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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 (MAge = 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., European journal of psychology of education;38(2)

Abstract. Feeling excluded by fellow students may be associated with lower levels of adaptive help-seeking. In a cross-sectional study, we compared self-reported help-seeking strategies (autonomy-oriented, dependency-oriented, help-seeking avoidance) among N = 418 students in 25 seminar and tutorial groups in the undergraduate introductory courses of two subject domains: computer science and education. Analyses showed that, overall, students reported lower autonomy-oriented help-seeking and higher help-seeking avoidance in computer science than in education. In computer science, perceived peer exclusion predicted more help-seeking avoidance among both male and female students and less autonomy-oriented help-seeking among females. In education, however, perceived peer exclusion was a significant predictor of both male and female students’ lower autonomy-oriented help-seeking. Results suggest that, in computer science, help-seeking appears to have an “image problem” signaling competence-related inferiority rather than being a form of effective self-regulated learning. Implications for enhancing adaptive help exchange cultures in computer science are discussed.

Abstract. How do different aspects of students' self-relate to their development at school? In educational psychology, this question has been examined essentially only in terms of the influence of the ability self-concept, a central part of the personal self. Starting with a literature review on why and how the ability self-concept impacts motivation and student outcomes, we argue that social selves – learners' knowledge about their group memberships and associated evaluations – have an impact, too. Students are more intrinsically motivated and more successful if they experience fit between learning environment and important self-aspects. Accordingly, we suggest a model according to which students try to increase fit by exerting primary control, i. e., by proactively changing the environment, with the self as agent. To that end (i) they mentally project the self as different from the actual self, with the mental self-projection serving as a self-evaluative standard and motiving behaviors aiming at its attainment, (ii) they choose behavioral options that allow for the enactment of important self-aspects, (iii) they choose interaction partners who share important self-aspects or are supportive of their behavioral enactment, and (iv) they switch between or prioritize different values, to best match affordances and constraints of the learning environment. If a student repeatedly fails to achieve fit through primary control, secondary control strategies are deployed, i. e., internal processes aimed at minimizing losses and saving resources for the pursuit of more attainable goals. To that end, students either disidentify with the learning environment or redefine their selves in a reactive manner, with, in many cases, detrimental effects on their academic outcomes. We hope to inspire educational psychologists to more systematically investigate the different self-aspects' impact on social and academic development of learners at school.

We present a school-based intervention geared to foster the social integration of recently immigrated (RI) primary school children by creating repeated positive contact situations with classmates brought up in the receiving society. Coaches encouraged groups of tandems, consisting of one RI and one child brought up in Germany each, to engage in cooperative activities designed to strengthen positive self-beliefs and perception of equal status. In a quasi-experimental control-group design (N = 318), we compared the 30 children (12 RI) who participated in our intervention between pre-test and post-test with a reference group. Self-beliefs were measured via self-reports, social integration via sociometric peer-nominations. The reference group (n = 288 children) included all children who did not participate in the intervention between pre-test and post-test: (a) 12 children (7 RI) of a waiting control group and (b) all classmates of both the students of the intervention and the waiting control group. Post-test self-beliefs were more positive in children having participated in the intervention. The intervention did not affect social integration: Neither the number of classmates nominating a student nor the number of peers the respective student nominated increased. Possibly, the intervention initiated self-reinforcing processes which support social integration over longer time periods.

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.

Die Entwicklung und Realisierung interdisziplinärer Forschungsvorhaben brauchen verlässliche Strukturen, um vertrauensvolle Kooperationen aufzubauen, Support vonseiten der Leitungsgremien und einen beständigen kommunikativen Austausch der verschiedenen Disziplinen. In der fachdisziplinär differenzierten Hochschullandschaft finden sich nur wenige Organisationsformate, die diese Strukturen bieten und sichern. Mit dem Centre 'Bildung, Wissen, Innovation' etabliert sich an der Leibniz Universität Hannover ein solch forschungsorientiertes Zentrum. In dem Artikel stellen die Gründungsmitglieder eine erste Struktur sowie ihre jeweiligen disziplinären Perspektiven vor und zeigen daran anschlussfähige Potenziale für die Realisierung interdisziplinärer Forschungen auf.

