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Mathematical competence in school-related contexts is a multidimensional construct that encompasses several content areas and cognitive components. Kindergarten children have experiences with different types of mathematical content. However, empirical research has focused mostly on children's numerical skills, and less is known about their development in other mathematical content areas and interdependencies between areas, especially when it comes to less-structured approaches to early childhood education. The study investigated two research questions: (1) What is the structure of kindergarten children's mathematical competence? (2) How do the different dimensions of mathematical competence develop over time? One-to-one interviews were completed with 442 kindergarten children to assess their mathematical competence at three measurement points. The results indicate that mathematical competence among kindergarten children should be treated as a multidimensional construct. Furthermore, the results indicate that skills in different content areas affect later skills in the same and in other content areas. Therefore, the results highlight the importance of addressing multiple mathematical content areas in early childhood.

The purpose of this study is to explore how MathCityMap training for teachers can be designed and implemented in a hybrid setting. Design research has been carried out involving teachers from 34 provinces in Indonesia. A four-day model training program for indoor and outdoor activities in a hybrid setting has been designed. The core concept of designing modeling tasks and math trails, as well as the introduction to MathCityMap, were delivered in a hybrid mode between Indonesia and Germany. The activity continued with the development of MathCityMap Trails in city parks. Post-training activities were conducted in their respective places of origin, in schools, and in city parks. Participants have successfully designed trails in both their schools and the city parks where they live supported using Learning Management System. The findings of the MathCityMap team's review indicate that most of the trails fulfilled the requirements. The trainee teachers then disseminate their knowledge and experience to their colleagues. They also used MathCityMap Trails for classroom learning as well as other activities such as MathCityMap competitions and public educational activities. The hybrid environment helps to accelerate the attainment of training objectives while also broadening the program's reach and network.

Using data from a longitudinal German large-scale study and structural equation modeling, this study investigated the effects of different dimensions of the early home learning environment (HLE) as well as the effect of language-related preschool quality at the age of 3 to 5 years on students' later school-relevant language proficiency (as indicated by their school-relevant listening comprehension) in primary school (N = 316; M[subscript age in months at Grade 1] = 88.22, SD = 3.98). Results show significant direct effects of both the book exposure at home as well as of the language and literacy-related preschool quality on later school-relevant language proficiency, even when controlling for earlier language skills at preschool entry (age 3/4) and other relevant child (working memory, nonverbal cognitive abilities) and family-related (socioeconomic status) factors. Using child vocabulary and grammar at age 5/6 as mediational variables, the effect of the informal HLE was partially mediated through students' receptive grammar skills. Our results underline the importance of early stimulating home and preschool literacy environments for students' school-relevant language proficiency at the start of primary school.

In this article, the role of digital feedback that was provided in an outdoor mathematics education setting is taken into consideration. Using the app MathCityMap (2020) in the context of a mathematics trail, the influence of positive and/or negative feedback is examined in relation to how it influences the processes of verification and elaboration. In this context, special emphasis is placed on the students' verification and elaboration and their relation to reasoning. In this qualitative study, 19 secondary students were filmed while solving mathematics tasks outdoors without digital support, as well as in indoor settings to enable a comparison. The results show that negative feedback in particular leads to a verification of the result. Still, an elaboration and explanation of why a result was incorrect was not often explicitly formulated by the students. Therefore, the potential of feedback is mainly seen in giving students a clear idea about the correctness of the result and searching for an alternative strategy to solve the task when in an outdoor setting.

Mathematical arguments are central components of mathematics and play a role in certain types of modelling of potential mathematical giftedness. However, particular characteristics of arguments are interpreted differently in the context of mathematical giftedness. Some models of giftedness see no connection, whereas other models consider the formulation of complete and plausible arguments as a partial aspect of giftedness. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in argumentation characteristics remain open. This leads to the research focus of this article, which is to identify and describe the changes of argumentation products in potentially mathematically gifted children over a longer period. For this purpose, the argumentation products of children from third to sixth grade are collected throughout a longitudinal study and examined with respect to the use of examples and generalizations. The analysis of all products results in six different types of changes in the characteristics of the argumentation products identified over the survey period and case studies are used to illustrate student use of examples and generalizations of these types. This not only reveals the general importance of the use of examples in arguments. For one type, an increase in generalized arguments can be observed over the survey period. The article will conclude with a discussion of the role of argument characteristics in describing potential mathematical giftedness.

Knowledge transfer (KT) and innovation diffusion are closely related to each other because it is knowledge regarding an innovation that gets adopted. Little research in learning analytics provides insight into KT processes in two-mode networks, especially in the context of educational innovations. It is unclear how such networks are structured and whether funding can create a network structure efficient for KT. We used a case-study approach to analyze a two-mode network of 208 university members (based on archival data) who worked together on 91 innovative teaching projects. Our results show that the two-mode network displays a decentralized structure and more clustering than can be assumed by chance, promoting KT and learning. To gain a deeper understanding of the kind of knowledge that is transferred in the network, we analyzed the effects of different educational innovation elements (e.g., game-based learning) as attributes of higher education teachers. Overall, our results suggest that funding and the creation of project structures in the context of educational innovation is a sustainable way to create KT, and therefore organizational change. Furthermore, the results imply that university practitioners need to implement networking interventions to create more connections between subgroups in teacher-related networks.

