Life satisfaction, psychological stress, and present-moment attention: a generalizability study

During the last decade, many teachers have retired early, leading to increased discussions about how to improve and maintain their mental health. To address this concern early, we designed an online seminar covering the field of positive psychology by emphasizing on mindfulness, positive emotions about one's future, and resources for pre-service teachers. The seminar was designed to increase their wellbeing, as well as to decrease psychological stress. To explore the sensitivity of our measures to change, we investigate the following research questions: To what extent do we assess trait or state variability in students' outcomes and what are the levels of reliability achieved? Fifty-four students in their second year at a German university (median age 22 years) participated and they were asked to fill in questionnaires assessing their life satisfaction, psychological stress, and present-moment attention during each of nine sessions over the course of a semester. We performed Generalizability and Decision Studies to estimate variability between-students and within-students, error of measurement, as well as reliability. Our results show that life satisfaction and psychological stress reached high reliability, suggesting that students' trait and state variability were both assessed with high accuracy. On the other hand, the assessment of present-moment attention would benefit from adding more items to the questionnaires or collecting data from more sessions. We discuss how our findings impact research and practice

Kompetenz von Mathematiklehrkräften im internationalen Vergleich

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, inwiefern die Erfassung von Wissen und von situativen Fähigkeiten von Mathematiklehrpersonen im internationalen Vergleich bedeutsam ist, und ob relevante Unterschiede zwischen Lehrkräften durch entsprechende Messinstrumente herausgearbeitet werden können. Im Besonderen wird erörtert, ob sich die in internationalen Vergleichsstudien wiederholt berichteten starken Leistungen ostasiatischer Schulkinder durch die Kompetenz ihrer Mathematiklehrer*innen erklären lassen. Dabei kommen auch die Grenzen internationaler Vergleichsstudien zur Sprache. (DIPF/Orig.

Ein Seminarkonzept zur Verbesserung des Wohlbefindens und der Stressbewältigung für Lehramtsstudierende

Lehrpersonen sind häufig von psychischen oder psychosomatischen Krankheiten betroffen, die sich durch unspezifische körperliche Symptome wie Erschöpfung und Kopfschmerzen manifestieren. Erste Hinweise auf diese Problematik zeichnen sich aber bereits früher ab: Das Zusammenspiel aus überhöhten Ansprüchen und ungünstigem Zeitmanagement kann das Burnout-Risiko bei angehenden Lehrkräften steigern. Um die Studierenden bei der Bewältigung dieser Herausforderungen besser zu unterstützen, wurde ein innovatives Seminarkonzept entwickelt. Im Seminar sollen Entspannungstechniken, Achtsamkeit und Lernstrategien eingeübt werden, welche durch eine theoretische Fundierung untermauert werden. Darüber hinaus reflektieren Seminarteilnehmer*innen ihre Erfahrungen mit den verschiedenen angebotenen Methoden. Dies dürfte auf Seiten der Studierenden nicht nur zukünftig aufkommenden Stress verringern, sondern auch insgesamt zu einem höheren Wohlbefinden und Studienerfolg beitragen. Das Seminar wird durch eine multimethodische Evaluationsstudie begleitet, in der qualitative und quantitative Befragungen durchgeführt werden. Langfristig soll das Seminar im Curriculum der Lehramtsausbildung etabliert und Lehrkräften zur Verfügung gestellt werden

TIMSS 2019. Skalenhandbuch zur Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente und Arbeit mit den Datensätzen

Die Studie TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) ist eine international vergleichende Schulleistungsuntersuchung, die von der International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) – einem unabhängigen, internationalen Zusammenschluss von Forschungseinrichtungen, Wissenschaftler:innen sowie Regierungsstellen – durchgeführt wird. Das Kernanliegen der Studie ist es, langfristige Entwicklungen in den Bildungssystemen der teilnehmenden Staaten und Regionen zu untersuchen. Im Fokus stehen mathematische und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen von Viertklässler:innen. Mit dem vorliegenden Handbuch werden die im Rahmen von TIMSS 2019 in Deutschland eingesetzten Befragungsinstrumente dokumentiert. Das Handbuch umfasst damit die Instrumente, die Teil der internationalen Berichterstattung sind, und nationale Ergänzungen dieser Instrumente, die in Deutschland vorgenommen wurden. Um die Arbeit mit den Datensätzen der Studie zu ermöglichen, werden zudem System-, Organisations- und Linkingvariablen sowie nachträglich generierte Indizes dokumentiert. Deskriptive Statistiken und Skalenkennwerte ermöglichen eine Einschätzung der Verteilungen der eingesetzten Variablen sowie der Datenqualität. Die Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente ist in der Reihenfolge der Administration und nach den befragten Personengruppen gegliedert. Ferner ermöglichen Verzeichnisse und Übersichtstabellen einen inhaltlichen Zugang. (DIPF/Orig.

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world\u27s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications