and beyond. more...

Parents play an important role in shaping behavioral and motivational outcomes in their child's education, presumably even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, where concomitant school closures forced students worldwide to learn remotely at home, affecting socio-economically disadvantaged students most negatively. However, it remains unclear how different parent-focused family process variables (demanding-structuring and responsive-motivational parental involvement, responsibility for learning) and structure variables (socio-economic status, immigrant background) relate to important learning-related student outcomes, namely extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and actual participation in learning activities, during emergency remote education. Using questionnaire data from N = 117 German secondary school students (M[subscript age] = 15.14, SD = 0.93; 49.6% female) with a low average socio-economic status, structural equation models revealed associations between higher parental involvement and responsibility and higher motivational and behavioral student outcomes. Furthermore, immigrant background related negatively to some parent process variables, and indirectly negatively to extrinsic motivation. These results highlight parents' role in learning, particularly during emergency remote education. more...

Student dropout in higher education is a challenge for higher education systems. In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on analyzing motivational aspects in order to counteract dropout. However, the detailed impact mechanisms and processes of motivation on dropout have not been sufficiently researched. For example, there is very little research analyzing the preconditions of motivation and their influence on motivation as well as their eventual influence on dropout. From the background of self-determination theory and the person-object theory of interest, this study analyzes the effects of satisfying the three basic psychological needs on dropout via subject interest. We use data from a cross-sectional design with N = 2662 cooperative students in their first academic year. Our analysis identifies a direct effect of relatedness and subject interest on dropout. Furthermore, indirect effects of satisfying basic psychological needs, specifically, autonomy and relatedness, on dropout via subject interest are noted. We evaluate our results in the context of the current state of research and discuss implications. more...

Various studies have shown that video-based learning by explaining to a fictitious audience can be an effective learning strategy for promoting multiple knowledge domains such as memory, comprehension and knowledge transfer. However, field studies testing the effectiveness of this learning strategy in an applied setting are rare. The present study examines the effectiveness of the one-take video (OTV) approach on undergraduate students' learning performance. The OTV method involves users recording short oral presentations without any editing and with the support of handwritten visualisations (video-based learning by explaining). To test the learning outcomes, 218 undergraduate teaching students for special educational needs were randomly assigned to two test groups (OTV and explaining in writing). After that, they completed three study tasks throughout the semester, each followed by immediate and delayed knowledge tests. The results for the OTV group show that students achieved significantly better results in the immediate memory test the more handwritten visualisations they used, but not the more often they repeated the video recordings. Analyses of variance revealed that the OTV group outperformed the writing group in terms of memory performance in the immediate test but not in the delayed posttest. The OTV group also significantly outperformed the writing group in both posttests in the transfer domain. No significant differences were found in the comprehension test scores. more...

Newtonian mechanics is still among the most difficult topics in the physics' syllabus taught at school. For example, even after completing traditional instruction, students still think that a force is necessary to maintain motion. Therefore, a revised method of instruction is needed that meets students' learning needs. The aim of the project presented in this article was to develop and evaluate novel teaching units for the introduction to Newtonian mechanics. Rather than changing methodology, the content area itself was restructured innovatively with careful consideration of the most common preconceptions. Based on diSessa's notion of conceptual change as the reorganisation of these only loosely connected preconceptions, so-called p-prims (diSessa, 1993, 2008), the strategy pursued was aimed at triggering the activation of appropriate p-prims while avoiding the activation of inappropriate p-prims. For example, to lower the activation priority of the above mentioned notion, a consistent introduction to mechanics via two-dimensional dynamics was chosen. In the first year of the corresponding study, 10 participating teachers taught their 7th-grade classes in the traditional one-dimensional way. In the following year, the same teachers taught (other) 7th-grade classes using the revised twodimensional way. Students' knowledge of mechanics, self-concept and interest in physics were assessed. This quasiexperimental field study showed a significant improvement in students' conceptual understanding. Thus the findings of this project suggest that altering the content structure of a particular topic might be an important parameter to improving learning outcomes. more...

Places to study at medical schools are scarce, which makes well-designed selection procedures employing criteria with predictive validity for good students and doctors necessary. In Germany, the pre-university grade point average (pu-GPA) is the main selection criterion for medical school application. However, this is criticised. According to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, selection must be supplemented with a criterion other than the pu-GPA. Empathy is a core competency in medical care. Therefore, it seems to be an appropriate criterion. This study evaluates the feasibility of an empathy questionnaire and empathy appraisal by a panel for applicant selection. We employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. Results of self- and external assessments of empathy were compared in a quantitative analysis. Thereafter, the concept of empathy and the approach to empathy appraisal by the selection panel members were explored qualitatively in six focus groups with 19 selection panel members using a semi-structured guideline. Transcripts were content analysed using both deductive and inductive coding. We found no significant correlation of self- and external empathy assessment ([rho](212) = - 0.031, p > 0.05). The results of the focus groups showed that, while panel members judged the external empathy assessment to be useful, they had neither a homogenous concept of empathy nor an implicit basis for this assessment. This diversity in panel members' concepts of empathy and differences in the concepts underlying the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index seem to be the main reasons for the lack of correlation between self- and external empathy assessments. While empathy is a possible amendment to established selection criteria for medical education in Germany, its external assessment should not be employed without training panel members based on an established theoretical concept of empathy and an objective self-assessment measure. more...

The virtual school board (VSB) offers teachers a browser-based platform to support a multilevel, evidence-based educational plan. The present study examines teachers' use of the VSB. Based on technology acceptance model (TAM), 17 teachers from nine schools were interviewed about their use of the VSB. The evaluation was based on qualitative content analysis (QCA). For seven categories the intercoder reliabilities were acceptable. After 24 months, the users said that they used the VSB for support planning, diagnostics, discussions with parents and other documentation. They rated the overview gained and the interdisciplinary exchange as beneficial. However, a lack of technical expertise within the staff, the technical equipment and the user interface hindered teachers, such that almost a fifth never used the software completely. The challenges are complex. Needless to say, missing, little or old technical hardware is likely to decrease the usage of a digital tool; the implementation also faces the challenges of recontextualisation, and additionally faces the resource-labelling dilemma. Therefore, these challenges must be dealt with in the mutual interaction between school practice, educational research and professional information and communication technology (ICT) development. more...

A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought, but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here, we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child's spontaneous use of labels during a visually presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory. more...

With schools and universities closing across Europe, the COVID-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the COVID-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article's five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education. more...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt change from in-person to online teaching in higher education, resulting in increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) and students' stress and uncertainty. Integrating theories of human motivation, stress, and humane work design, we investigated whether different types of action regulation hindrances (ARH) pertaining to human (ICT competence deficits), technology (technical problems), interaction (coordination difficulties), and task aspects (work overload) related to technostress (H1). Furthermore, we examined if this relationship was mediated by satisfaction of the basic human needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (H2). Our analysis of causes and mechanisms of technostress is based on cross-sectional survey data (self-report) from 205 psychology students attending an organizational psychology class that was switched from an in-person to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modeling revealed that different types of ARH (i.e., ICT competence deficits, technical problems, coordination difficulties, work overload) positively predicted technostress ([beta] = 0.17 to [beta] = 0.42, p < 0.05). The effects were (partially) mediated by satisfaction of the need for autonomy ([beta] = 0.11 to [beta] = 0.15, p < 0.05), for all ARH except technical problems ([beta] = 0.01, p = 0.86). We discuss implications for online course planning, technostress prevention as well as potential interventions beyond pandemic times. more...