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Research in moral education demonstrates the pattern referred to as happy victimising (HV) does not emerge only among children. Adults also transgress moral rules and might feel good doing so; however, research reveals the HV pattern emergence is context specific. In contrast to findings among young children in whom the HV pattern was interpreted as a lack of motivation and thus a developmental stage, it is an open question as to what happy victimising in adulthood means and how such patterns affect intentions as an important step towards action. This paper offers an action-theoretical approach, allowing for reconstruction of the process of intention formation, as well as a systematic discussion of results from two separate lines of research: (1) research on patterns of moral decision-making, such as the HV, and (2) research on moral disengagement. Additionally, a survey study provides insights into what intentions, emotion attributions, and moral disengagement strategies adults display in situations of low moral intensity, and whether they indicate consistent or contradictory patterns across situations. Results indicate intra-personal consistency regarding patterns of moral decision-making, but also show there are participants who vary these patterns across situations. Moral disengagement strategies were shown to have context-specific use, at least in regard to their subcategories. Regarding education, this study encourages not only a focus on strengthening the moral self or autonomous moral judgement but also on paying attention to actions and person-situation interactions. This might be useful to implement environments that support reduced application of moral disengagement strategies.

Addressing heterogeneity in the classroom by adapting instruction to learners' needs challenges teachers in their daily work. To provide adaptive instruction in the most flexible way, teachers face the problem of assessing students' individual characteristics (learning prerequisites and learning needs) and situational states (learning experiences and learning progress) along with the characteristics of the learning environment. To support teachers in gathering and processing such multidimensional diagnostic information in class, we have developed a client-server based software prototype running on mobile devices: the Teachers' Diagnostic Support System. Following the generic educational design research process, we (1) delineate theoretical implications for system requirements drawn from a literature review, (2) describe the systems' design and technical development and (3) report the results of a usability study. We broaden our theoretical understanding of heterogeneity within school classes and establish a basis for technological interventions to improve diagnostic accuracy in adaptive instructional strategies.

The investigation of learning processes by assessing students' experience along with objective characteristics within a classroom context has a long tradition in empirical learning process research (e.g. Sembill, 1984 et passim; Wild & Krapp, 1996). However, most of the existing studies confine themselves to psychological variables that seem to be too narrowly considered, as there is theoretical and empirical evidence proving the involvement of somatic and psychological processes in learning and in stress reactions. Furthermore there is a lack of studies that investigate situation-related experience (states) as an outcome of interactions between relatively stable characteristics (traits) and continuously changing "objective" context conditions. Against this background, we will present an approach for cross-classified multilevel longitudinal modelling of person-situation interactions in naturalistic educational settings. We illustrated our model with the example of students' stress experience referring to empirical data that we measured within a multidisciplinary research project (pedagogy, psychology, adolescent medicine). 53 students at a public German vocational school were investigated during 9 lessons. There are up to 38 state measurements per person, resulting in 2,014 measurements in total. Taking into account that states are nested within persons and within situations we applied a cross-classified multilevel model to analyse effects on students' stress experience. The analysis shows significant person-situation interactions between academic self-concept and classroom demands and between baseline cortisol concentration and classroom demands: the relation between classroom demands and stress experience depends on relatively stable person-related characteristics. A deeper knowledge about the complex interrelations between traits, states, and continuously changing context conditions seems to be essential for a more holistic understanding of learning at school and for the identification of crucial aspects for an evidence-based design and implementation of teaching and learning arrangements.

