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Due to the increasing heterogeneity of students within learning groups at school, teachers are urged to appropriately address students’ learning needs by means of differentiated instruction. Given that the successful and effective implementation of differentiated instruction relies mostly on teachers, research has extensively explored teacher-related variables, such as attitudes, that have a strong impact on their use of differentiated instruction. However, empirical research exploring teachers’ attitudes, specifically towards the practice of DI, is still quite limited. In addition, up to now, there is only one available instrument that assesses teachers’ attitudes towards DI, the Teachers’ Attitudes towards Differentiated Instructional Scale (TAT-DIS). In this context, the purpose of the present study is to report on the instrument’s adaptation and implementation within the mainland Chinese context. The sample consisted of 650 primary and 702 secondary school teachers from western and central areas of China. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the original two-factor structure: the value of DI and perceived insufficient resources. Regarding the internal consistencies of the subscales, the reliabilities of both subscales were good. Additionally, differences across the sociodemographic variables such as gender and school educational level were found. Limitations are discussed and future lines of research are recommended.

AbstractTeacher collaboration is considered an important determinant when implementing differentiated instructional practices. However, most research has extensively explored such constructs using global measures, while overlooking the fact that teacher collaboration is a multidimensional construct. Against this background, this study aimed to explore the different teacher collaboration categories (exchange, synchronization and co-construction) and their impact on teachers’ differentiated instructional practices. In addition, this study took into consideration important variables for teachers’ differentiated instructional implementation, such as self-efficacy, attitudes, and the contextual factor of school track. To respond the research questions, descriptive statistics, one-sample t-tests, mixed analysis of variance with and hierarchical linear regressions were conducted. Results from a mixed analysis of variance indicated that teachers mainly collaborate by means of less demanding and less intensive cooperative practices, such as the exchange of teaching materials and content-related information. Additionally, findings from a hierarchical linear regression indicate that more demanding practices of collaboration, such as synchronization and co-construction, are significantly associated with teachers’ differentiated instructional practices. Implications of the results as well as further lines of research are discussed.

AbstractEmotional well-being, social inclusion, and academic self-concept are crucial for students’ academic and socio-emotional development, and are seen as key factors for successful inclusion. Considering this relevance, the Perception of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ) has been developed as a short screening instrument to assess these three aspects—not only for research, but also for teachers to enhance students’ well-being in school and the selection of intervention goals. The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish PIQ student version. Participants were 673 Mexican lower secondary school students (52% female, Mage = 13.25 years) who either attended inclusive classes (33%) or special schools (67%). 15% have been diagnosed as having special educational needs (SEN). Factorial and convergent validity and measurement invariance as well as mean differences based on students’ gender, diagnosis of SEN, and classroom setting were analyzed. The three-factor structure of the PIQ was confirmed, and the three scales (emotional well-being, social inclusion, academic self-concept) showed adequate internal consistency. Further, some evidence for convergent validity was shown. Strong measurement invariance was established, allowing for comparison across gender, SEN status, and classroom setting. Regarding gender, boys indicated higher levels of social inclusion and academic self-concept than girls. Students with SEN scored lower on all three subscales compared to students without SEN. Further, students with SEN in inclusive classrooms showed lower academic self-concepts compared to those attending special schools. Although more research is needed, the psychometric properties of the Spanish PIQ student version are encouraging for its potential for use in research and practice.

Der vorliegende Beitrag thematisiert die Veränderung der intrinsischen Motivation von Lehramtsstudierenden der Primar- und Sekundarstufe, bezogen auf deren Beschäftigung mit inklusionspädagogischen Fragestellungen, durch inklusionssensible Lehrveranstaltungen. Es wird dabei den Fragen nachgegangen, inwiefern diese intrinsische Motivation durch inklusionssensible Lehrveranstaltungen entwickelt bzw. gefördert wird und inwiefern hierbei die Wahl des Lehramtsstudienganges der Studierenden von Bedeutung ist. Dabei stehen digitale Lehr-Lern-Einheiten, die im Projekt FDQI-HU entwickelt wurden, im Zentrum der Untersuchung. Mittels deskriptiver Auswertung einer quantitativen Fragebogenstudie mit einem Prä-Post-Design (n = 74) wird gezeigt, dass Lehramtsstudierende der im Fokus stehenden Lehrveranstaltungen ein hohes Maß an intrinsischer Motivation, sich mit inklusionspädagogischen Fragenstellungen zu beschäftigen, aufweisen. Allerdings zeigte sich am Ende des Semesters keine Steigerung ihrer diesbezüglichen intrinsischen Motivation. Des Weiteren unterscheidet sich diese intrinsische Motivation der Studierenden nach Lehramtsstudiengang.

