Class Council between Democracy Learning and Character Education

Purpose: Class council has become a popular approach for character education and democracy learning in German schools. However, it is not clear if the expectations are met in social practice.Approach: The data was gained with an ethnographical multiple method approach within three contrasting secondary schools. The study is informed by practice theory, theory of school and theory of social pedagogics.Findings: Logics of the school and logics of social pedagogy clash in class council. Opportunities for a democratic and social pedagogically framed school are inevitably limited. Class council focusses more on personal development and character education and much less on political or democratic education. Certain forms of class council subtly aim at student’s approval of undemocratic practices; therefore, class council sometimes camouflages a de-politicization of the school.Research Implications: A comparison of democracy learning and character education in different pedagogical institutions is recommended for further research. The methodology of reconstructing logics of school and logics of social pedagogy from a practice theoretical and ethnographical perspective should be elaborated.Practical implications: Teachers need reflective competencies in order to recognize the limitations of participation in practice. While aiming at the ideal of the mature, civically engaged and socially competent citizen, the limitations of participation and the responsibilities of societal institutions like schools should be made subject of learning, as well.

Einblicke in die sprachlichen Leistungen türkischer Kinder mit Deutsch als Zweitsprache

Im Beitrag werden Ergebnisse eines Projekts präsentiert, in dem der Pluralerwerb bei türkischen Kindern mit Deutsch als Zweitsprache untersucht worden ist. Ziel ist es, bei türkischen Kindern mit Deutsch als Zweitsprache sowie bei einsprachig deutschen Kindern die Pluralverarbeitung zu untersuchen. Es wird die Hypothese zugrunde gelegt, dass die zweisprachigen Kinder in Abhängigkeit von ihrem Alter eine Verletzung des Plurals zunächst lexikalisch, dann zunehmend grammatisch verarbeiten: Das heißt, dass beispielsweise der Plural von Auto ("Autos") anfangs als Einzeleintrag im Lexikon (also lexikalisch) gespeichert wird und erst später die grammatische Regel "Auto" plus Pluralendung "s" (wird zu "Auto-s") greift. Dieser Prozess geht mit einer zunehmenden Effizienz des Lexikons einher, da nicht jedes Wort zusätzlich im Plural gespeichert werden muss. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob eine Verletzung des deutschen Plurals eine lexikalische oder eine grammatische elektrophysiologische Reaktion hervorruft. Zusätzlich werden neben einer ausführlichen Testung der deutschen sowie türkischen Sprachkenntnisse zahlreiche Hintergrundvariablen der Kinder (z. B. Entwicklung des Kindes, sprachliches Umfeld etc.) erfasst, so dass umfassende Analysen möglich sind. (ICF2

Combined mutation screening of NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 in congenital heart disease: multiple heterozygosity and novel mutations

Background: Variants of several genes encoding transcription modulators, signal transduction, and structural proteins are known to cause Mendelian congenital heart disease (CHD). NKX2-5 and GATA4 were the first CHD-causing genes identified by linkage analysis in large affected families. Mutations of TBX5 cause Holt–Oram syndrome, which includes CHD as a clinical feature. All three genes have a well-established role in cardiac development. Design: In order to investigate the possible role of multiple mutations in CHD, a combined mutation screening was performed in NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 in the same patient cohort. Samples from a cohort of 331 CHD patients were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction, double high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing in order to identify changes in the NKX2-5, GATA4, and TBX5 genes. Results: Two cases of multiple heterozygosity of putative disease-causing mutations were identified. One patient was found with a novel L122P NKX2-5 mutation in combination with the private A1443D mutation of MYH6. A patient heterozygote for a D425N GATA4 mutation carries also a private mutation of the MYH6 gene (V700M). Conclusions: In addition to reporting two novel mutations of NKX2-5 in CHD, we describe families where multiple individual mutations seem to have an additive effect over the pathogenesis of CHD. Our findings highlight the usefulness of multiple gene mutational analysis of large CHD cohorts

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

Contractualism as an element of democratic pedagogy?

Pedagogical practices are based on establishing commitment. Contractual pedagogy corresponds to a contract-based social order. Contractual pedagogy aims at democratizing pedagogical relationships. Contractual pedagogy involves a pedagogic process of collective subjectivation. Contractual pedagogy does not represent the kind of pedagogical ‘counter-model’ familiar to progressive pedagogies that aspire towards democratic codetermination. Purpose: This article investigates the establishment of commitment in pedagogical practices through what are known as ‘behavioural contracts’. Such contracts are seen as a participatory element of democratic pedagogy and are linked to the aim of strengthening students’ self-determination. The objective is to demonstrate that as a pedagogical phenomenon, contractual pedagogy is oriented towards a practice of self-control achieved through external control, assuming a basis of sovereignty and reason. Methodology: The article provides an investigation of material from an ethnographic research project in Germany on social learning in school-based pedagogical contexts. The study is informed by practice theory, theory of school and theory of social pedagogics. Findings: This article argues that contractual pedagogy as a subjectivising constellation is primarily directed towards re-establishing the pre-existing institutional order. It demonstrates that contractual pedagogy can neither be understood as a particularly participatory method of democratic pedagogy, nor as a governmental power strategy, but as a subjectivising exercise that introduces students to a central tenet in modern societies. Through this, connections are formed between specific forms of (collective) subjectivation. Research implications: Further theoretical and empirical analyses are required, which make other pedagogical impulses, such as an ethics of care or the critique of the subject, fruitful for Democratic Pedagogy

The relationship between input factors and early lexical knowledge in Turkish-German children

Lexical development of bilingual children is influenced by a number of input factors. In the present study, early lexical skills of 25-month old children growing up with Turkish and German were assessed. Parents of 92 children filled out a newly developed list for productive Turkish vocabulary, as well as a vocabulary list for German. A parental questionnaire served to examine the quality and quantity of familial and extra-familial language input. The results showed that children who grow up in a predominantly Turkish-speaking environment subsequently have a larger Turkish vocabulary than German vocabulary. More German input within the family was shown to lead to higher vocabulary scores, but not to a reduction of Turkish vocabulary at this age. Factors predicting vocabulary in both languages included parental language quality and quantity, as well as the number of available books and childcare

Supporting multilingual children’s language abilities before entering school : sociodemographic background and language achievement

Gute deutsche Sprachkenntnisse sind entscheidend für eine gelingende Schullaufbahn mehrsprachiger Kinder. Allerdings ist dies nicht immer gegeben. In Hessen werden zu diesem Zweck sprachliche Vorlaufkurse in Verantwortung der Schulen im letzten Jahr vor Schulbeginn durchgeführt. Im Rahmen einer größeren Evaluationsstudie, die sich mit der Effektivität verschiedener Varianten der Durchführung dieser Kurse beschäftigte, wird hier über die Ausgangsdaten der teilnehmenden Kinder berichtet. Dabei werden gravierende sprachliche Probleme offensichtlich, wie beispielsweise deutliche Wortschatzdefizite, die überwiegend auf eine mangelnde Förderung im Deutschen hinweisen. Diskutiert wird unter anderem die Tatsache, dass die überwiegende Mehrheit der Kinder schon mindestens zwei Jahre in einer Kindertagesstätte verbracht hat, was bessere Sprachkenntnisse vermuten ließe