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Stereotype threat (ST) is a potential explanation for inequalities in language competencies observed between students from different language backgrounds. Language competencies are an important prerequisite for educational success, wherefore the significance for investigation arises. While ST effects on achievement are empirically well documented, little is known about whether ST also impairs learning. Thus, we investigated vocabulary learning in language minority elementary school students, also searching for potential moderators. In a pre-post design, 240 fourth-grade students in Germany who were on average 10 years old (M[subscript Age] = 9.92, SD = 0.64; 49.8% female) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: implicit ST, explicit ST without threat removal before posttest, explicit ST with threat removal before posttest, and a control group. Results showed that learning difficult vocabulary from reading two narrative texts was unaffected by ST. Neither students' identification with their culture of residence and culture of origin nor stereotyped domain of reading were moderators. The findings are discussed with regard to content and methodological aspects such that a motivation effect might have undermined a possible ST effect. Implications for future research include examining the question at what age children become susceptible to ST and whether students have internalized negative stereotypes about their own group, which could increase the likelihood of ST effects occurring.

Lower vocabulary in German is repeatedly reported for students with Turkish migration background attending school in Germany. We investigated whether in students of Turkish descent (a) learning vocabulary is impaired when the teacher activates the negative stereotype that students with Turkish family language learn less well and (b) whether a Turkish-origin teacher, as an ingroup expert model, can mitigate negative effects of the activation of the stereotype. In an experimental study, Turkish- and German-origin students (N = 182) living in Germany worked individually on a tablet on a vocabulary learning task instructed by a teacher in a video tutorial who introduced herself with either a Turkish or German name. Before the task, the teacher either mentioned that students in general (no stereotype activation) or students who speak Turkish in their families (stereotype activation) often have difficulties acquiring new vocabulary. A multiple-group regression analysis showed that Turkish-origin students learned significantly more under stereotype activation with the Turkish-origin teacher than in all other conditions. Results suggest that students are particularly motivated to learn when the teacher represents their ingroup targeted by negative stereotypes and openly addresses potential difficulties students of the stigmatized ingroup may encounter. We discuss the findings in light of the literature on stereotype threat and on the role of ingroup expert models.

Introduction: The goal of this study was to develop a self-report scale measuring the teacher's interpersonal behavior in teacher-child dyads in elementary schools and to provide evidence of the scale's validity. Using the framework of interpersonal theory, the Questionnaire on Dyadic Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (DITeB) models teacher behavior in an interpersonal circumplex that allows for the simultaneous analysis of teacher behavior along the two orthogonal dimensions of communion (warmth) and agency (guidance, monitoring). Methods: We analyzed 440 dyadic teacher-child relationships derived from 88 teacher reports. Teachers rated the 20 items (8 scales) of the DITeB to describe their interpersonal behavior towards a child. To test the scale's structural validity, we conducted confirmatory circumplex structural analyses. To test the scale's construct validity, we used teachers 'descriptions of relationship quality (closeness, conflict, dependency), and of their child related emotions (enjoyment, anger, anxiety). In addition, teachers reported on the child's academic performance (numeric grades), as well as their professional beliefs about heterogeneity and self-efficacy for adaptive teaching, data which were used for further construct validation. Results: We obtained empirical support for both structural and construct validity of the DITeB. Teacher interpersonal behavior correlated significantly with perceived relationship quality and emotions: high relationship quality and positive emotions were associated with high communion and low agency, whereas low relationship quality and negative emotions were associated with low communion and high agency, supporting construct validity. Additionally, as child's academic performance improved, teachers' agency decreased. Towards different groups of children, teachers' interpersonal behaviors varied systematically based on their professional beliefs: teachers with strong heterogeneity beliefs tended to be more communal towards low-performing children compared to high-performing children. Moreover, teachers with strong self-efficacy towards adaptive teaching adjusted their agency more flexibly according to children's performance in school, further supporting the construct validity of our instrument. Discussion: We discuss how our instrument enriches the spectrum of existing scales on interpersonal teacher behavior. By focusing dyadic specific teacher behavior, the DITeB allows examining the extent to which the teacher adapts their behavior to child characteristics (adaptive teaching), and the effect of teacher behavior on child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling socially well embedded in the classroom's peer network is a predictor of many positive developmental outcomes, such as engagement at school. But what does feeling embedded depend on? We investigated the impact of both peers and the teacher. Peer status, measured by sociometric sympathy-based peer nominations, and peer victimization, measured by students' self-report, were examined as potential predictors of students' self-reported feelings of embeddedness. We further measured student-perceived teacher support and the accuracy with which the teacher can describe individual student's peer relations in class (teacher awareness) as potential predictors of subjective embeddedness. We expected that victimized students in particular profit in their feelings of embeddedness from a teacher with a highly accurate awareness of their peer relations. In two independent samples (Study 1: 318 students and their 20 teachers; Study 2: 821 students and their 39 teachers), we found that the mean accuracy of teachers' awareness of individual students' peer relations was not very high. Students' feelings of embeddedness decreased with peer victimization experiences and increased with subjective teacher support, whereas, unexpectedly, sociometric peer status did not matter. Victimized students felt stronger embeddedness the more accurately their teacher could describe their peer relations in class. Peer victimization, teacher support, and, for victimized students, teacher awareness predicted school engagement, mediated via subjective embeddedness. Implications for teaching and teacher education are discussed: how can teachers strengthen feelings of embeddedness, thus fostering students' engagement at school and protecting them from feeling socially excluded.

