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In this paper, we argue that classroom management, student support, and cognitive activation are generic aspects of classroom teaching, forming Three Basic Dimensions of teaching quality. The conceptual framework was developed in research on mathematics instruction but it is supposed to generalize across subjects. It is based on general theories of schooling and teaching as well as established theories and research traditions from educational psychology. Although used frequently in German-speaking countries, no comprehensive overview of the theoretical foundation as well as the existing evidence regarding the framework, including its strengths and weaknesses, exists so far. The present paper therefore presents first an overview of the theoretical rationale of the framework. Second, it gives an overview of differences and commonalities in the operationalizations of the Three Basic Dimensions in different studies, including a comprehensive set of sub-dimensions. Third, evidence on the reliability and validity of the dimensions is reviewed, with good results for reliability and mixed results for predictive validity. Fourth, an analysis of three mathematics lessons using observer ratings illustrates how the framework of the Three Basic Dimensions can be used for investigating instructional quality. Finally, strengths and limitations of the framework for capturing instructional quality are discussed and we elaborate on the framework's potential for further development.

Introduction: Multiple imputation (MI) is one of the most highly recommended methods for replacing missing values in research data. The scope of this paper is to demonstrate missing data handling in SEM by analyzing two modified data examples from educational psychology, and to give practical recommendations for applied researchers. Method: We provide two examples (N = 589 and N = 621, respectively) based on previous studies of students' self-concepts, mastery goals and performance avoidance goals, and a 7- step tutorial. Then, we produced 20% and 40% missing data under three missing mechanisms by these complete, genuine data sets. The resulting datasets were then analyzed by (1) listwise deletion and structural equation models (SEM), (2) full information maximum likelihood (FIML) with SEM, and (3) MI combined with SEM and pooling. Thus, the results stem from 2 × 3 × 3 conditions. Results: Previous research was replicated by illustrating a practical way to combine MI with SEM and pooling. The assumed factor structure was depicted in both examples with multiply imputed values applied. Discussion: We suggest adding variables to clarify the missing data mechanism, especially for dependent variables as motivation. Such variables might indicate whether missing values in dependent variables are correlated with independent variables (e.g., interest) or the dependent variable itself (e.g. lack of motivation independently of interest).

Background: It is often claimed that psychology students' attitudes towards research methods and statistics affect course enrolment, persistence, achievement, and course climate. However, the inter-institutional variability has been widely neglected in the research on students' attitudes towards research methods and statistics, but it is important for didactic purposes (heterogeneity of the student population). Aims: The paper presents a scale based on findings of the social psychology of attitudes (polar and emotion-based concept) in conjunction with a method for capturing beginning university students' attitudes towards research methods and statistics and identifying the proportion of students having positive attitudes at the institutional level. Sample: The study based on a re-analysis of a nationwide survey in Germany in August 2000 of all psychology students that enrolled in fall 1999/2000 ("N" = 1,490) and "N" = 44 universities. Methods: Using multilevel latent-class analysis (MLLCA), the aim was to group students in different student attitude types and at the same time to obtain university segments based on the incidences of the different student attitude types. Results: Four student latent clusters were found that can be ranked on a bipolar attitude dimension. Membership in a cluster was predicted by age, grade point average (GPA) on school-leaving exam, and personality traits. In addition, two university segments were found: universities with an average proportion of students with positive attitudes and universities with a high proportion of students with positive attitudes (excellent segment). Conclusions: As psychology students make up a very heterogeneous group, the use of multiple learning activities as opposed to the classical lecture course is required. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Educational phenomena and child development fascinate many disciplines for which they offer a tremendous field of experimentation and application. More than a hundred years ago, when educational sciences adopted the main institutional emblems of an academic discipline (chairs, diploma, laboratories, scientific network etc.), they obviously vacillated between the dream of becoming a unified science (as pedology testifies), and the claim of a rewarding pluridisciplinarity that could synergise all disciplines concerned with the child and with education. This paper asserts that the issue of pluridisciplinarity is constitutive for the development of sciences of education whose object is ever coveted by other disciplines. The first section adopts the point of view of a social history and, on the basis of voluminous archives, it describes the main lines of the shaping of this pluridisciplinary field in Geneva, representative of that which also occurs elsewhere. In the second part, it presents a more theoretical reflection on the tensions and pitfalls of what we call the "process of disciplinarisation" of educational sciences, outlining the characteristics of this constitutively pluridisciplinary field. (Contains 5 notes.)

