"In parents' school experience, the teacher was just lecturing at the front": school-family partnerships in schools with personalized learning concepts

Our study examines communication and cooperation between schools that have implemented personalized learning concepts and the families of their students. The study forms part of a longitudinal mixed-methods research project (2012–2015, supported by the foundation Mercator Switzerland). Conducting a qualitative content analysis of interviews and strategic documents (N = 12 schools), we developed an analytic instrument, applying a semi-deductive procedure. It is based on research on school-family partnerships and consists of five communication and cooperation structures (a) channels of two-way information exchange and cooperation; b) information flow from schools to parents; c) parent events; d) parent volunteering; e) parent involvement in decision-making) and five content and object areas i) psychological, pedagogical, and school concepts; ii) understanding families; iii) learning and instruction; iv) learning progress and achievement; v) problems, conflicts). The linkage between the structures and the content of the interactions led to three paradigmatic types of schools. Type 1: Informal communication and cooperation; Type 2: Reactive communication and cooperation; Type 3: Strategic communication and cooperation. The results indicate that it can be particularly advantageous to center the communication on student progress, to focus parent events on education-related topics, and to give the parents a voice in decision-making processes

Implementation of technology-supported personalized learning—its impact on instructional quality

Digital technology especially raised hopes to open up new possibilities to personalize learning. Although various schools have implemented approaches of technology-supported personalized learning, the impact on instructional quality remains unclear. As a common definition of the multilayered construct personalized learning is lacking, our study focuses on two theoretical dimensions of technology-supported personalized learning to investigate the impact on instructional quality. For this purpose, our study has analyzed data from a survey of N = 860 students (8th grade) from 31 Swiss schools with personalized learning concepts. Results show that student-centered teaching methods in the context of technology-supported personalized learning stimulate the cognitive activation of the students, and the supportive climate increases slightly with a higher degree of students’ voice and choice on the computer

Learning through play – pedagogy and learning outcomes in early childhood mathematics

Whilst research underlines the importance of early mathematics in kindergarten, practitioners need effective and innovative approaches to pedagogy. Currently, very different approaches are deployed from an instructional, educator-led approach based on training programmes to a play-based approach. This intervention study examines the effects on the mathematical competency of these two pedagogies. Thirty-five kindergarten educators and 324 six-year-old children were randomly assigned to either a training programme, a play-based approach with card and board games or to the control group. Educators’ views on the interventions were gathered in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate higher learning gains overall for the play-based approach. Differentiated effects were found as tendencies: children with low competencies tend to gain more from training programmes compared to no intervention; children with high competencies gain more from the play-based approach than the training. Educators evaluated the play-based intervention with card and board games as better suited to children’s diverse needs

Selbstwirksamkeit von Lehrpersonen bei der Entwicklung einer personalisierten Lehr-Lernkultur

In diesem Beitrag wird die Bedeutung der Selbstwirksamkeit von Lehrpersonen bei der Entwicklung einer personalisierten Lehr-Lernkultur untersucht. Die Auswertung der längsschnittlich erhobenen Fragebogendaten von 188 Lehrpersonen aus 42 Primar- und Sekundarschulen mittels Skalen- und Korrelationsanalysen sowie auto-regressiven Modellen ergibt folgende Hauptbefunde: Die Lehrpersonen schätzen ihre Selbstwirksamkeit in Bezug auf Unterrichtsentwicklung zu personalisiertem Lernen in drei aufeinanderfolgenden Schuljahren jeweils hoch ein. Ihre hohe Selbstwirksamkeit lässt sich auf personale (Enthusiasmus, Identifikation mit der Schule), nicht aber auf subjektiv wahrgenommene Kontextfaktoren (Kollektive Selbstwirksamkeit, Schulklima, Innovationsklima) zurückführen und hängt positiv mit rückblickend berichteten lehr- und lernseitigen Veränderungen zusammen. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass die Selbstwirksamkeit der Lehrpersonen auch bei der Unterrichtsentwicklung zu personalisiertem Lernen eine nicht zu unterschätzende Rolle spielt und daher empirisch genauer beleuchtet und in der Entwicklungspraxis beachtet werden sollte

Qualitätssicherung bei qualitativ inhaltsanalytischen Verfahren in großen Forschungsgruppen: Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten in der Forschungspraxis am Beispiel der perLen-Studie