Stress in teaching and teacher training is a well-known issue and stress management during teacher training may not only be affected by individual coping efforts, but also determined by private and work-related networks the individual is integrated in. In that regard, our article aims firstly to identify sources of social support in the German teacher training system and secondly to analyze interdependencies in dyadic coping interactions based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. On the basis of questionnaire data from 307 German trainees and qualified teachers from vocational and general schools, we found that mentors, partners, fellow trainees, colleagues at school, parents, and good friends were named as the most supportive reference persons during teacher training. In a follow-up survey, data from 49 sources of support were obtained, which could be assigned to the corresponding (trainee) teachers (in the sense of support recipients). These dyads thus form the basis for the analysis of dyadic coping interdependencies. The results of the moderator analyses show, among other things, that support recipients who prefer the coping strategy palliative emotion regulation tend to react rather sensitively to contrary coping strategies of the source of support with regard to their stress symptoms. Social interactions in this respect can represent both protective as well as risk factors. Therefore, a system of complex social interdependencies must be considered when analyzing relational resilience among prospective teachers.

Background: To examine relationships between teachers' experienced classroom demands and autonomic stress reactions, we report the results of a pilot study. Based on an integrative literature review, we identified and described the following situational classroom demands: time and work pressure (including missing rest periods, time pressure, and pressure to get through the subject matter), vocal strain, uncertainty concerning the subject matter, uncertainty concerning didactical decisions, achievement-related diversity in class, lack of social appreciation, disquietude in class, classroom disturbances, behavioral problems of students, insufficient skills and concentration of students, and insufficient motivation of students. Method: These identified categories of teachers' situational classroom demands are the basis for the empirical item identification and selection (Study A). The identified items were used in a single-case, short-term longitudinal study in which we examined relationships between experienced classroom demands and autonomic stress reactions as well as between autonomic stress reactions and affective stress experience via first-order vector autoregressive modeling (Study B). Results: Concerning our hypotheses, we found evidence that some of the experienced classroom demands ("I cannot respond to students' different needs"; "There is disquietude in class") had time-lagged associations with autonomic stress measures. Furthermore, we found that physiological arousal triggers affective stress experience due to a time-lagged effect. Conclusion: The research approach and results of our pilot study can be the basis for further process-oriented research in vocational education and training (VET). From a practical point of view, our results on experienced classroom demands could be used in VET teacher education to prepare student teachers for specific skills to cope with such demands.

By adapting the job demands-resources model of Demerouti et al. "Journal of Applied Psychology," 86(3), 499-512, (2001) to vocational problem-solving situations, we aimed to investigate how, and to what extent, problem-solving demands and personal resources affect stress responses and task interest. Therefore, we used a problem-solving task from the business administration domain in a computer-based office simulation. We assigned 58 participants into two groups. The treatment group worked on the problem scenario, whereas the control group was instructed to inspect the computer-based scenario and to check the software's usability without solving the problem. Problem-solving demands, perceived stress, task interest, cardiovascular parameters, and cortisol concentration were assessed before, during and after the task at several time points. The vocational problem-solving task was associated with perceived time pressure, uncertainty, mental effort, task difficulty, and perceived stress. In addition, we found higher heart rate and cortisol concentration and lower heart rate variability values in the treatment group (compared to the control group) at the end of the task. Furthermore, we found that content knowledge buffers the impact of problem-solving demands on stress responses and it maintains task interest under high mental effort. Overall, we found evidence that vocational problem-solving activities bear stress-evoking potential and personal resources may provide buffering and maintaining functions.

In science education, representations are necessary inter alia for the understanding of relationships between structures and systems. However, several studies have identified difficulties of students when working with representations. In the present study, we investigated students' responses (regarding their preference, test performance, mental load (ML), and stress) toward two kinds of representations: symbolic representations, which only use abstract symbols, versus combined symbolic-textual representations, which additionally comprise textual elements. Therefore, students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: one group worked on test tasks accompanied by symbolic representations, and the others worked on the same tasks, but with symbolic-textual representations. Thereafter, the students' test performance and ML were assessed. The level of perceived stress and the salivary cortisol concentration were measured before and after the test and again a few minutes later. Additionally, heart rate variability parameters were assessed continuously. We found a strong preference of the test version with symbolic representations. Additionally, the students showed better test performance and lower ML when they worked with symbolic representations. However, the level of perceived stress was comparable between both groups and there was no strong physiological stress response: The cortisol concentration decreased in both groups and the heart rate was relatively similar. However, during the second half of the test, we observed a significantly higher ratio between low and high heartbeat frequencies in the group with symbolic-textual representations and we found an indirect influence of the kind of representation on test performance through its effect on ML. The poorer test performance and higher ML in connection with symbolic--textual representations confirm previous studies, which found that symbolic-textual representations pose major problems for students. Thus, teachers should enable students to understand symbolic-textual representations and consider carefully whether they can use symbolic representations instead, especially when they teach complex content.