Social support is a crucial factor for first-generation students' (FGS) integration at university and their educational success. FGS are often assumed to lack social support and integration, but research shows mixed results. By means of a mixed-methods approach (combination of interviews and online survey), we aimed to shed light on the characteristics in FGS social networks that classify them as high-quality networks in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the structure and setup of the social contexts from which FGS receive support. Using these characteristics, we constructed types of socially supported students and related them to academic success. For that, we conducted N = 40 semi-structured interviews linked to Qualitative Social Network Analysis at an urban German University. Prior to the interviews, the interviewees filled out an online survey (1) consisting of demographic variables and psychological scales. During the interviews (2), we followed a problem-centred interview approach for the first part and then (3) asked about the FGS's support networks during the beginning of their bachelor's degrees. All the interviews were coded by applying content analysis. Network maps were analysed using qualitative structural analysis (QSA). Both maps and codes were used to build three types of support as received by the students. These types were in turn connected to the results of the support forms in content analysis and the psychometric scales to estimate how students perceive different structures in their networks as supportive. The results revealed three types: small and dense bijou networks, medium networks with emotionally close alters (close-knit networks), and large and diverse networks (have-it-all networks). The types show different results for university success and perceived support for their networks.

An important factor for First Generation High School students (FGS) in higher education is social capital. To highlight differences in social capital between FGS and their Non-FGS peers (NFGS) by analysing the structure of their ego-centred social networks and its' effect on their career planning, we conducted two cross-sectional studies: on high school students during their first career planning stage and on college students at the beginning of their first semester. FGS have significantly less social capital in their networks than NFGS during school and university. Having academic supporters is associated with career planning amongst high school students, having instrumental support for career planning amongst college students.

Inquiry-based out-of-school STEM learning environments, such as offerings from science centers, museums, and out-of-school laboratories, serve as an enrichment to classroom education in many countries. As there is an increasing number of such STEM learning environments in Germany and some other countries and a growing body of research worldwide, it is important to analyze their effects. In this context, student interest is a critical factor in determining the effectiveness of such learning opportunities and the quality of the educational outcomes achieved. Therefore, based on an international comprehensive, systematic literature review of 30 out of 1657 identified studies, various influencing factors that support or hinder interest development are highlighted. Results show that active participation, hands-on activities, and preparation for the visit have strong beneficial effects on interest experience. Out-of-school STEM learning environments are especially suitable for students with little prior knowledge, and they tend to promote interest in areas that are often relatively unpopular among adolescents, depending on their age and gender. The findings also highlight research deficits, particularly with respect to well-defined constructs of interest, and point to useful criteria that informal out-of-school learning environments can apply to promote various forms of interest and thus improve educational programs.

In 2020, Germany and Spain experienced lockdowns of their school systems. This resulted in a new challenge for learners and teachers: lessons moved from the classroom to the children's homes. Therefore, teachers had to set rules, implement procedures and make didactical-methodical decisions regarding how to handle this new situation. In this paper, we focus on the roles of mathematics teachers in Germany and Spain. The article first describes how mathematics lessons were conducted using distance learning. Second, problems encountered throughout this process were examined. Third, teachers drew conclusions from their mathematics teaching experiences during distance learning. To address these research interests, a questionnaire was answered by N = 248 teachers (N[subscript 1] = 171 German teachers; N[subscript 2] = 77 Spanish teachers). Resulting from a mixed methods approach, differences between the countries can be observed, e.g., German teachers conducted more lessons asynchronously. In contrast, Spanish teachers used synchronous teaching more frequently, but still regard the lack of personal contact as a main challenge. Finally, for both countries, the digitization of mathematics lessons seems to have been normalized by the pandemic.

Do children consider how others learned when seeking help? Across three experiments, German children (N = 536 3-to-8 year olds, 49% female, majority White, tested 2017-2019) preferred to learn from successful active learners selectively by context: They sought help solving a problem from a learner who had independently discovered the solution to a previous problem over those who had learned through instruction or observation, but only when the current problem was novel, yet related, to the learners' problem (Experiment 1). Older, but not younger, children preferred the active learner even when she was offered help (Experiment 2), though only when her discovery was deliberate (Experiment 3). Although a preference to learn from successful active learners emerges early, a genuine appreciation for "process beyond outcome" increases across childhood.

Person-Environment fit (P-E fit), defined as the congruence between a student's attributes and their chosen study programme, is an important indicator of students' academic success (e.g. retention). Research has shown that students' informedness regarding the content and conditions of study before starting their studies is vital for this congruence. However, research on the factors that strengthen students' P-E fit after starting their studies is scarce. Students' peer networks could serve as a potential source of information, e.g. compensating for lower levels of informedness and thus, enhance students' P-E fit. Hence, this study investigates peer networks' moderating role, focusing on two types of P-E fit (Needs-Supplies and Demands-Abilities). Specifically, we examined how the composition of these networks (i.e. the proportion of informed peers) moderates the relationship between students' informedness at the beginning of their studies and their P-E fit perceptions three months later. Data were collected from 135 German university students. We identified the proportion of informed peers as a moderator between students' informedness and both P-E fit types. Practical implications for students and universities, as well as pathways for future research, are discussed.