We examined the effects of motivational interference resulting from tempting action alternatives among a sample of university students with respect to a new measure of different motivational qualities. Participants imagined themselves in a typical study-leisure conflict and provided information about their internal conflict experience in two scenarios: reading a course paper instead of meeting friends and vice versa. Participants then evaluated intrinsic, mastery, approach, avoidance, and external incentives for both activities. Confirmatory factor analyses yielded good model fits for the proposed five-factor incentive structure. In accordance with the idea of motivational interference, the incentives for meeting friends were positively related to experienced internal conflict while imagining studying, representing opportunity costs of learning. The same pattern was found for the opportunity costs that the participants had experienced while imagining meeting friends. In particular, intrinsic and approach incentives represented incremental opportunity costs of activity engagement, regardless of whether the dismissed activity was related to achievement or leisure. The findings highlight the need to apply a dynamic and context-sensitive perspective on achievement motivation to the context of higher education. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

States that the impact of the Plowden Report was insignificant in Germany and Austria; that despite a decade of lively educational debate and hopeful reform initiatives, primary schools are as teacher-centered and bureaucratically controlled as ever. (Author/JDH)

The Cognitive-Affective Theory of Learning with Media postulates that affective factors as well as individual learner characteristics impact multimedia learning. The present study investigated how experimentally induced positive and negative emotions influence multimedia learning and how learner characteristics moderated this impact. Results showed that the group with the negative emotion induction outperformed the group with the positive emotion induction with regard to learning outcome. Cognitive resources (working memory capacity, prior knowledge) and openness to experience were significant predictors for learning. In addition, learners with highest prior knowledge or working memory capacity could compensate the emotional impact on learning. Neuroticism enhanced the emotional impact on learning outcome as a moderator. Lay description What is already known about this topic: Emotions and learner characteristics are assumed to influence multimedia learning., There are inconsistent results on emotional impact on multimedia learning., Cognitive resources were shown to be predictors of learning outcomes., There are inconsistent results on how much learners' personality predicts learning., What this paper adds: Negative emotions can lead to higher learning outcomes than positive emotions., Cognitive resources are significant predictors for learning outcomes., Openness to experience predicts learning outcomes., Neuroticism enhances the emotional impact on multimedia learning., Implications for practice and/or policy: Learner characteristics and emotions influence multimedia learning., A very positive emotional state can be harmful to learning., Learners' personality can enhance emotional impact on multimedia learning., Learning environments should be designed to attract learners' curiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive ability is the most powerful predictor of academic achievement. However, increasing attention is being paid to the role of personality traits in students' academic achievement. Results indicate incremental effects beyond cognitive ability, especially for conscientiousness. Investigating the interplay of conscientiousness and cognitive ability can increase understanding of students' academic achievement and learning. This study examined whether there are interaction effects of a synergistic or compensatory nature. We applied the approach of integrative data analysis, using four highly powered data sets with a total of 18,637 upper secondary school students in Germany to investigate this research question across four different achievement measures and three educational domains (i.e., school subjects). We used an integrative approach and pooled the results across the four samples to obtain an average estimate of the hypothesized interaction effects. Findings support a small synergistic interaction, indicating that conscientiousness moderates the association between cognitive ability and achievement. This means conscientiousness can enhance the positive effects of cognitive ability. In conclusion, results highlight the role of the type of academic measure used and the domain investigated in understanding how personality and achievement are related, providing evidence of the interplay between effort-related traits such as conscientiousness and cognitive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Education Research (1680-6360) is the property of Angle Publishing Co., Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reviews the empirical research literature on foreign language (FL) learning and teaching published between 2005 and 2010 in Germany. It focuses on the empirical studies that have attracted the greatest interest among researchers during this period of time. These include research on educational standards, teacher education, early FL learning, content and language integrated learning, motivation and interest, intercultural learning, literacy, learning strategies and cooperative and computer-assisted language learning. The review reveals rich and diverse research studies in the field of FL teaching and learning. As a relatively young discipline without a longstanding research tradition, this field overlaps in its research interests and methods with other research fields such as educational psychology, linguistics and the educational sciences. The review also shows that the research into FL teaching and learning is to a large degree dominated by small rather than large-scale projects and is characterized by its largely practical relevance. The review ends with recommendations for future research as a conditio sine qua non for further development in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study moves in the space between two fields: science and technology studies (STS) and childhood studies; it thus belongs to the broader STS literature that investigates everyday practices outside the laboratory. The interpretation of ethnographic and bibliographic data on contemporary cardiovascular and obesity prevention in German kindergartens makes evident that when knowledge travels from biomedical laboratories to the preschool, then psychology comes into play! Bodies of knowledge such as behavioural or cognitive theories shape prevention and intervention practices, which could be seen as originally resulting from biomedical findings and trends. Accompanying this development is a change in the primary sciences that deal with childhood: these are no longer pedagogy or developmental and educational psychology (at least in their traditional forms), but ‘developmental science’. All this shapes contemporary childhood in quite normative ways. It thus remains an open question what non- or less normative institutional practices and bodies of knowledge could look like. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Immigrants' sense of self can be derived both from being members of their ethnic in-group and their country of residence. We examined how the ways in which immigrant adolescents integrate these self-views in relation to academic success in German schools. Students describe themselves at school and when with family. Using a standardized literacy performance test, analyses revealed that immigrants whose school-related self-view did not include Germany were less successful: Students who described their self as including both aspects of their ethnic group and Germany, and students who saw themselves predominantly as German, outperformed students with purely ethnic school-related selves. As expected, though, an ethnic family-related self-view did not have a negative impact on scholastic achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the examination of the German and the Brazilian versions of the Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ). It mentions that math anxiety is a frequent phenomenon which is often symbolizes with low mathematics performance, achievement and dyscalculia. It also mentions that this anxiety problem increases with age in both the population of Germany and Brazil.