With the fast-growing sector of information technology in digitizing societies, the attraction and education of qualified recruits in computer science becomes a key task of tertiary education. Considering the high dropout rates and the continuing gender gap in computer science, the current study builds on the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) by investigating belonging uncertainty in computer science as a predictor of students’ dropout intentions. In a study with first-semester computer science students (N = 217) at two time points, we tested the hypotheses that female students experience a greater belonging uncertainty than male students and that this belonging uncertainty is predictive of students’ dropout intentions. Furthermore, we explored whether belonging uncertainty is a more relevant predictor of female than male students’ intentions to drop out of computer science. In line with our predictions, our results show that female students experienced greater uncertainty about their belonging within the domain of computer science than male students and that belonging uncertainty significantly predicted students’ dropout intentions above and beyond the pertinent predictors academic self-efficacy, expectancy of success, perceived future utility value of the subject, and previous academic performance. Belonging uncertainty, however, was a relevant predictor of both female and male computer science students’ dropout intentions.

Abstract. Stereotypically, men are expected to outperform women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains, and women to outperform men in language. We conceptually replicated this association using reverse correlation tasks. Without available gender information, participants generated male images of physics teachers and female images of language teachers (Studies 1 and 3). Personal endorsement of respective ability stereotypes inconsistently predicted these effects (Studies 1 and 3). With unambiguous gender information (Study 2), participants generated feminized images of female language teachers and masculinized images of female physics teachers, whereas images of male teachers were unaffected by academic domain. Stereotype endorsement affected perceptions of female but not male teachers, suggesting that appearing feminine in STEM domains still signals professional mismatch.

In this research, we investigated adaptive academic helpseeking in mathematics, i.e., asking better performing peers for help, and the factors facilitating or undermining it. We measured adolescents' sociometric friendship and mathematics help-seeking nominations in 50 classrooms of the 9th grade. Based on friendship nominations, we identified cliques and compared mathematics help-seeking within and beyond cliques. Multilevel analyses accounting for individual and classroom characteristics, as well as similarity on the pair level, showed that students, overall, were more likely to nominate better performing helpers who shared their gender, migration background status, and religious affiliation . Further, students were more likely to nominate helpers from within their own friendship cliques. When students outside the clique were nominated as helpers, they performed much better than nominated within-clique helpers. Low-achieving students were less likely to nominate helpers. We discuss how factors undermining adolescents' adaptive help-seeking can be overcome in the classroom.

Der Schul- und Unterrichtsalltag wird maßgeblich durch soziale Interaktionen geprägt. Sowohl Beziehungen mit Lehrer*innen als auch mit Schülern und Schülerinnen (Peers) tragen zentral zu Lehr-/Lernprozessen und persönlicher Entwicklung der Heranwachsenden bei. Bei Lehrkräften entscheiden sie über Erfolg und Misserfolg beruflichen Handelns und finden dementsprechend zunehmend auch in der Lehrer*innenbildung Berücksichtigung. Was lange Zeit als „Kuschelpädagogik“ belächelt wurde, entpuppt sich – auch durch aktuelle Befunde aus der Hirnforschung – als einer der wichtigsten Bausteine für erfolgreiche Lehr-Lernprozesse: die Qualität der sozialen Beziehungen – subsumiert unter dem Begriff der sozialen Eingebundenheit. In diesem Band werden sowohl theoretische Beiträge als auch aktuelle empirische Befunde zu Lehrer*innen-Schüler*innen-Beziehungen, Schüler*innen-Schüler*innen-Beziehungen und Beziehungen in der Lehrer*innenbildung vereint. Der Band richtet sich an Personen, die sich mit sozialen Beziehungen im Bereich Schule und Lehrer*innenbildung beschäftigen, sei es durch eigene Forschungstätigkeiten, das Studium oder eine Tätigkeit in ebendieser Praxis.

What does it take to feel you belong? Using a sample of 606 students in 30 classrooms, with 15 classrooms participating in a school-based dance intervention, we examined intra- and extrapsychic sources of social belonging using social network analysis. Whereas outdegree (the number of outgoing liking nominations to classmates) served as a proxy variable for students’ active acceptance of others, indegree (the number of ingoing liking nominations from other peers) served as a proxy variable for the passive acceptance by others. Both measures should account for changes in students’ sense of belonging to their classroom. Multilevel longitudinal mediation analyses supported our predictions—increased belonging related to increasing acceptance by others and of others, which were experienced by students participating in the dance intervention for a year (vs. a non-treated control group). We discuss our findings within the current debate on the use of distal variables to explain intrapsychic constructs.