Higher education institutions face the challenge to promote diversity competence. We suggest a procedure which can help raise awareness for diversity issues amongst staff and students and thereby foster diversity competence and facilitate the implementation of diversity strategies within higher education institutions: to include a self-assessment tool regarding diversity competence in the regular teaching evaluation. In this research we complemented a well-established course evaluation tool that is widely used in Germany, the HEsaCom, by a new subscale measuring subjective gains in diversity competence. As part of regular teaching evaluations, 8700 questionnaires comprising the HEsaCom-scales and the new scale on diversity competence were collected in 1396 different seminars of a large university in Germany. Results show good reliabilities for all scales. From factor analysis, the new scale emerged as an additional subscale of the HEsaCom, with the established factor structure remaining unchanged. Students attending a cross-study course in which diversity had been a topic and students attending courses in which no participant had experienced social discrimination reported significantly higher diversity competence gains than students from the remaining courses. We discuss how higher education institutions can apply the questionnaire used in our study for their diversity management.

Can immigrant school students profit from an immigrant teacher sharing their minority background? We investigate preservice teachers' (Study 1; Mage = 26.29 years; 75.2% female) and school students' (Study 2; Mage = 14.88 years; 49.9% female) perceptions of a teacher as well as immigrant school students' learning gains (Study 2) by comparing four experimental video conditions in which a female teacher with a Turkish or German name instructs school students in a task while either saying that learning gains differed (stereotype activation) or did not differ (no stereotype activation) between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Study 1 shows that preservice teachers, regardless of their own cultural background, perceived the Turkish origin teacher as less biased, even when she voiced the stereotype, and as more motivationally supportive of school students in general than the German origin teacher. Study 2 shows that in contrast, among school students, the minority teacher was not perceived as less biased than the majority teacher. Rather, immigrant school students, in particular those with Turkish roots, were more concerned than students of the German majority that the teacher—irrespective of her background—was biased. Interestingly, these differences between students from different backgrounds disappeared when the teacher said that learning gains differed between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Immigrant school students of non-Turkish backgrounds, but not Turkish origin students suffered in their learning when instructed by the Turkish origin teacher who voiced the stereotype. We discuss implications for teacher recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schoolbooks convey not only school-relevant knowledge; they also influence the development of stereotypes about different social groups. Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, many studies analysed schoolbooks and criticised the overall predominance of male persons and of traditional role allocations. Since that time, women's and men's occupations and social functions have changed considerably. The present research investigated gender portrayals in schoolbooks for German and mathematics that were recently published in Germany. We examined the proportions of female and male persons in pictures and texts and categorized their activities, occupational and parental roles. Going beyond previous studies, we added two criteria: the use of gender-fair language and the spatial arrangements of persons in pictures. Our results show that schoolbooks for German contained almost balanced depictions of girls and boys, whereas women were less frequently shown than men. In mathematics books, males outnumbered females in general. Across both types of books, female and male persons were engaged in many different activities, not only gender-typed ones; however, male persons were more often described via their profession than females. Use of gender-fair language has found its way into schoolbooks but is not used consistently. Books for German were more gender fair in terms of linguistic forms than books for mathematics. For spatial arrangements, we found no indication for gender biases. The results are discussed with a focus on how schoolbooks can be optimized to contribute to gender equality.

Children's occupational interests and their perceptions of the divergent occupational successes of women and men reflect cultural gender norms. Since language is a vehicle for transporting gender cues and gender norms, we tested the premise that children's perceptions of stereotypically male jobs can be influenced by the linguistic form used to present an occupational title. Three experiments with 809 primary school students suggest that occupations presented in pair form (e.g., Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure, female and male engineers), compared to descriptions using the generic masculine form (e.g., Ingenieure), generally increase the mental accessibility of female jobholders, promote more gender-balanced perceptions of the success of males and females, and strengthen girls' interest in stereotypically male occupations. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Today, a major goal in higher education is the advancement of students' vocational competences. To assess the extent to which this goal is met, both competences acquired during university studies and later vocational success need to be measured. In our study, we collected self-ratings of competences (t1) and indicators of vocational success (t2) in 210 alumni of the Freie Universitat Berlin. Using structural equation models along with this longitudinal data, we found that self-ratings of competences accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in different measures of vocational success five years later. (Contains 4 tables.)