Maturitätsprofile als differenzielle Lernkontexte. Eine empirische Analyse des Zusammenhanges zwischen institutionellen Rahmungen und Kompetenzentwicklungen der Gymnasiastinnen und Gymnasiasten

In diesem Beitrag wird die Frage gestellt, inwiefern in der gymnasialen Ausbildung in der Entwicklung von überfachlichen Kompetenzen sowohl profil- wie auch geschlechtsspezifische Effekte in Abhängigkeit des Lernkontextes (Maturitätsprofile) sichtbar werden. Die präsentierten Ergebnisse basieren auf einer 2x2 univariaten multifaktoriellen Kovarianzanalyse. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Maturitätsprofile als Institutionalisierung schulischer Ausbildungen in einem bedeutsamen Zusammenhang stehen mit der Entwicklung der überfachlichen Kompetenzen der Schüler/innen. Interaktionseffekte lassen sich in einzelnen Kompetenzdimensionen identifizieren und verweisen in den meisten Fällen darauf, dass sich männliche Jugendlichen in einzelnen Profilen stärker von ihren Kollegen in den anderen Profilen unterscheiden als weibliche Jugendliche. (DIPF/Orig.)«Maturity profiles» are different upper secondary school tracks diplomas. This paper investigates to what extent the development of cross-curricular competencies in upper secondary education depends on the students gender and on their learning context related to each maturity profile. The results presented are based on a 2x2 analysis of variance. The results show that maturity profiles, as institutionalisation of secondary schooling, show a significant correlation with the development of students’ cross-curricular competencies in students. Interaction effects can be identified on specific competency dimensions ; in most cases they indicate stronger differences of competency between young males of different maturity profiles than between young females. (DIPF/Orig.

Systeme der Rechenschaftslegung und Schulentwicklung. Editorial

Für die Weiterentwicklung des Monitoring- und Rechenschaftssystems in Deutschland ist es notwendig, die Einführung der jeweiligen Monitoringinstrumente unter Berücksichtigung der international vorliegenden empirischen Ergebnisse zu gestalten und empirisch zu untersuchen, welche zielkonvergenten wie auch zieldivergenten Auswirkungen diese Verfahren auf die Schul- und Unterrichtsqualität, auf die Schulentwicklung und auf die Entwicklung der Kompetenzen und Bildungsprozesse der Schülerinnen und Schüler haben. Rechenschaftssysteme sind somit vor allem in ihrer Funktionalität für die Schulentwicklung zu beurteilen. Dazu besteht in den deutschsprachigen Ländern insgesamt ein hoher Forschungsbedarf, wobei in besonderem Maße Wirkungs- und Längsschnittanalysen sowohl auf individueller wie auf schulischer Ebene unter Berücksichtigung multidimensionaler Kriterien fehlen. Der vorliegende Thementeil integriert vier Beiträge zum Thema. (DIPF/Orig.

The introduction of central A-level exams in Bremen. A case study

In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, inwiefern sich schulisches Handeln von Lehrer/-innen und Schüler/-innen im Zuge der Einführung von zentralen Abiturprüfungen verändert hat. Basis bilden Fokusgruppengespräche im Bundesland Bremen. Die ersten Erhebungen fanden 2005 statt, als das Abitur noch vollständig dezentral organisiert war, die zweiten Erhebungen wurden 2007 nach der ersten Durchführung zentraler Abiturprüfungen im dritten Prüfungsfach realisiert. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf einzelne Veränderungen hin, die teilweise negativ, teilweise auch positiv ausgefallen sind. (DIPF/Orig.)This article analyses to what extend teacher and pupil classroom action has changed in the course of the introduction of central A-level exams. The analysis is based on focus group talks in the federal state of Bremen. The first survey took place in 2005 when A-level exams were still organised internally. The second survey was realised in 2007 after the A-level exams were carried out in the third written examinations for the first time. The results indicate marginal, partly negative and partly positive changes. (DIPF/Orig.