Kinder mit sprachlichem Migrationshintergrund stehen beim Erwerb sprachlicher Kompetenzen in der Schule vor besonderen Herausforderungen. Wir untersuchen Stereotypenbedrohung als mogliche Ursache fur einen geringeren Wortschatzzuwachs. N = 118 Kinder mit sprachlichem Migrationshintergrund aus 18 Grundschulklassen der vierten Jahrgangsstufe wurden randomisiert einer expliziten, einer impliziten oder keiner Stereotypenbedrohung ausgesetzt und sollten im Anschluss schwierige Worter erlernen. Erwartungsgemas war der Wortschatzzuwachs in den beiden Bedrohungsbedingungen, insbesondere in der expliziten, geringer als in der Kontrollbedingung. Bisherige Studien erganzend zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass Kinder sich weniger verbessern, wenn in einer Lernsituation ihre Zugehorigkeit zur Gruppe der Schulerinnen und Schuler mit nicht deutscher Familiensprache betont wird. Die vorhergesagte Moderation der Wirkung des Treatments auf den Wortschatzzuwachs uber die ethnische Identifikation als deutsch oder Mitglied der eigenen Herkunftskultur zeigte sich nicht. Implikationen fur die Forderung von Kindern mit Migrationshintergrund werden diskutiert.

Zusammenfassung. In dieser Studie überprüften wir anhand der Daten von 1039 Neuntklässler/inne/n die Annahme, dass Aspirationen nach guten Leistungen in Deutsch und Mathematik in unterschiedlichem Maße von der geschlechtsmäßigen Klassenkomposition bestimmt sind – je nachdem, welche Bedeutsamkeit die Jugendlichen ihrem Geschlecht beimessen. Auf visuellen Skalen gaben die Jugendlichen an, welche Zentralität sie ihrem Geschlecht in der Selbstbeschreibung einräumen und in welchem Ausmaß sie gute Leistungen eher in Mathematik (männlich-konnotiert) oder Deutsch (weiblich-konnotiert) anstreben. Für Jugendliche mit hoher Geschlechtszentralität zeigten sich keine kontextuellen Einflüsse. Für Jugendliche mit niedriger Geschlechtszentralität zeigte sich, dass Mädchen in Minoritätssituationen, Jungen aber in Majoritätssituationen stereotypere Aspirationen berichteten. Zudem waren Aspirationen von Jungen und Mädchen in mädchendominierten Klassen flexibler: hier waren die Jugendlichen gleichermaßen bemüht in Deutsch bzw. Mathematik gute Leistungen zu zeigen. Diskutiert werden sozial-kognitive und normentheoretische Erklärungsansätze sowie Implikationen für die pädagogische Praxis.

Combining complete social networks and structural equation modeling, we investigate how two learning-related cognitions, academic self-efficacy and growth mindsets, relate to integration in support networks of 580 university students in 30 seminar groups. We assessed integration as popularity in academic support networks (being an academic helper and collaborator) and in social support networks (being a friend and resource for sharing personal difficulties). Perceived integration in both networks was measured with self-reports, whereas actual integration in both networks was measured with sociometric peer-reports. Structural equation modeling showed that students who were initially more integrated in academic support networks became more integrated in social support networks over time, but not vice versa. Students with higher academic self-efficacy perceived themselves to be an academic resource for others, which in turn enhanced peer-reported academic integration. Academic self-efficacy was related to growth mindsets and growth mindsets were related to actual integration in academic support networks.

We investigated the reciprocal associations between academic self-enhancement and key indicators of intra- and interpersonal adjustment as well as the role of self-esteem as a mediator. This longitudinal study involved three assessments in a sample of 709 German children and adolescents (Mage = 11.83; 54% female) over the course of one academic year. We assessed self-reported subjective well-being as an indicator of intrapersonal adjustment and peer-reported popularity as an indicator of interpersonal adjustment. We computed cross-lagged and longitudinal mediational analyses. Academic self-enhancement prospectively predicted high subsequent well-being and popularity. Vice versa, well-being and popularity prospectively predicted high subsequent levels of self-enhancement. High self-esteem mediated the longitudinal associations between self-enhancement and well-being in both directions, but not the links between self-enhancement and popularity. Self-enhancement and adjustment are bidirectionally linked: Self-enhancement entails intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits; at the same time, adjustment in both domains fosters self-enhancement. In terms of intrapersonal, but not interpersonal adjustment, self-esteem seems to serve as a linchpin, accounting for all longitudinal associations. Furthermore, we present evidence indicating that self-enhancement indicators that are based on difference scores (instead of residuals) are problematic and might have led to negatively biased results in the literature.