Strategien der Qualitätssicherung sind ein vielversprechender und zunehmend beliebter Ansatz zur Qualitätskontrolle in qualitativen Studien. Besonders wichtig sind sie in großen Forschungsgruppen. Am Beispiel der multimethodischen Längsschnittstudie Personalisierte Lernkonzepte in heterogenen Lerngruppen – perLen werden Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten bei der Anwendung von Strategien der Qualitätssicherung in qualitativ inhaltsanalytischen Teilstudien untersucht und reflektiert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass günstige Wirkungen auf die Qualität des gesamten Forschungsprozesses und dadurch auf die Ergebnisse zu erwarten sind, wenn Kriterien und Strategien der methodenspezifischen und der methodenübergreifenden Qualitätssicherung kombiniert, Erhebungs- und Auswertungsverfahren aufeinander abgestimmt, ein einheitliches Verfahrens- und Dokumentationssystem etabliert, alle Mitwirkenden mit Instrumenten und Verfahren vertraut gemacht und Qualitätskontrollen nicht nur methodenspezifisch und prozessorientiert, sondern in jedem einzelnen Forschungsschritt integrativ durchgeführt werden. Die hier mit Blick auf die qualitative Inhaltsanalyse beschriebenen Erkenntnisse können in ihren Grundzügen auf Untersuchungen mit anderen qualitativen Methoden übertragen werden und dazu beitragen, die Qualität innerhalb und zwischen den Erhebungszeitpunkten in qualitativen Längsschnittstudien zu sichern und dadurch auch die Aussagekraft multimethodischer Studien zu erhöhen.Implementing strategies of quality management is an increasingly popular and promising approach to assuring quality in qualitative research, especially in research projects involving a large number of researchers. In this contribution we study and reflect on the challenges and opportunities resulting from applying strategies of quality management to qualitative content analysis within the longitudinal research project "Personalized Learning Concepts in Heterogeneous Learning Froups – perLen." We show that positive effects on the quality of the whole research process and therefore on the overall results of the study can be expected when methods of data collection and analysis as well as application and documentation systems are coordinated, when all persons involved are acquainted with the research tools and their implementation, and when the quality checks conducted are not only specific to the method employed and process-oriented, but also integrated into in every single phase of the research project. The findings described here are based on a study using qualitative content analysis but can, in general, also be applied to research projects involving different qualitative research methods. This could contribute to enhancing quality within and between data collection points in longitudinal research projects and thus also the validity of multi-method research projects as a whole

Play-Based Mathematics in Kindergarten. A Video Analysis of Children's Mathematical Behaviour While Playing a Board Game in Small Groups

Kindergarten children enjoy playing games, as games bring motivation and active learning. Many board and card games require mathematical competencies and, therefore, carefully selected board and card games could be used as meaningful learning tasks for mathematics education in early childhood. With this in mind, several games for fostering quantity-number competencies have been implemented in an intervention study. The study included 6 years old children and three conditions: training program (n=110), play-based intervention (n=89) and control group (n=125). For this article, videos involving 21 children in ten teams from one of the most widely played games in the play-based intervention were selected for in-depth analysis: the board game Shut the Box. This explorative analysis of children's mathematical behaviour and peer support whilst playing a board game allows researching in what way a specific game provides a meaningful learning task for early mathematics. The results show that children employ several mathematical skills while playing, depending on their individual quantity-number competencies. As the game can be easily repeated several times, the children practise and shape mathematical skills and monitor and support their co-player in order to increase their chances of winning the game. It is suggested that the board game provides an adaptive and motivating setting, which can meet the learning needs of low as well as high achieving childre

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Authentizität bei der Beurteilung von Fachleistungen und Lernkonzepten

Die Ausläufer der Amerikanischen Assessment Debatte dringen allmählich in den deutschen Sprachraum vor. In ihrem Gefolge erscheinen Testinstrumente, die entwickelt wurden, um Fachleistungen und Lernkompetenzen in komplexen Anwendungssituationen zu messen. Zwei Beispiele, Experimentieraufgaben und Testportfolios, werden in diesem Beitrag vorgestellt. Die Arrangements entsprechen einem erweiterten Verständnis von Lernen und Lehren und können in Kombination mit herkömmlichen Leistungstests zu höherer Authentizität beim Prüfen führen