Technological approaches deploying three-dimensional visualization to integrate virtual anatomy are increasingly used to provide medical students with state-of-the-art teaching. It is unclear to date to which extent virtual anatomy may help replace the dissection course. Medical students of Johannes Kepler University attend both a dissection and a virtual anatomy course. This virtual anatomy course is based on Cinematic Rendering and radiological imaging and teaches anatomy and pathology. This study aims to substantiate student benefits achieved from this merged teaching approach. Following their dissection course, 120 second-year students took part in objective structured practical examinations (OSPE) conducted on human specimens prior to and following a course on Cinematic Rendering virtual anatomy. Likert-based and open-ended surveys were conducted to evaluate student perceptions of both courses and their utility. Virtual anatomy teaching was found to be unrelated to improvements in student's ability to identify anatomical structures in anatomical prosections, yielding only a 1.5% increase in the OSPE score. While the students rated the dissection course as being more important and impactful, the virtual anatomy course helped them display the learning content in a more comprehensible and clinically applicable way. It is likely that Cinematic Rendering-based virtual anatomy affects knowledge gain in domains other than the recognition of anatomical structures in anatomical prosections. These findings underline students' preference for the pedagogic strategy of the dissection course and for blending this classical approach with novel developments like Cinematic Rendering, thus preparing future doctors for their clinical work.

The present study examines the quality and domains of teacher-toddler interactions and associations with structural characteristics using data from 95 German early childcare settings. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure of interaction quality assessed by the CLASS Toddler: emotional and behavioural support (EBS) and engaged support for learning (ESL). The EBS domain showed higher quality ratings (M = 5.33, SD = 0.59) than the ESL domain (M = 3.23, SD = 0.70). Structural equation modelling was applied to estimate associations between those domains and structural characteristics within classrooms. Structural characteristics predicting interaction quality were teachers' age (for EBS), teachers' education (for ESL) and children's age composition in the classroom (for EBS and ESL). Overall, the two-factor structure of CLASS Toddler could be replicated. For high-quality interactions, teacher and classroom characteristics are crucial but need to be carefully distinguished. Beyond their limitations, these findings have implications that are discussed.

The current study investigated the effects of metacognitive and executive function (EF) training on childhood EF (inhibition, working memory [WM], cognitive flexibility, and proactive/reactive control) and academic skills (reading, reasoning, and math) among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Children (N = 134, M[subscript age] = 8.70 years) were assigned randomly to the three training groups: (a) metacognitive training of basic EF processes (meta-EF), (b) training of basic EF processes (basic-EF), and (c) active controls (active control). They underwent 16 training sessions over the course of 2 months. No effects of EF and/or metacognitive training were found for academic outcomes. However, both meta-EF and basic-EF groups demonstrated greater gains than the active control group on proactive control engagement and WM, suggesting that EF training promotes a shift to more mature ways of engaging EF. Our findings suggest minimal near- and far-transfer effects of metacognitive training but highlight that proactive engagement of EF can be promoted through EF training in children.

Students in psychology are often surveyed for personality. Empirical results show relevance of this topic, because personality influences academic success. In contrast, we know much less about the personality of students of cooperative education. So, we collected data from 5,863 students at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in August 2016. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that gender (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.06), academic field (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.01) and covariate university entrance scores (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.05) have an effect on Big Five personality traits controlling age and social class. The results can be used for selecting students in cooperative education for academic fields and compare them with other types of study.

Strengthening political knowledge and democratic understanding of children is an essential aim of citizenship education. In Germany, most curricula of civic education target high school students, neglecting younger children in elementary school. The present study investigates the impact of an out-of-school program for elementary school students at a state parliament on their political knowledge and political interest. The program introduces the students to parliamentary institutions, processes, and decision-making. Among other didactical elements, the students participate in a simulation of a plenary session. The article examines the short-term and long-term effects of program attendance with a quasi-experimental design. The findings show that the out-of-school program positively affects children's political knowledge and interest, thereby confirming that civic education can already be effective at the elementary school level. By implementing such interactive learning programs, schools and teachers could positively contribute to young citizens' political socialization.

Innovation in higher education teaching is essential to respond to global challenges and actively improve teaching (e.g. through new technologies), necessitating the implementation of educational reform programmes that fund educational innovations. Although currently deployed strategies frequently promote networks between innovators to diffuse educational innovations, little is known about the efficiency of these networks or whether they promote innovation diffusion. This study investigates a network comprising 88 higher education teachers who received funding for their educational innovations in a German university. We collected longitudinal data by asking higher education teachers from whom they adopted innovative teaching ideas and requesting self-reports on innovative teaching climate. Our findings show that the teachers' social network had a smaller path length and more clustering than might be expected by chance. This observation might indicate that the examined educational innovation network exhibits a small-world property and allows efficient exchange of ideas among the teachers. In line with our hypotheses, the network's initial tendency toward hierarchy and homophily decreased over time in response to strategies and network interventions. In summary, this study provides initial empirical support that educational reform programmes can create efficient educational innovation networks, facilitating innovation diffusion and promoting change in higher education teaching.