Introduction: This study examines the extent to which VET trainee teachers' identification with their profession is related to their basic psychological need for autonomy and whether this is reflected in their intention to stay in the field. Trainee's subjective experience of their professional identity interacts with different conditions of the training environment, whereby we focus on perceived autonomy support and autonomy thwarting behavior of seminar teachers. Methods: On the basis of a longitudinal design with a total of 79 trainee teachers in Germany and four survey time points during teacher training, corresponding developmental processes were traced over a total period of 1 year. Cross-lagged panel analyses allow us to draw conclusions about the extent to which professional identification of trainees interacts with autonomy-support or autonomy-thwarting conditions originating from seminar teachers and to what extent the aforementioned factors in turn affect intention to stay. Results: Cross-lagged panel analyses show that professional identification after 6 months in teacher training significantly predicts the intention to stay in the teaching profession half a year later. Significant cross paths each describe positive effects between professional identification and autonomy support and negative effects between professional identification and autonomy thwarting. Discussion: Particularly against the background of the shortage of teachers in Germany and other countries, the promotion of professional identification processes in the sense of a teacher identity can be assessed as crucial. In this respect, an autonomy-supporting environment, e.g., created by seminar teachers, can already contribute to that during teacher training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate the relationships between occupational demands in German vocational education and training (VET) teacher training, stress symptoms, and different behavioral resilience competencies. Taking into account interindividual differences in resilience competencies, we use a typological approach to identify different types of (trainee) teachers classified by their degrees and configurations of resilience competencies. Our empirical analysis is based on questionnaire data from 131 German vocational trainees and qualified teachers. The results reveal, among other things, that all three resilience competencies—resistance, flexibility, and dynamism—are significantly negatively correlated with the demands of working conditions and workload. Via a latent class analysis, we were able to identify three groups of (trainee) teachers who differed in their resilience competencies to adapt appropriately to different situations and their requirements ("behavioral flexibility"), to recover rapidly from setbacks and to defy the expectations of others ("behavioral resistance"), and to initiate changes as soon as they are necessary or desirable ("behavioral dynamics"). More resilient (trainee) teachers show, among other things, lower values for anxiety as an emotional stress symptom and higher values for job engagement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for VET teacher training and we stress the need for equilibration on a systemic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Experiments are a complex teaching method carrying a high cognitive load and the risk of failure, which both may induce stress among students. However, it remains unclear if the work setting modulates physiological, subjective, and/or emotional stress responses during experiments. In a randomized experimental field study school students ( N = 104) either watched a biology experiment on video (passive condition), conducted the experiment on their own (active condition) or in small groups (interactive condition). Meanwhile, their subjective stress perception, heart rate variability (HRV), salivary cortisol concentration, and achievement emotions were assessed. In the active condition we observed the strongest subjective and HRV stress responses, followed by the interactive condition. Students of the passive condition displayed the weakest stress reactions. Students of the other two conditions showed a weakened diurnal cortisol decrease, indicating more stress. Across conditions, enjoyment dropped and boredom increased, most pronounced in the passive condition. Moreover, there were some associations between subjective, emotional and physiological stress responses. The findings suggest that conducting experiments alone carries the risk of self-attributed failure signified by elevated stress. In contrast, conducting an experiment in a group is less stressful, as others may constitute a source of support. Watching others conduct an experiment carries a low risk of failure and, thus, the lowest stress responses, but comes with the cost of minimized enjoyment and maximized boredom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]