We argue that it is impossible to conceptualize either the self independently of a person’s social networks, or a social network independently of the individual selves that constitute it. In order to substantiate this claim, we illustrate the manifold associations that are to be found between the structure and content of individual self-knowledge, on the one hand, and the structure and composition of a person’s social networks, on the other. We then go on to demonstrate how these correlations are formed by explicating specific mechanisms of how individuals and their networks mutually influence each other. In conclusion, we discuss the applicability of our reflections with respect to a central concept of self-reflective cognitions in educational contexts, namely, the self-concept of ability. We present the manner in which viewing this concept through the lens of social network analysis can stimulate future research and generate new insights.

Constructive handling of mistakes enhances successful learning and involves an affective and a cognitive dimension: (a) low fear of making mistakes (FOM) and (b) high positive learning orientation towards mistakes (PLOM). We examine the role of collaborative peer networks for both dimensions of students’ constructive handling of mistakes by analyzing their overall structure (density) and students’ embeddedness into the structure (number of reciprocal relations). We found different patterns for the affective and cognitive dimension: Students reported lower FOM in classrooms with denser collaborative peer networks and when they were more embedded in the structure, but only to the extent that they also showed high levels of general self-efficacy. Students’ PLOM was higher when they had more reciprocal collaborative relations to classmates and higher general self-efficacy. Denser collaborative networks did not predict students’ PLOM. Results are discussed against the background of social cognitive theory and recent accounts of co- and self-regulated learning.

This research investigates how students from immigrant families whose first language differs from the language of instruction at school view themselves while at school, depending on the way in which they use their first and second language. While some immigrant students are inclined to predominantly use their first language in the home environment but their second language while at school (separate language use pattern, S-LUP), others use their first and second language across social settings (fused language use pattern, F-LUP). We expected self-views of immigrant students with S-LUP to more strongly depend on the immediate (language) context than self-views of F-LUP students. We content-analysed open self-descriptions which 569 adolescents with different first languages had provided in their second language, the language of instruction at school, while at school. As expected, compared to F-LUP students, S-LUP students’ self-views contained more school-related descriptions, i.e., more self-descriptions bound to the immediate language context, but fewer homerelated descriptions, i.e., fewer self-aspects bound to a first language context. Implications for language policies and educational practices in culturally heterogeneous schools are discussed.

Objective The present research investigated the effects of adolescents' co-participation in a federally funded dance intervention project on students' affective and collaborative networks . In the intervention, students instructed by professional dancers collaboratively developed a dance-choreography during regular class hours in student groups. We expected that the number of reciprocated affective and collaborative ties should increase in classrooms participating in the intervention, but that boys should particularly benefit from the intervention. Design We used a quasi-experimental untreated control group design with dependent pretest and posttest samples. Participants were 421 youths (48% boys) in 23 classrooms of primary and secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Of these, 226 (54%) participated in the intervention. Classrooms from the same grade and school were recruited as comparison groups. We assessed both networks using sociometric questionnaires. Method/Results We found a significant Treatment × Gender interaction showing that reciprocated collaborative relations increased only for boys in the intervention group. Analyses probing potential mechanisms showed this was due to their choosing more collaboration partners, in particular more girls. Conclusion Findings suggest that school-based dancing programs encouraging coordinated physical activity in student groups may be particularly beneficial for boys, encouraging them to consider girls as academic cooperation partners and to proactively develop their collaborative networks.