Students who are the first in their family to go to university (first-generation students [FGS]) are still underrepresented at universities. One of the considered reasons for this is their lack of social support. Our study followed a group of German students at two time points: after their first educational choice and at the end of their first semester. According to social cognitive career theory, we tested for the effect of self-efficacy beliefs on intention to drop out, mediated by confidence in vocational choice. Following a social network perspective, we analyzed the moderating effect of support network size and support network quality. The findings reveal a complete mediation and add to the empirical evidence on social cognitive career theory. They demonstrate the special importance of social support for FGS. High-quality support networks help FGS struggling with confidence in their vocational choice to follow their university goals instead of dropping out but have no effect for other students.

Tasks in accounting textbooks play a vital role when it comes to learning processes. However, hardly any empirical evidence on the quality of accounting tasks exists regarding accounting-relevant characteristics. This is why a new category system containing accounting-relevant aspects was developed to analyze a total of 3,361 tasks from 14 different German accounting textbooks. Descriptive analysis and correlation analysis were performed to assess task characteristics and identify relationships between categories. In addition, in light of the large number of tasks to be analyzed, AI assisted the content analysis, and its usefulness was evaluated. The results indicate that tasks are not sufficiently able to instill accounting competencies such as interpreting data, assessing the relevance of information, or identifying and solving underlying accounting problems. The findings further show that AI and human coding yield similar results in most categories, suggesting that AI assistance is useful for content analysis when evaluating a large number of tasks.

Engaging in service learning has been linked to multiple positive outcomes in students, such as an increase in self-efficacy. Effects have been found on both general and domain-specific self-efficacy. Research on service learning has indicated that feedback and gender had an impact on the increase in self-efficacy, though findings are mixed. The present study aimed to determine how service learning experiences at a university can be optimally designed to boost college students' self-efficacy, while examining the effects of feedback and gender on general and teaching self-efficacy. Over 2 years, 267 bachelor's students in psychology (M[subscript age] = 23.08 years, SD = 3.61; 80.5% female) conducted modularized prevention programs in the context of mental health at primary and secondary schools. Students rated their general and teaching self-efficacy before (T1), during (T2), and after (T3) conducting the program. The results indicate a positive effect of engaging in service learning on students' general (d = 0.30) and teaching (d = 0.68) self-efficacy from T1 to T3 with significant increases only in female students, and after receiving feedback. Engaging in service learning reduced gender-specific differences in self-efficacy. Feedback increased general and teaching self-efficacy. Female students seemed to benefit more than male students.

Initial teacher education is the main opportunity to prepare pre-service preschool teachers to foster young children's science competences. Although initial teacher education is important for preschool teachers' later instruction in practice, little is known about early science education in initial teacher education. To gather first insights into initial teacher education, this study explored the lesson aims, the frequency of different content taught and teaching methods used, and lessons preparation sources of 72 German teacher educators. In addition, teacher educators reported their challenges regarding their teaching of early science education. Data was gathered by using self-reports. Results revealed that the key lesson aims of teacher educators involved refer to the promotion of pre-service preschool teachers' motivation and the preparation of the students for implementing science learning experiences in preschools. The teacher educators also reported challenges they faced teaching early science education, which included the students, general conditions, the actual teaching of early science education and teacher educators' own qualifications. With regard to the teaching practices, we found a high variance in the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge taught. Implications for policymakers, professional development providers and initial teacher education institutions are discussed.

The present study examines how attending the German model project "Kindergarten of the Future in Bavaria" (KiDZ), which provided 138 children (aged 3 to 6) with traditional preschool stimulation combined with cognitive and domain-specific stimulation, is associated with children's competencies in mathematics over time to age 12 compared to a control group of 53 children. Controlling for child and family background measures, attending KiDZ was positively associated with mathematical competencies at the age of 12 compared to the control group not attending. Those effects are mediated through grade and preschool quality. Furthermore, results showed that preschool quality was associated with higher competencies in mathematics at age 12, even when controlling for numerical skills at preschool and primary school age. The results suggest that preschool quality influences mathematical development over and above those effects detected previously in preschool. Thus, the academically oriented high-quality preschool intervention, KiDz, lays not only the foundation for a good start in school, but also for later development in secondary school.

Recent studies have shown that the number of teachers in Germany is decreasing dramatically. In contrast, the rate of student teachers discontinuing their studies is rather high, and further increases the shortage of teachers. To address this issue, we investigated student teachers' social support networks by using a social network approach. Guided by the social cognitive career theory, the mediating role of barriers (i.e. perceived disapproval of influential others towards the chosen career path) on the relationship between supports (i.e. social support quality) and students' dropout intention was analysed. Data were collected from 165 German student teachers at the beginning of their studies and six months later. In summary, this study has identified students' perception of influential others' disapproval towards their chosen career path as a boundary condition for the indirect effect of social support on their dropout intention.

In this paper, we make a theoretical and methodical case for combining Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded Theory to investigate linguistic transition processes of newly-arrived students in the German school system. Legitimised by a missing knowledge of German, the students are separated into preparatory classes in order to prepare them (linguistically) for the regular classes. This article develops a reflexive institutional-ethnographic approach that problematises and visualises the various voices and practices of social actors engaged in these transition processes. We elaborate the theoretical premises, methodical steps and procedures of a combined approach which allows to reconstruct the transition moment and its attendant tensions, stakeholder perspectives and embeddedness in wider social processes of migration-related multilingualism. The paper enriches the methodological landscape in language, education and migration studies and offers implications for engaging with educational research sites.