With the increasing student diversity, inclusive education has only become more relevant. Given that inclusive education is considered as the most effective approach to improve quality of education and promote equity and social cohesion, research has focused on examining the facilitators and barriers of meaningful inclusive education as well as the effectiveness of inclusive education on students’ academic outcomes. In contrast, far less attention has been paid to explore students’ non-achievement outcomes, such as their socio-emotional development. Therefore, this brief report presents the results of a small-scale exploratory study which examines Mexican students’ perceptions regarding their social inclusion, emotional well-being, and academic self-concept. A total of 101 Mexican students were included in the sample. Nonparametric tests such as Chi-square goodness of fit, Mann–Whitney U and Dunn’s tests were conducted to analyze the data. Overall, results show that students in general perceive themselves included at school, however, students attending private schools experience less emotional well-being. Implications of the results as well as further lines of research are discussed.

With the rapid spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), schools around the world came to a shutdown. This resulted in an abrupt transition from face-to-face instruction to emergency remote teaching (ERT), resulting in numerous challenges that have greatly affected teachers. Even though research has identified key factors for teachers to effectively implement ERT in the context of the COVID-19 school shutdown, there is still little research on the factors (and their interrelations) that account for the differences between teachers’ experiences. Following a theoretical model of technology readiness, this study aimed to investigate teacher profiles based on domains of technology acceptance, technology competence and technology control. In addition, this study seeks to explore whether teachers’ emotional state during ERT varies between the teacher technology readiness profiles. A total of 124 teachers participated voluntarily in an online survey stemming from the research project “Students-Parents-Teachers in Homeschooling” in Germany. Results from a two-step cluster analysis revealed three distinct teacher technology readiness profiles. Moreover, the findings also revealed gender differences between the three technology readiness profiles. Lastly, an analysis of variance indicated that teachers’ positive emotional state during ERT varied significantly across the clusters. Implications of the results for teacher education and teacher professional development, as well as further lines of research are discussed.

With the start of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the global education system has a faced immense challenges and disruptions resulting in and the necessity for an immediate redesign of teaching and learning in the school context. Face-to-face classroom instruction had to be replaced by ‘emergency remote teaching’, requiring teacher to adapt their daily routines to a new and unprecedented educational reality. Researchers and policymakers worldwide have agreed that, despite the fact that efforts were made to immediately adapt to emergency remote teaching, disadvantaged and vulnerable students may be especially at risk in emergency remote teaching. Given the differences in schooling organization across countries during the COVID-19 pandemic it can be expected that teachers performed inclusive instructional practices significantly different. Against the unpredictable situation, cross-country research has been urgently required to provide data that could inform education policy. Thus, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of supporting at risk students during the first COVID-19 school closures, as well as examining teachers’ inclusive teaching practices in three countries: Germany, Austria and Portugal. ANOVA results revealed important country differences. In general, it appears that teachers in Germany and Austria reported to have implemented less practices to address vulnerable and at-risk students compared to Portuguese teachers. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are outlined.

Given the substantial ongoing increase of individual learning demands, teachers are urged to address student heterogeneity in their daily teaching practice by means of differentiated instruction (DI). As the successful and effective implementation of DI relies mainly on teachers, research has intensively focused on examining teacher-related variables, such as teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes, that have played a crucial role in their use of differentiated instructional practices. However, besides these well researched constructs, teacher interest is another important teacher-related variable that has, up to now, received very little attention and has been rarely incorporated into inclusive education research. Against this background, this study aimed to bring together previous research on teacher-related variables on their differentiated instructional practice, and extend prior literature by incorporate teachers’ interests. In total, 168 German in-service teachers from different school tracks participated in the study. Results from hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analyses showed a significant and positive predicting role of teacher interests on their practice of DI. Noteworthy is that teacher interests contributed significantly to their differentiated instructional practice, even after controlling for their self-efficacy and attitudes. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to far-reaching changes in various aspects of students’ lives. In the particular case of the educational field, classroom teaching was drastically shifted to a distance learning format. Consequently, students needed to deal with a completely different everyday school life. Learning was carried out online, which implied that students could not see some of their regular, important social contacts such as teachers, classmates or friends. It is already proven that such social distancing measures had impacts on students’ emotional experiences during the lockdown. Following a mixed-methods concurrent single-phase design, this study examined students’ perceptions of social distancing and their emotional experiences during the first school lockdown in Austria. Data from an online survey (n = 263 students) and from qualitative interviews (n = 56 students) were analyzed. The results show that distance learning drastically reduced interaction among students and between students and their teachers. Furthermore, the results indicate negative emotional experiences due to less social contact, increased learning pressures, and less structure. However, findings revealed that students also experience and perceived positive emotional experiences during distance learning because of more freedom, autonomy, and to some extent, less performance pressure. Based on the findings, the present study discusses possible perspectives on how to support students during and after distance learning, as well as further lines of research.