BackgroundMany patients with schizophrenia exhibit neurocognitive impairments, namely, in attentional, mnestic and executive functions. While these deficits limit psychosocial rehabilitation, their effect on psychoeducation is unknown. Within the framework of the longitudinal Munich Cognitive Determinants of Psychoeducation and Information in Schizophrenic Psychoses (COGPIP) study, we examined: (a) whether illness knowledge after psychoeducation could be predicted more precisely from the neurocognitive than from the psychopathological status of the patients; (b) which neurocognitive domains are best predictors.MethodA total of 116 in-patients with schizophrenic or schizoaffective disorders were randomized to a neurocognitive training or control condition (2 weeks) followed by a manualized psychoeducational group programme (4 weeks) and then observed over a 9-month follow-up. Repeated measurements included – among others – the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery from which normative T scores were used to calculate one global and five domain-specific neurocognitive composite scores. Illness knowledge was measured by a questionnaire (WFB-52) tailored to the psychoeducational programme.ResultsMultiple linear regression analyses showed that, apart from baseline illness knowledge, neurocognition significantly predicted knowledge outcome as well as knowledge gain (measured by reliable change indices) after psychoeducation. This was not true for psychopathology. Among the domain-specific neurocognitive composite scores, only memory acquisition was a significant predictor of knowledge outcome and gain.ConclusionsNeurocognition, not psychopathology, is a significant predictor of illness knowledge after psychoeducation in schizophrenia. This finding should guide efforts to tailor psychoeducational interventions more closely to the patient's needs and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Empirical studies that focus on the impact of three-dimensional (3D) visualizations on learning are to date rare and inconsistent. According to the ability-as-enhancer hypothesis, high spatial ability learners should benefit particularly as they have enough cognitive capacity left for mental model construction. In contrast, the ability-as-compensator hypothesis proposes that low spatial ability learners should gain particular benefit from explicit graphical representations as they have difficulty mentally constructing their own visualizations. This study examines the impact that interactive 3D models implemented within a hypermedia-learning environment have on understanding of cell biology. Test scores in a subsequent knowledge acquisition test demonstrated a significant interaction term between students' spatial ability and presence/absence of 3D models. Only students with high spatial ability benefited from the presence of 3D models, while low spatial ability students got fewer points when learning this way. When using 3D models, high spatial ability students perceived their cognitive load to be low whereas the opposite was true for low spatial ability students. The data suggest that students with low spatial ability became cognitively overloaded by the presence of 3D models, while high spatial ability students benefited from them as their total cognitive load remained within working memory limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the International School Psychology Survey (ISPS) this study aims to advance our knowledge of the characteristics, training, roles and responsibilities, challenges and research interests of school psychologists around the world. Data are presented from five countries; Australia, China (Hong Kong), Germany, Italy and Russia. The ISPS contributes valuable information regarding the profession of school psychology in each of these countries. Building upon the ISPS data previously gathered in Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece and Northern England, this study yields additional information regarding the training, roles, responsibilities and contexts of school psychologists. Information from international colleagues provides unique insights regarding similarities, differences and diversity among school psychologists in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the education systems of Germany and Great Britain. According to the author, who has been the observer from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the recent developments in the British education system presents a fascinating spectacle. The dismantling of elements which he had seen as patterns of the British liberality and democracy was also perceived by him. The observer sympathizes with the infuriated reactions of his liberal colleagues in Great Britain and their protest against Thatcherism in education. Nevertheless, at the same time the observer from the FRG cannot but regard their annoyance as a manifestation of an insular limitation of their horizons. It is further noted in the article that the British education system as a whole, however has attracted only little attention in the ERG, comprehensive descriptions of education in Great Britain, accessible to a wider public are virtually non-existent. The author finally comes out with the conclusion that the present British interest in the education system of the FRG has one distinctly recognizable motive.