Feedback plays an important role in supporting students' learning process. Nonetheless, providing feedback is still rather unusual in higher education. Moreover, research on the design of ideal feedback as well as its effects is rare. In order to contribute to the development of this field, a web-based feedback system was implemented in a lecture at the University of Cologne. The effects of this feedback on the students' learning process are presented in this article. Differences in the students' learning success and motivation, as well as their assessment of competencies, are analyzed within an experimental setting. Students who received individual feedback through this system achieved higher grades and showed increased levels of motivation. Moreover, they felt more competent with regard to solving tasks related to the learning material.

Research on teachers' emotion display and the quality of the teacher-student relationship in higher education is increasingly significant in the context of rapidly developing internationalization in higher education, with scholars (and students) moving across countries for research and teaching. However, there is little theoretically grounded empirical research in this area, and the different research strands remain relatively unconnected. The present study aimed to address this gap. Psychological, educational and cross-cultural theories were brought together to investigate the interplay of emotion display and the quality of the teacher-student relationship from a teachers' perspective and across "cultural-educational" contexts. Given that social interaction, and the mores and norms associated with emotion display are often culturally underpinned, this study explored how university teachers in two so-called "individualistic" countries with different educational systems displayed positive and negative emotions in their teaching and what they perceived as an ideal teacher-student relationship. Australian (N = 15) and German (N = 9) university teachers in teacher education were interviewed. The study revealed that while both groups viewed the open expression of positive emotions as integral to teaching, and negative emotions to be controlled based on their understanding of professionalism, significant group differences were also found. While the Australian teacher educators reported higher and more intense expression of positive emotions, their German counterparts reported more open anger display. Subtle yet noteworthy differences in the TSR quality between the two groups of teachers emerged. The findings of this study have implications for research and practice in international higher education.

The present study explores the perceptions of teachers about the engagement of immigrant and non-immigrant parents in preschool. Data were drawn from a larger evaluation study of a government initiative for preschools in Germany, which was designed to foster inclusive pedagogy and parent cooperation. In these analyses, teachers' perceptions of the engagement of immigrant parents and non-immigrant parents were rated for each parent group, on a 10-item measure, to identify how teacher ratings varied for the different parent groups. Data from 1397 preschool teachers, employed across 203 preschools, were analyzed using multilevel modeling. This statistical approach takes account of the clustered nature of the data. Teacher ratings of engagement for immigrant and non-immigrant parent groups differed between preschools. Most variability in the ratings could be ascribed to preschool characteristics. In preschools, in which staff held a shared understanding of dealing with cultural diversity and in which the director of the preschool had a multicultural mindset, teachers perceived engagement of parents more positively, especially for immigrant parents. Overall, the findings identified the importance of self-efficacy for inclusion and more positive beliefs about multiculturalism among preschool teachers. Such qualities are important for working with all parents. However, unfavorable social structures, such as those found in disadvantaged areas, may present major challenges for parent cooperation and engagement.

Female university graduates tend to have less career success than their male counterparts. Career optimism is considered a crucial predictor of future career success, but little is known about predictors of career optimism. Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), we hypothesised that both perceived lecturer support and perceived career barriers impact career optimism via students' self-efficacy, and differentiated the model along gender lines using a subgroup path analysis. Two hundred and thirty-two undergraduate psychology students from German universities answered an online questionnaire. Results revealed that the expected indirect effect of perceived lecturer support and perceived career barriers on career optimism via self-efficacy was only identifiable in women. For men, we found a direct connection between perceived lecturer support and career optimism, as well as that an increase in perceived career barriers reduced males' self-efficacy. We were unable to identify any sex differences in career optimism.

The present study examines the longitudinal and differential impact of different dimensions of the early years home learning environment (HLE) on children's reading and mathematical competencies in secondary school, while taking early developmental outcomes and HLE during secondary school into account. During the preschool years, 554 three-year-old children were tested and have been followed up to the age of 13. The results show that book exposure and the quality of verbal interactions regarding mathematics both predicted mathematical outcomes in secondary school and that those effects were mediated through early language and arithmetic skills. Reading outcomes in secondary school were not directly predicted by early HLE but indirectly via early language and literacy skills. Path models reveal that the different dimensions of the early HLE were differentially associated with preschoolers' early competencies. All effects remained significant when including the concurrent HLE during secondary school which predicted reading outcomes directly.

Research findings: Developing adequate socioemotional competencies is of great relevance for later health and academic outcomes. Shared book reading creates valuable social situations that provide opportunities to talk about characters' emotions and social interactions with children and thus might contribute to children's socioemotional development. Additionally, shared reading as a key facet of the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) plays a significant role in children's language acquisition whereas linguistic abilities, in turn, are an important predictor of children's socioemotional competencies. Based on a sample of N = 131 children with an average age of M = 37 months (SD = 4.00), this study investigates the association of different facets of the HLE with children's linguistic and socioemotional competencies. Regression analyses were conducted to predict socioemotional competencies by shared reading habits and a global measure of the HLE while controlling for children's linguistic abilities and various child and family characteristics. A significant association between families' shared reading habits and children's socioemotional competencies mediated by children's linguistic abilities was found. Practice or policy: Shared reading with children is a beneficial habit that can support children's linguistic and socioemotional learning. Supporting children's linguistic abilities may be a beneficial strategy to foster children's socioemotional competencies.