Fehler können wichtige Lernprozesse in Gang setzen, wobei entscheidend ist, wie Lernende mit Fehlern umgehen. In der vorliegenden Studie werden auf Individualebene Unterschiede zwischen Lernenden in zwei Aspekten des Umgangs mit Fehlern beschrieben, nämlich positive Hinwendung zu eigenen Fehlern (Fehlerlernorientierung, FLO) und angstvolle Vermeidung fehlerhafter Handlungen (Fehlerangst, FA). Auf Klassenebene werden Unterschiede zwischen Lernkontexten durch den schülerperzipierten Umgang der Lehrperson mit Fehlern im Unterricht (Fehlerfreundlichkeit, FF) erfasst. Ergebnisse einer konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse verweisen auf die Unabhängigkeit der Dimensionen FLO, FA und FF. In einer Stichprobe von 421 Primarstufenschüler/inne/n erwiesen sich in Mehrebenenanalysen FLO und FA–auch bei Berücksichtigung der verwandten Konstrukte Lernziel- vs. Leistungszielorientierung–als prädiktiv für schulische Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen, Lernfreude und Anstrengungsbereitschaft, wohingegen FF wider Erwarten nicht mit den Kriteriumsvariablen zusammenhing.

Is the perception of academic performance among peers biased to the disadvantage of students with migration background (MB)? What role does friendship among peers play for the perception of performance differences? In a quasi-experimental study, 9th graders with and without MB attending school in Germany rated the performance of a comparison partner relative to their own performance after taking a mathematics test. Degrees of correspondence between perceived and actual performance in intragroup (both partners with or without MB) and intergroup (comparer or partner with migration background) situations were tested in multilevel analyses. In both intragroup comparison situations, students evaluated their partners’ performances benevolently. In contrast, in intergroup situations students with MB overestimated the performance of partners without MB relative to their own. Only students without MB judging partners with MB showed no such positivity bias. The pattern was replicated in the sub sample of friends, suggesting a subtle, yet powerful negative performance stereotype towards students with MB.

Wir untersuchen die Bedeutung verschiedener Komponenten der Identifikation mit Herkunftskultur (IHK) und Aufnahmekultur (IAK; Deutschland) für die soziale Integration Jugendlicher mit Migrationshintergrund in ihrer Schulklasse. Das Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure ( Phinney, 1992 ) wurde zur Erfassung der IHK ins Deutsche übertragen und durch eine analoge Skala zur Erfassung der IAK ergänzt. Es zeigte sich eine einfaktorielle Struktur für IHK und eine dreidimensionale (affektiv, kognitiv-informationssuchend, bewertend-bilanzierend) für IAK. In Mehrebenenanalysen erwies sich die soziale Integration, gemessen über den Anteil von Freund/inn/en ohne Migrationshintergrund in der Schulklasse, mit zunehmender IHK als schwächer und mit zunehmend positivem Affekt gegenüber der Aufnahmekultur als stärker. Negative Zusammenhänge zwischen IHK und IAK sprechen für erlebten Assimilationsdruck. Die Ergebnisse ermutigen dazu, in zukünftiger Forschung mit Migrantenjugendlichen in Deutschland die Teilkomponenten von IHK und IAK differentiell zu berücksichtigen.

Immigrants' sense of self can be derived both from being members of their ethnic in-group and their country of residence. We examined how the ways in which immigrant adolescents integrate these self-views in relation to academic success in German schools. Students describe themselves at school and when with family. Using a standardized literacy performance test, analyses revealed that immigrants whose school-related self-view did not include Germany were less successful: Students who described their self as including both aspects of their ethnic group and Germany, and students who saw themselves predominantly as German, outperformed students with purely ethnic school-related selves. As expected, though, an ethnic family-related self-view did not have a negative impact on scholastic achievements.

Geschlechtsabhangige Benachteiligungen in der Schule – beispielsweise sichtbar in fachspezifisch unterschiedlichen Defiziten von Madchen und Jungen – werfen die Frage auf, wie Schule gestaltet werden kann, damit sie einen moglichst geschlechtergerechten Lernort darstellt. Wir beleuchten drei Kontextmerkmale des Klassenzimmers hinsichtlich ihres potentiellen Beitrags zu Geschlechtergerechtigkeit im Klassenzimmer

In an era during which affirmative action in education is in jeopardy, it is important to understand how the ideologies of high-status ethnic group members maintain (or reduce) social inequality. We examine the extent to which the relationship between egalitarianism and prejudice among European American and Asian American adolescents can be explained by outgroup orientation (i.e., how much one values interacting with members of other ethnic groups) and strength of identification with one's ethnic group. Using structural equation modeling, we tested whether these two variables mediate the relationship between egalitarianism and intergroup prejudice. Results revealed that outgroup orientation was a mediator, but ethnic identity was not. Implications for mutual acculturation theory, prejudice-reduction programs, and affirmative action in education are discussed.