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Abstract Intelligence and personality are both key drivers of learning. This study extends prior research on intelligence and personality by adopting a behavioral-process-related eye-tracking approach. We tested 182 adults on fluid intelligence and the Big Five personality traits. Eye-tracking information (gaze patterns) was recorded while participants completed the intelligence test. Machine learning models showed that personality explained 3.18% of the variance in intelligence test scores, with Openness and, surprisingly, Agreeableness most meaningfully contributing to the prediction. Facet-level measures of personality explained a larger amount of variance (7.67%) in intelligence test scores than the trait-level measures, with the largest coefficients obtained for Ideas and Values (Openness) and Compliance and Trust (Agreeableness). Gaze patterns explained a substantial amount of variance in intelligence test performance (35.91%). Gaze patterns were unrelated to the Big Five personality traits, but some of the facets (especially Self-Consciousness from Neuroticism and Assertiveness from Extraversion) were related to gaze. Gaze patterns reflected the test-solving strategies described in the literature (constructive matching, response elimination) to some extent. A combined feature vector consisting of gaze-based predictions and personality traits explained 37.50% of the variance in intelligence test performance, with significant unique contributions from both personality and gaze patterns. A model that included personality facets and gaze explained 38.02% of the variance in intelligence test performance. Although behavioral data thus clearly outperformed “traditional” psychological measures (Big Five personality) in predicting intelligence test performance, our results also underscore the independent contributions of personality and gaze patterns in predicting intelligence test performance.

Research on the big-fish-little-pond effect demonstrates that class-average achievement negatively affects students’ academic self-concept via social comparison processes. The neighborhood-effects literature reports positive effects of advantageous socioeconomic neighborhood conditions on students’ academic development via collective socialization mechanisms. To investigate how socioeconomic neighborhood conditions affect academic self-concept, we separately and simultaneously analyzed classroom- and neighborhood-level composition effects on students’ academic self-concept, using two samples drawn from two grade levels ( N G r a d e 5 = 3,906, N G r a d e 9 = 3,277). Analyses of the neighborhood level only indicate that socioeconomic neighborhood conditions negatively predict general, math, and German self-concept in Grade 5. In Grade 9, this holds only for math self-concept. In simultaneous analyses including classrooms and neighborhoods, socioeconomically advantageous neighborhood conditions negatively predicted general and math self-concept in Grade 5.

Informatik und informatisches Denken bleibt noch immer bei den Bildungsplänen für Grundschulen vieler Bundeslänger außen vor. Dies wird jedoch teilweise durch außerschulische Angebote kompensiert. In Baden-Württemberg und Hessen erhalten beispielsweise manche Kinder die Möglichkeit, an Kursen der Hector Kinderakademien teilzunehmen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Kurse des Hector-Informatikcurriculums Lehrkräften und Fachleuten im Bereich der Informatikbildung vorzustellen. Das Informatikcurriculum der Hector Kinderakademien besteht aus drei Kursen und richtet sich an begabte und hochbegabte Kinder der ersten bis vierten Klassenstufe, die an Informatik interessiert sind. Bei der Entwicklung und Etablierung der Kurse wird ein evidenzbasierter Ansatz verfolgt, das heißt, dass die Kurse von der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung der Hector Kinderakademien empirisch hinsichtlich ihrer Förderwirksamkeit untersucht werden. Erste Studien belegen die Förderwirkung der Kurse.

Abstract Early ability tracking increases inequalities in education. It has been proposed that the awareness of negative school-track-related stereotypes contributes to educational inequalities, as stereotype awareness interferes with students’ abilities to thrive, particularly those in lower, stigmatized tracks. The present study tested this assumption in a sample of 3880 German secondary school students from three tracks, who were assessed four times on stereotype awareness regarding their own school track and academic outcomes (achievement, engagement, self-concept) between Grades 5 and 8. Students in the lowest track reported higher levels of stereotype awareness than higher track students or students attending a combined track. Stereotype awareness increased across time in all tracks. Contrary to our preregistered hypotheses, however, the results from multigroup models revealed that (changes in) stereotype awareness were not more strongly related to (changes in) most outcomes in the lowest track in comparison with the other two tracks.