Psychometric tools are increasingly applied during coaching, but little is known about their effects on clients' well-being. We investigated the effects that are evoked when psychometric tools reveal incongruities between career-related values, motives, and skills during career coaching within an early-career sample. Results reveal a negative effect of within-person incongruities on life satisfaction and self-efficacy over time. Further, we compared these effects across different career coaching settings (one-on-one coaching vs. group coaching). Compared to clients in group coaching, clients who received feedback on their incongruities during a one-on-one coaching session experienced a decline in life satisfaction. The results indicate that psychometric tools should carefully be incorporated in career coaching interventions. Further practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Research on teacher knowledge has been criticised for taking too narrow a view on expertise. Therefore, teacher competence frameworks have been developed that are closely related to professional demands. Their practice-oriented conceptualisations have led to innovative measures with situative demands. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on whether these frameworks are actually suited to map teacher growth. This study investigated whether two components of teacher competence, Action-related (AC) and Reflective Competence (RC), can be differentially fostered through specific interventions in early childhood mathematics education. We designed two professional development programmes with a focus on AC and RC and implemented them in a randomised controlled experiment with 170 teachers. Overall, we found that AC, RC, and professional knowledge were sensitive to interventions with different change profiles. Although our hypotheses were only partially supported, the results can be seen as evidence regarding the distinctness of competence and knowledge components.

There are many benefits to peer and near-peer tutoring. The current literature suggests that near-peer teaching within the domain of gross anatomy may lead to the development of numerous competencies for burgeoning medical professionals. The aim of this study was a quantitative and qualitative approach to explore which professional and personal competencies anatomy tutors developed as a result of their teaching activities in a gross anatomy course at a medical school in Germany. For a period of 18 months, 24 peer tutors were followed and queried multiple times via questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. It was found that most of the skills tutors developed or strengthened over one semester matched most of the core competencies described in various official competency frameworks used for physician education. In particular, tutors thought that tutoring gross anatomy had improved their knowledge of professional behavior as well as their communication skills. They also felt that they had learned to take on more responsibility and to use available resources more effectively. Overall, tutoring gross anatomy was perceived as very challenging, but also very rewarding, mainly because it provided the opportunity to develop and strengthen important skills such as self-confidence, self-awareness, positive thinking, self-insight, and stress management. Ultimately, these are all factors that contribute to resilience, an important attribute for physicians.

Purpose: In competitive labor markets, promoting employees' learning becomes a key challenge for companies. However, in small German craft companies, employee development is always connected with worries about employee turnover. This study aims to investigate the current informal learning strategies of craft workers and how they use the strategies, the effect of learning on employees' internal and external marketability and beneficial workplace characteristics (autonomy, feedback). Design/methodology/approach: An online prestudy (N = 131) explored current informal learning strategies. In the main study (N = 526), cluster analysis was applied to identify patterns of informal learning strategies. The relations of these patterns to workplace characteristics and marketability were investigated. Findings: Four informal learning strategies were found (informal learning from oneself, from others, from other sources and from new media). Craft workers used combinations of the strategies (i.e. patterns): three learning patterns (balanced high, person-oriented and balanced low) differed in intensity and combination with the learning strategy use. More intense learning patterns were positively related to internal marketability but were not related to external marketability. Higher autonomy and feedback availability were related to higher learning engagement. Research limitations/implications: Studies should have a broader view of informal learning strategies concerning different learning patterns. The use of new media is a learning strategy that might increase in the future. Practical implications: Craft companies could promote different informal learning strategies without worries about employee turnover. Originality/value: The study reveals how German small- and medium-sized enterprise employees use informal learning strategies in digitalized times and how human resources development can use informal learning strategies.

Worldwide, innovation in education is highly perceived as an effectual approach to promote awareness for sustainability. International organizations interested in education, research and training support projects seeking modernization of Higher Education (HE) and put much emphasis on developing new curricula, teaching methods or materials to respond to current needs. Building ties and promoting cooperation between institutions around the world through Universities and academic arenas are central in innovative educational approaches. This paper reflects on one of such projects; the Center for Natural Resources and Development (CNRD) which aims at supporting achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7. Eleven University faculties in Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, and Vietnam form part of the CNRD, covering natural, engineering, and social sciences disciplines. To develop solutions for one of the most pressing problems of today; creating sustainable cities, students, teachers and researchers work together in a trans-disciplinary approach. The paper principally deals with the question of how international research and education networks can narrow the distance between countries and promote awareness of sustainability. It discusses approaches in joint education, using modern media and e-learning activities and their contribution to raise awareness of sustainability among young researchers. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 4 notes.)