Adapting routines in schools when facing challenging situations: extending previous theories on routines by considering theories on self-regulated and collectively regulated learning

Routines play a major role in educational change in schools. But what happens if the routines performed by school staff fail to deal successfully with current challenges? What strategies aid adaptation of the routines in a specific situation? Up to now, there exists no comprehensive concept for understanding why and at what points the adapting of routines in schools in a specific situation takes a favorable or unfavorable direction. To address this gap, we propose extending theories on routines by considering theories on self-regulated and collectively regulated learning. We consider these theories to be a beneficial complement because of their broad theoretical, methodological, and empirical research base. We argue that these theories enhance the understanding of adapting routines to specific challenging situations in schools. We present a newly developed theoretical framework for dealing with specific challenging situations in schools as an interplay between routines and regulation processes. Finally, important research questions regarding the suggested approach are discussed

School improvement research. Current Focuses and Further Perspectives

Schulentwicklungsforschung hat über die Jahre den Blick auf ihren Forschungsgegenstand verändert. Im Zentrum dieses Beitrags steht die Auseinandersetzung mit drei aktuellen Zugängen der Schulentwicklungsforschung, die an kurzen Beispielen vorgestellt und hinsichtlich ihres Potenzials analysiert werden. Die Bilanz zeigt, dass es in Zukunft wichtig sein wird, Schulentwicklungsforschung als eigenständigen Forschungsbereich zu bewahren und die Entwicklung von Schule methodisch breit zu untersuchen. (DIPF/Orig.)Throughout the past years, school improvement research has altered the perspective on its object of research. Key component of this short report is the discussion of three recent approaches to school improvement research by means of presenting short examples and an examination of their potentials. The authors conclude that the preservation of school improvement research as an independent field of study is essential and that methodologically broad approaches to school improvement should guide future research in the field. (DIPF/Orig.

"Title does not dictate behavior": associations of formal, structural, and behavioral brokerage with school staff members' professional well-being

Individuals in brokerage positions are vital when further developing complex organizations with multiple subgroups only loosely coupled to each other. Network theorists have conceptualized an individual’s brokerage as the degree to which a person occupies a bridging position between disconnected others. Research outside the school context has indicated for quite some time that an individual’s social capital in the form of brokerage is positively associated with professional development—not only on a collective but also on an individual level. Schools are without any doubt complex organizations with multiple loosely connected stakeholders involved when further developing their educational practice. Thus, it is not surprising that in recent years, the concept of brokerage has gained interest in research on school improvement as well. Up to now, in school improvement research brokerage has been operationalized in different ways: as individuals’ formal entitlement to act as intermediaries (formal brokerage), their position within a social network (structural brokerage), or their behavior when linking disconnected groups of staff members (behavioral brokerage). As these perspectives have often been examined separately, this study, as a first step, aimed to simultaneously assess school staff members’ formal, structural, and behavioral brokerage, and examine their degree of interrelatedness. In a second step, associations of brokerage with professional well-being were analyzed. Even though there is evidence for the positive impact of brokerage on professional development, only little is known about its associations with professional well-being. In a third step, interaction effects were examined when formal brokerage is congruent or incongruent with other facets of brokerage. Based on a sample of 1,316 school staff members at 51 primary schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, we conducted both bivariate correlational and multiple-group structural equation modeling analyses. The findings revealed that formal, structural, and behavioral brokerage are interrelated facets. However, formal entitlement did not determine either structural position or behavior. Moreover, brokerage within schools was only partially related to professional well-being. In the discussion section, the study’s key contributions and practical implications are presented in detail

Types of social help-seeking strategies in different and across specific task stages of a real, challenging long-term task and their role in academic achievement