Abstract Higher-achieving peers have repeatedly been found to negatively impact students’ evaluations of their own academic abilities (i.e., Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect). Building on social comparison theory, this pattern is assumed to result from students comparing themselves to their classmates; however, based on existing research designs, it remains unclear how exactly students make use of social comparison information in the classroom. To determine the extent to which students (N = 353 sixth graders) actively attend and respond to social comparison information in the form of peers’ achievement-related behaviour, we used eye-tracking data from an immersive virtual reality (IVR) classroom. IVR classrooms offer unprecedented opportunities for psychological classroom research as they allow to integrate authentic classroom scenarios with maximum experimental control. In the present study, we experimentally varied virtual classmates’ achievement-related behaviour (i.e., their hand-raising in response to the teacher’s questions) during instruction, and students’ eye and gaze data showed that they actively processed this social comparison information. Students who attended more to social comparison information (as indicated by more frequent and longer gaze durations at peer learners) had less favourable self-evaluations. We discuss implications for the future use of IVR environments to study behaviours in the classroom and beyond.

Measurement(s) intelligence • eye movement • Socioeconomic Factors Technology Type(s) culture fair intelligence test (CFT-R) • eye tracking device • Questionnaire Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14173244

Understanding the main factors contributing to individual differences in fluid intelligence is one of the main challenges of psychology. A vast body of research has evolved from the theoretical framework put forward by Cattell, who developed the Culture-Fair IQ Test (CFT 20-R) to assess fluid intelligence. In this work, we extend and complement the current state of research by analysing the differential and combined relationship between eye-movement patterns and socio-demographic information and the ability of a participant to correctly solve a CFT item. Our work shows that a participant's eye movements while solving a CFT item contain discriminative information and can be used to predict whether the participant will succeed in solving the test item. Moreover, the information related to eye movements complements the information provided by socio-demographic data when it comes to success prediction. In combination, both types of information yield a significantly higher predictive performance than each information type individually. To better understand the contributions of features related to eye movements and socio-demographic information to predict a participant's success in solving a CFT item, we employ state-of-the-art explainability techniques and show that, along with socio-demographic variables, eye-movement data. Especially the number of saccades and the mean pupil diameter, significantly increase the discriminating power. The eye-movement features are likely indicative of processing efficiency and invested mental effort. Beyond the specific contribution to research on how eye movements can serve as a means to uncover mechanisms underlying cognitive processes, the findings presented in this work pave the way for further in-depth investigations of factors predicting individual differences in fluid intelligence.

Many students suffer from motivational problems when doing homework. To investigate whether an intervention that effectively promoted value beliefs in mathematics promoted students’ homework motivation and behavior, we analyzed data from a cluster randomized controlled study with two classroom-based relevance interventions (writing a text or evaluating quotes from interviews) with 82 classrooms and 1,978 ninth-grade students. Students’ math-specific homework motivation and behavior were assessed with homework diaries over a period of 4 weeks after the intervention. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that students in the text condition reported higher triggered interest but also lower homework completion than students in the control condition in the first week after the intervention. Students in the quotations condition reported higher utility of homework for future life, and higher homework effort directly after the intervention. The study highlights the potential of classroom-based relevance interventions to foster homework-specific outcomes, when considering situational, behavior-related measures.

Academic self-concept plays a central role in successful learning and is substantially shaped by social comparisons. Research on the so-called Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE) has yielded a highly robust and generalizable pattern of negative effects of higher class/school average achievement on students' self-concept when controlling for individual achievement. However, most BFLPE studies have not provided information about the causes behind or the mechanisms underlying the proposed effects. To address this, we used a fully immersive virtual reality (IVR) classroom to experimentally test the extent to which students recognized performance-related classroom behavior as implicit social comparison information and how these perceptions explained differences in students' self-concepts. Participants (N = 381 sixth-grade students) experienced an authentic yet standardized IVR teaching situation with virtual classmates who exhibited different performance levels (operationalized as 20% vs. 35% vs. 65% vs. 80% of classmates raising their hands). Hand-raising behavior had a significant positive effect on students' perceptions of the class' performance level (d[subscript 20% vs. 65%] = 0.60; d[subscript 20% vs. 80%] = 1.24). In line with the BFLPE, results showed a negative effect of higher performing classmates on students' situational self-concept (d[subscript 20% vs. 80%] = 0.30). Students' perceptions of the class' performance level fully explained the effect of classmates' hand-raising behavior on students' situational self-concept. The study's experimental approach provided new insights into the emergence of social comparison effects in the classroom, highlighting the major role of students' perceptions of their classmates' performance-related behavior, and moreover demonstrated the general potential of using IVR in classroom research.