Academic performance (i.e., grade point average) determines career entry factors as well as career success and is thus crucial for students' future careers. Besides individual factors such as personality traits, individuals' social embeddedness has been shown to enhance performance. Regarding academic performance, relationships to fellow students (peers), which bundle into one's developmental network, are a valuable source of psychosocial and career support because occupying central positions within a social network provides the benefit of being able to access career-enhancing resources. Integrating individual and social-contextual factors for the purpose of examining academic performance is therefore plausible. Research results indicate that personality, especially extraversion, might predict performance through network centrality. In this study, we examined this assumption by focusing on extraversion and centrality in the peer developmental network of recently acquainted German psychology bachelor students (N = 47, 15% male). In a longitudinal design, we analyzed the impact of extraversion and centrality on students' academic performance at the end of their studies. Results revealed that centrality (i.e., popularity) mediates the relationship of extraversion with academic performance, indicating that extraverted students (regardless of their agreeableness) are more popular among their peers, which, in turn, enhances their academic performance. That is, the likelihood of getting superior final grades depends on whether students manage to attract peers at the very beginning of their university life, which is easier for extraverts. These findings emphasize the importance of the social embeddedness of people, highlight its long-term effects on performance, and yield several implications for research and practice.

Research Findings: This study investigated the long-term interrelations among children's language competencies, their home literacy environment (HLE), and 3 aspects of socioemotional development from ages 3 to 8, controlling for characteristics of the child and family. For this sample of 547 typically developing German children, parents and teachers reported on cooperative behavior, physical aggression, and emotional self-regulation. Language was assessed using established test instruments. HLE was operationalized by the number of books in the household, the frequency of shared book reading, and an observation during shared book reading. Path analyses supported effects of language and HLE at age 3 on all 3 indicators of socioemotional development over the 5-year period. An additional mediational analysis revealed different patterns of results depending on the aspect of socioemotional competency under study. Although the effect of early language and HLE at age 3 on cooperative and (low) aggressive behavior at age 8 was partially mediated by language at age 5, children's early language at age 3 was the best predictor of the development of emotional self-regulation. Practice or Policy: Findings identify a rich HLE and proper language skills as protective factors for socioemotional development in not-at-risk children; these factors should be further established in social skills training.

The study investigates direct and indirect preschool quality effects on emergent literacy skills (children's letter knowledge, oral skills, and interests and skills in print and communication) using quality indicators at process (ECERS-R, ECERS-E), structure (e.g. class size) and belief (e.g. support creativity) level. The study included a sample of 547 children from 97 preschools and implemented standardised tests and teacher-ratings in the final preschool year, as well as observations and questionnaires throughout the preschool period. Multiple regression models reveal that ECERS-R was significantly related to children's teacher rated interest and skills in communication, and that ECERS-E predicted children's tested letter knowledge. Group size predicted children's interest and skills in print negatively, revealing lower scores in larger groups. With regard to beliefs, teachers' creativity and social support beliefs were negatively related with children's letter knowledge, whereas teachers' knowledge- and cultural-tools-oriented beliefs were positively related with interest and skills in communication. These effects were partly mediated through ECERS-E. Although the study provides evidence for effects of preschool quality on the development of children's emergent literacy skills and some evidence that effects of beliefs are partly mediated through process quality, effects are not consistent through the outcome variables and effect sizes are small.

Difficulties in person recognition are among the common complaints associated with cognitive ageing. The present series of experiments therefore investigated face and person recognition in young and older adults. The authors examined how within-domain and cross-domain repetition as well as semantic priming affect familiar face recognition and analyzed both behavioral and event-related brain potential (ERP) measures to identify specific processing stages of age-related deficits. During repetition priming (Experiments 1 and 2), the authors observed evidence of an age-related deficit in behavioral priming and clear reductions of both the N250r and the N400 ERP priming effects in older participants. At the same time, both semantic priming (Experiment 3) and the associated N400 ERP effect of semantic priming were largely intact in older adults. The authors suggest that ageing selectively affects the access to domain-general representations of familiar people via bottom-up perceptual processing units. At the same time, accessing domain-general representations via top-down semantic units seems to be relatively preserved in older adults.

Data about processes and outcomes of preschool teacher education is scarce. This paper examines the opportunities to learn (OTL) of prospective preschool teachers (N = 1,851) at different types and stages of preschool teacher education and their relation to general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK), and mathematical content knowledge (MCK) with standardized tests. Process indicators in terms of OTL and outcome indicators in terms of knowledge varied substantially across teacher education types and stages. Controlling for preschool teachers' background, multilevel models revealed that OTL in general pedagogy and mathematics pedagogy provided during teacher education were significantly related to GPK and MPCK. Effect sizes reached up to 2 thirds of a standard deviation. OTL in mathematics pedagogy were in turn significantly related to the type of institution that offered a program in favor of pedagogical colleges compared with vocational schools. OTL were also significantly related to program stage in favor of the last year of preschool teacher education compared with the beginning. Process characteristics in terms of OTL mediated fully or partly structural characteristics of teacher education such as type of institution or program stage. These results suggest that the OTL provided are more important than whether prospective preschool teachers were at the beginning or the end of their program or whether they were prepared at vocational schools or pedagogical colleges (although entrance differences have still be taken into account). It may be an important responsibility of policymakers then to ensure that all prospective preschool teachers receive sufficient OTL.