Social help seeking (SHS) is an important strategy for successful self-regulated learning at all school levels. The aim of this longitudinal study is threefold: to ascertain the existence of different types of SHS strategies in various task stages of creating an individual academic paper, examine the extent to which these types of SHS strategies change in the course of that challenging long-term task and analyse the extent to which these types are relevant to academic achievement. This examination extends previous studies by adopting a task-specific, person-centred development perspective on SHS outside regular classroom instruction. In particular, we explore SHS types in the context of a real, long-term task, whereby aspects neglected in previous studies (need for help, help sources based on specific issue areas) are used for type creation and test for differences in academic achievement. Three online questionnaires were completed by 603 upper secondary school-level students (62.9% female) with a mean age of 17.3 (SD = .71) within one school year. Latent class analyses, latent transition analyses (LTA) and nonparametric procedures (Kruskal-Wallis H test, post hoc Dunn-Bonferroni test) were performed. Different SHS types were identified (independents, factual supervisor-focused, factual supervisor-focused and motivational family-focused, motivational family-focused, and factual and motivational family-focused) and found to vary over different task stages. Moreover, LTA indicated a considerable change between the SHS types over time. Nevertheless, no significant differences in achievement emerged between the types per task stage, thus reflecting the adage, 'There is more than one way of doing it'

The relationship between success and failure causal attributions and achievement goal orientations

The aim of this study was to investigate whether four causal attributions for success and failure each (two internal and two external attributions) can be predicted by four types of achievement goal orientations, and whether achievement goal orientations are connected with the perception of a performance as a success (vs. a failure). We surveyed 690 high school students writing a school-leaving certificate paper over the course of one year. Of these, 565 students (65 % young women) considered their paper to be a success; 101 students (59 % young women) viewed it as a failure. A binominal logistic regression and two separate path models for the success and failure samples were conducted. The main findings showed that the odds of perceiving an outcome as a success were higher with mastery goals and performance-avoidance goals. Mastery goal and performance-approach goal orientation were positively related to internal success attributions. Mastery goal orientation was positively and performance-approach goal orientation was negatively connected with the failure attribution ‘popularity with the supervisor.’ Performance-avoidance goals were positively linked to external success attributions and negatively linked to the external failure attribution ‘luck.’ Work-avoidance goals predicted all types of success attributions but none of the failure attributions. The findings provide in-depth insights into attribution processes and highlight the importance of promoting a mastery goal orientation

Bridging gaps: a systematic literature review of brokerage in educational change

Bridging gaps between educational stakeholders at the classroom, school, and system levels is essential to achieve sustainable change in primary and secondary education. However, transferring knowledge or building capacity within this network of loosely coupled stakeholders is demanding. The brokerage concept holds promise for studying these complex patterns of interaction, as it refers to how specific actors (brokers) link loosely coupled or disconnected individuals (brokering). However, different research traditions, in terms of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, and various stakeholders examined in their role as bridge builders make understanding the role of brokers, brokering, and brokerage in changing educational practice challenging. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the current literature on these concepts in educational change research. In a systematic literature review based on 42 studies, we analyzed each study’s theoretical assumptions, methodological approach, scope in terms of stakeholders involved, and empirical findings. First, the literature review revealed that research on educational change refers to four different theoretical frameworks when focusing on brokers, brokering, or brokerage. Second, our results indicate that predominantly qualitative approaches have been applied. Third, using content network graphs, we identified teachers and principals as among the most frequently analyzed brokers. Fourth, four relevant aspects of the empirical findings are presented: brokers’ personal characteristics, conditions that enable brokering, successful brokering strategies, and outcomes of brokerage. Finally, we outline a future research agenda based on the empirical evidence base and shortcomings

School teams' regulation strategies for dealing with school-external expectations for school improvement

School-external expectations regarding implementation of reforms and innovations often do not lead to successful school improvement processes in schools. To better understand these processes in schools, this paper aims to investigate school improvement processes on a deep level by focusing on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational regulation strategies used by school teams and by exploring what school-external and school-internal factors are related to this strategy use. Principals, teachers, and specialist teachers ( N = 1328) at 59 primary schools responded to an online questionnaire indicating their school’s use of regulation strategies on school improvement. Results from descriptive, variance, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that school teams use all forms of school-based regulation strategies but that schools differ significantly in their strategy use. These differences were mainly explained more by school-internal deeper structures (e.g., task cohesion) and less by school-internal surface structures (e.g., school size) and not at all by school-external factors (e.g., governance systems)