Abstract Background One central goal of physical education in many countries is to empower students to be physically active throughout their lifespan. Physical activity-related health competence (PAHCO) encompasses physical, cognitive, and motivational elements associated with the individuals’ ability to be physically active in a health-enhancing way. To date, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning effective programs and methods to promote PAHCO in physical education. The purpose of this study is to examine to what extent a health and physical fitness-related program that includes learning tasks integrating theoretical and practical elements promotes students’ PAHCO in physical education. Design/methods This study is a cluster randomized controlled trial that compares two physical education intervention programs on health and physical fitness (IG-run, IG-game play) with regular physical education lessons (CG-run, CG-game play) in secondary schools in Germany. Forty-eight physical education classes (ninth grade) were recruited and randomly allocated to the four study groups. The intervention programs include six physical education lessons on health and physical fitness and only differ in the type of physical activity that is executed (running and jumping vs. small-sided games). The students’ PAHCO is examined both pre- and post-intervention and after 8–12 weeks of follow-up. We also determine various process variables during the intervention period to analyze the intervention fidelity. Discussion The results of this study provide evidence on whether a combination of theoretical and practical elements in physical education can enhance students’ PAHCO. Beyond that, our process analyses will allow differentiated insights into the mechanism of how the intervention programs work. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS), DRKS-ID: DRKS00016349. Retrospectively registered on 10 January 2019.

The present study investigated to what degree teachers’ personality traits, cognitive abilities, and academic abilities (high school GPA), which were assessed at the end of high school as well as grades from the first and second state examinations of teacher education, predict later instructional quality. The study combined ratings of instructional quality from 3,768 German secondary school students and their 113 teachers with up to 10 years between assessment of teachers’ personality traits, cognitive abilities, as well as academic abilities at the end of high school and student ratings of instructional quality. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that agreeableness, high school GPA, and the second state examination grade predicted teachers’ instructional quality.

Much research has examined the interplay of depression and self-esteem in an effort to determine whether depression causes self-esteem (scar model), or vice versa (vulnerability model). In the current longitudinal study (N = 2,318), we tested whether neuroticism served as a confounding variable that accounted for the association of depression and self-esteem, using both cross-lag models and latent growth models. We found neuroticism accounted for the majority of covariance between depression and self-esteem, to the degree that the scar and vulnerability models appear to be inadequate explanations for the relation between depression and self-esteem. Alternatively, neuroticism appears to be a viable cause of both depression and self-esteem and could explain prior work linking the two constructs over time.

Television programs are a central part of children's everyday lives. These programs often transmit stereotypes about gender roles such as “math is for boys and not for girls.” So far, however, it is unclear whether stereotypes that are embedded in television programs affect girls' and boys' performance, motivational dispositions, or attitudes. On the basis of research on expectancy-value theory and stereotype threat, we conducted a randomized study with a total of 335 fifth-grade students to address this question. As the experimental material, we used a television program that had originally been produced for a national TV channel. The program was designed to show children that math could be interesting and fun. In the experimental condition, the program included a gender stereotyped segment in which two girls who were frustrated with math copied their math homework from a male classmate. In the control condition, participants watched an equally long, neutral summary of the first part of the video. We investigated effects on boys' and girls' stereotype endorsement, math performance, and different motivational constructs to gain insights into differential effects. On the basis of prior research, we expected negative effects of watching the stereotypes on girls' performance, motivational dispositions, and attitudes. Effects on the same outcomes for boys as well as children's stereotype endorsement were explored as open questions. We pre-registered our research predictions and analyses before conducting the experiment. Our results provide partial support for short-term effects of gender stereotypes embedded in television programs: Watching the stereotypes embedded in the video increased boys' and girls' stereotype endorsement. Boys reported a higher sense of belonging but lower utility value after watching the video with the stereotypes. Boys' other outcome variables were not affected, and there were also no effects on girl's performance, motivational dispositions, or attitudes. Results offer initial insights into how even short segments involving gender stereotypes in television shows can influence girls' and boys' stereotype endorsement and how such stereotypes may constitute one factor that contributes to gender differences in the STEM fields.

Der Hausaufgabenvergabe wird ein signifikanter Beitrag zur Erklärung von Schulleistung zugesprochen. Bislang ist jedoch weitgehend ungeklärt, wie stark sich unterschiedliche Klassen überhaupt in ihrem mittleren Hausaufgabenverhalten unterscheiden und ob sich Faktoren auf Aggregatsebene (z.B. Kursniveau, Klassengrösse, Kantonszugehörigkeit) in dem Hausaufgabenerledigungsverhalten von Schülerinnen und Schülern niederschlagen. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung mit insgesamt 1312 Achtklässlern aus 73 Klassen mit deutscher Unterrichtssprache aus drei Schweizer Kantonen wurden Mehrebenenanalysen verwendet, um Hausaufgabenmotivation und Hausaufgabenverhalten von Schülerinnen und Schülern vorherzusagen. Die Analysen zeigen, dass Faktoren auf Klassen- und Schulebene in der Tat das häusliche Lernverhalten von Schülern in bedeutsamer Weise beeinflussen. Gleichzeitig wird deutlich, dass eine alleinige Berücksichtigung struktureller Aspekte wie Klassengrösse und Kursniveau nicht ausreichend ist. Die Erforschung der Hausaufgabenqualität wird angemahnt.