Motivation to transfer is a critical element for successful training transfer. Whereas recent research has shown that training-related factors such as training design are related to motivation to transfer, participants' affective experiences have been neglected. Based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we conducted a multilevel study to investigate the relationship between positive affect and motivation to transfer at the individual and at the group level of analysis. A total of 867 training participants drawn from 78 three-day training programmes were surveyed on the first day (T1) and the last day (T2) of the training. As expected, positive affect was found to be related to motivation to transfer at both T1 and T2. Furthermore, the relationship between positive affect at T1 and motivation to transfer at T2 was mediated by motivation to transfer at the individual and the group level at T1 and by positive affect at the individual level at T2.

This study examined the level, structure and cognitive, educational and psychological determinants of beliefs about the relevance and nature of mathematics, about gender-stereotypes with respect to mathematics abilities and about enjoyment of mathematics. Prospective preschool teachers from programs at vocational schools and higher education institutions as well as in the first and last years of their programs were compared. As hypothesized, the beliefs were significantly correlated to each other which pointed to a coherent belief system. Differences between types of institutions and program stage supported the notion of development during the program. Knowledge of mathematics and opportunities to learn mathematics pedagogy were significantly related to beliefs. This may point to a need to include these domains in preschool teacher education or to require them as prerequisites before intake to a program. Gender-stereotypes were more strongly related to flexibility than to domain-specific predictors which points to the personality-related nature of beliefs.

Recent political socialisation research focuses almost exclusively on the orientations of adolescents, even though the literature seems to agree on the assumption that politically relevant orientations and attitudes are acquired much earlier in the life span. This article argues that it is essential to look at the beginning of socialisation if we want to shed further light on the processes underlying the development of democratic citizenship and therefore looks at children aged six to eight years. It examines the influence of primary school institutions on children's political learning by looking at three important school contexts on children's political knowledge, (1) teaching, (2) class, and (3) school context. The empirical analyses draw on data from a German study that includes several hundred children at the beginning and at the end of their first school year, as well as their teachers. Even though individual factors can account for a good portion of the variance, school factors are also important but depend on the respective knowledge domain. The findings can contribute to the ongoing discourse about a broadening of children's political and civic rights and are meant to trigger a discussion about a re-orientation of civic education in primary school.

Valid and reliable standardized assessment of nursing competencies is needed to monitor the quality of vocational education and training (VET) in nursing and evaluate learning outcomes for care work trainees with increasingly heterogeneous learning backgrounds. To date, however, the modeling of professional competencies has not yet evolved into procedures that would meet large-scale assessment (LSA) standards in VET. To empirically test a proposed structural model for client-directed nursing competence and to estimate psychometric properties of a newly developed video- and computer-based test (CBT) to inform subsequent LSA in nursing VET, 402 final-year nursing students from 24 German schools responded to a 77 item CBT. Multi-dimensional IRT modeling was employed to test the subdomain structure and estimate students' competencies in geriatric nursing. The standardized CBT measures nursing students' client-directed care competence with acceptable precision (WLE = 0.76) and does so across the whole range of observed proficiency levels. Structural validity was supported by substantive contributions of test items from all proposed process-oriented subdomains, practice field scenarios, as well as items with and without reference to emotional demands. However, it was not possible to empirically separate the diagnostic, practical or communicative subdomains, probably reflecting parallel, recursive and hierarchical care processes in complex care situations. On average, students in our sample attained 45% of the maximum test score so it is a demanding assessment of nursing competence. An extensively piloted, valid and reliable CBT is suggested to assess nursing students' client-directed care competencies at the end of the third year of the VET program.

Diagnosing is one of teachers' key competences. Lately, a new model of teachers' diagnostic competence and therewith a new measurement method focusing on diagnosing students' learning behavior in an interdisciplinary approach have been developed. They can build a basis for promoting teachers' diagnostic competence. However, some questions relevant to promoting teachers' diagnostic competence concerning students' learning behavior still remain unanswered: Which values do teachers-on-the-job in contrast to preservice teachers with or without teaching experience gain through experience and which are the relevant variables that lead to a high level of diagnostic competence focused on learning behavior? Thus, this study aims at enlightening these issues. In a sample of 293 participants (93 German grammar school teachers, 107 German teacher students in their second phase of teacher education, and 93 German preservice students in their first phase of teacher education), teachers' diagnostic competence concerning learning behavior as well as teachers' motivation, attitude, self-efficacy, knowledge, and reflection on experience concerning diagnosing was measured. Motivation, attitude, and knowledge were found to be substantial positive predictors of diagnostic competence concerning learning behavior, with differentiated predictions for teachers' experience. Reflection on experience and self-efficacy unexpectedly was not found to be relevant. Teachers-on-the-job were generally better at diagnosing their students' learning behavior than were preservice teachers without teaching experience. However, the diagnostic work of preservice teachers with teaching experience was as credible as that of the in-service teachers.

The present paper was written under the auspices of the interdisciplinary research group "Educational Processes, Competence Development, and Selection Decisions at Preschool and Primary School Age (BiKS)" (FOR 543), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The surveys were conceptualised and supervised as part of the developmental psychology sub-project (headed by S. Weinert) and the primary education sub-project (headed by H.-G. Roßbach). We would like to thank the German Research Foundation for funding the research group and the participating children, parents, early years educators, teachers, assistants, and members of staff for their commitment and cooperation.