Der Beitrag zielt auf die explorative Bearbeitung zweier wenig beachteter Forschungsfelder im Rahmen der bildungsbezogenen Covid-19-Forschung: Zum einen soll er Aufschluss darüber geben, welche Potenziale und Herausforderungen der „Fernunterricht“ in der Oberstufe im Vergleich zu anderen Schulstufen und ‑formen birgt; damit verbunden steht zum anderen die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie die Förderung von Autonomieerleben, Kompetenzerleben und sozialer Eingebundenheit über die Distanz dazu beitragen kann, den besonderen Bedingungen im „Fernunterricht“ der Oberstufe zu begegnen. Methodisch stützt sich der Beitrag auf Impulse aus einer Interviewstudie (N = 14) sowie aus einer detaillierten Analyse eines Fallbeispiels als Sonderfall im Datenmaterial. Die Interviews wurden – als Nachfolgeerhebung zu einer Befragung im April 2020 – zwischen April und Juni 2021 geführt und nach Anonymisierung und Transkription inhaltsanalytisch mithilfe des Programms MAXQDA ausgewertet. Aus dem Material wurden die Kategorien Selbstständigkeit, Corona-bedingte Unsicherheiten sowie Wissenschaftspropädeutik durch fachliches und überfachliches Lernen als Besonderheiten für den Distanzunterricht in der Oberstufe herausgearbeitet. Das Fallbeispiel wiederum zeigt als „practice example“ Möglichkeiten auf, diesen Besonderheiten durch Stärkung von Autonomieerleben, Kompetenzerleben und sozialer Eingebundenheit produktiv zu begegnen. The paper presents an exploratory study on two current research gaps within the context of Covid-19 educational research: On the one hand, the study aims to examine the potentials and challenges of “distance learning” at upper secondary school (Oberstufe) compared to other school forms and tracks. On the other hand, it focuses on investigating how fostering students’ autonomy, competence and relatedness through distance learning can help meet the special learning and teaching conditions at upper secondary school. Following a qualitative research design, the study analyses data from an interview study (N = 14) including an in-depth exploration of data material from a case study. Concerning the interviews, data stems from a follow-up survey conducted between April and June 2021. After anonymization and transcription, the data was analyzed using the MAXQDA program. From the material, the categories of self-regulated learning, Corona-related uncertainties, and science propaedeutics through subject-specific and interdisciplinary learning were worked out as special features concerning distance teaching and learning at the upper level of secondary school. Furthermore, the case study serves as a “practice example” and sheds information on the possibilities to productively work these peculiarities by strengthening autonomy, competence and relatedness.

In consideration of the substantial increase in students’ learning demands, teachers are urged to address student heterogeneity in their daily teaching practice by means of differentiated instruction (DI). The practice of DI, as a vehicle to achieve inclusive education, not only aims to support all students’ academic learning but also foster their social and emotional development. However, current research in the field of DI has mostly been limited to an examination of its effects on students’ achievement outcomes. Consequently, the potential impact of DI on students’ socio-emotional outcomes has, till now, received very little attention. In order to address this gap in the research, the current researchers seek to investigate the effects of DI on school students’ well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept. Survey participants in this study included 379 students from 23 inclusive and regular classes in secondary schools in Austria. Following multilevel analyses, the results have indicated that students’ rating of their teachers’ DI practice is positively associated with their school well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept. However, a t-test for dependent samples demonstrated that students perceive their teachers’ DI practice to be infrequent. Implications of the results along with further lines of research are also presented in this paper.

Currently, refugee Ukrainian learners are attending German mainstream schools, leading to an even more diverse student population. Given that the German school system is committed to provide inclusive education for all, this study aims to examine how teachers address Ukrainian students learning needs by means of differentiated instruction. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted in which eight elementary school and advanced secondary school teachers were interviewed. Findings revealed that refugee Ukrainian students in German mainstream schools are taught alongside German students, but are also placed in separated classrooms. Additionally, they occasionally participate in remote learning via Zoom from Ukraine. Furthermore, teachers reported using more frequently tiered assignments or peer tutoring systems. In contrast, practices such as mastery learning or open education are seldomly implemented. Implications of the results, as well as limitations and further lines of research are discussed.