Personality traits and social cognitive variables are central constructs in psychological research. It is often assumed that personality traits are less changeable than social cognitive variables, and thus interventions usually tend to focus on the latter. However, these assumptions about the mutability of personality and social cognitive variables have never been tested side-by-side in a longitudinal study. Using a large longitudinal study with four time points and N = 3,876 students in 136 classes (99 schools), we compared the mutability of the Big Five personality traits and social cognitive constructs more often described as socioemotional skills or motivational variables (individual interest, self-concept, and academic effort in the school subjects math, English, and German). The results indicated that there are no marked differences between personality traits and social cognitive constructs across multiple indicators of stability or changeability.

One way to address the leaking pipeline toward STEM-related careers (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is to intervene on students’ STEM motivation in school. However, a neglected question in intervention research is how such interventions affect motivation in subjects not targeted by the intervention. This question was addressed through data from a cluster-randomized study in which a value intervention was successfully implemented in 82 ninth-grade math classrooms. Side effects on value, self-concept, and effort in German as students’ native language and English as a foreign language were assessed 6 weeks and 5 months after the intervention. Negative effects on value for German, but not for English, were found 5 months after the intervention. The theoretical and educational implications of such effects are discussed.

Drawing on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the unique contributions of the four major value beliefs and self-concept on achievement, self-reported effort, and teacher-rated behavioral engagement in mathematics. In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of self-concept and task values on educational outcomes using the latent moderated structural equation approach. Participants were 1,868 German ninth-grade students. The data analyses relied on a higher-order structure of value beliefs, which is suited to parsing the differential patterns of predictive relations for different value beliefs. The findings revealed that (a) self-concept was more predictive of achievement, whereas value beliefs were more predictive of self-rated effort; (b) self-concept and value beliefs emerged as equally important predictors of teacher-reported engagement; (c) among the four value beliefs, achievement was more associated with low cost, whereas effort was more associated with attainment value; and (d) latent interactions between self-concept and value beliefs predicted the three outcomes synergistically.

Der Übergang in die verschiedenen Bildungsgänge des Sekundarschulsystems ist eine zentrale Statuspassage im Leben junger Menschen. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Lernkompetenzeinschätzungen von Lehrkräften am Ende der Grundschule. Neben dem prädiktiven Effekt individueller Leistungsmerkmale sowie von Indikatoren des sozialen Hintergrunds wurde untersucht, ob die Lernkompetenzeinschätzung der Lehrkräfte in einem systematischen Zusammenhang mit der mittleren Leistungsstärke einer Klasse steht. Die empirischen Analysen basieren auf einer Stichprobe von 976 Schülerinnen und Schülern am Ende der Grundschulzeit in Berlin. In Mehrebenenanalysen waren Leistungsindikatoren sowie der sozioökonomische Status erwartungsgemäss positiv mit der Lernkompetenzeinschätzung assoziiert. Darüber hinaus fand sich bei Kontrolle der individuellen Leistung ein negativer Regressionskoeffizient des mittleren Leistungsniveaus der Klasse auf die Lernkompetenzeinschätzung, der als Referenzgruppeneffekt interpretiert werden kann.

Die jüngere Forschung zur Unterrichtsqualität im Fremdsprachenbereich weist auf die Notwendigkeit hin, die fachübergreifenden Qualitätsdimensionen des Unterrichts durch fachspezifische Beschreibungsmodelle zu ergänzen. In der vorliegenden Studie werden theoretische Annahmen über fachdidaktische Determinanten von Leistung und Interesse im Fremdsprachenunterricht anhand einer Stichprobe von 1 655 Achtklässlern aus den drei Schweizer Kantonen Freiburg, Luzern und Wallis überprüft. Auf faktorenanalytischem Wege konnten für das Fach Französisch als Fremdsprache folgende fünf Faktoren extrahiert werden: Gebrauch der französischen Sprache im Unterricht, Intensität des Übens und Anwendens, Einbezug lebensweltlicher Materialien, Vokabellernen und Kommunikation mit Fremdsprachigen. Mittels anschliessender Mehrebenenanalysen konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Gebrauch des Französischen und intensives Üben/Anwenden statistisch signifikant mit einer günstigen Entwicklung von Leistung und des Interesses im Verlaufe eines Jahres assoziiert waren. Ohne Einfluss blieb das Lernen von Vokabeln. Erwartungswidrig fand sich ein negativer Zusammenhang zwischen der Kommunikation mit Fremdsprachigen und der Entwicklung von Interesse an der betreffenden Sprache.