Owing to the amendment of school legislation in 2009 that came into effect as of the school year 2009/2010, the federal state of Bremen carried out a comprehensive school structural reform. The introduction of a two-type secondary school system constitutes a core element in this regard, consisting of grammar schools (Gymnasium) and a newly established general secondary school (Oberschule). The Oberschule unites all secondary school types apart from the grammar school, and students can obtain all secondary school degrees there (including Abitur). At Oberschule, the repetition of a school year has been abolished. Moreover, the school structural reform in Bremen aims at contributing to the development of inclusive schools, and to this end the school type ‘Förderzentrum’, i.e. ‘special educational centre’, was dissolved. Improving the performance of the school system in Bremen was determined as the central objective of the structural reform, and the reform targets the decrease of the interdependence between social background and student achievement.
Across political parties, ‘school peace’ was agreed which became known as the ‘Bremen school development consensus’ (‘Bremer Konsens zur Schulentwicklung’) and an external evaluation was set up. This was conducted by a group of scientific experts under the auspices of the DIPF (speaker of the expert group: Professor Dr. Kai Maaz). First and foremost, the analyses were based on student-related and school-related parameters from official school statistical data (Schuldatenblatt) and existing performance data from the IQB comparison of states for the evaluation of national educational standards for an intermediate school leaving certificate and general education certificate. In addition, different actors were interviewed who have been involved in the Bremen school system to elicit deeper insights into school developmental trends and respective challenges. For instance, school principals were questioned in the framework of evaluating the school structural reform. School principals were thus given the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and estimations regarding the new school structure in Bremen, its development and quality assurance respectively quality development measures. The interviews centrally targeted the generation of reliable information on the acceptance and implementation of the new school structure in Bremen and regarding the evaluation of existing quality development instruments, not least of all with the aim of identifying weaknesses and the need for optimisation.
MultiTex
This project studied the process-based assessment of multiple documents comprehension (Multiple Documents Literacy).
In order to cope with the demands of their studies, university students of all subjects have to be able to familiarize with different topics and find out important information in a self-regulated way. In the context of university learning, they are usually confronted with multiple sources and (text) documents that might provide redundant and complementary but also conflicting information. These demands comprise more than comprehension of single texts as information of multiple sources needs to be related to and integrated with each other. Previous research indicates that students often fail to integrate information from multiple documents and sources appropriately.
In this project, a computer-based instrument for assessing university students’ competence of multiple documents comprehension (multiple documents literacy, MDL) was developed and in part validated. Especially, with a focus on additional process-based measures. A process-based measures was used 1) as additional diagnostic information and 2) in order to identify strategies of processing multiple documents and to test theories of multiple documents comprehension.
IPEA
For many decades, standardised assessments of achievement have been a cornerstone in educational monitoring in the United States and the United Kingdom. More recently, comparable governance elements have been implemented in other countries. Studies have demonstrated that governance systems that exclusively focus on outcomes can bear severe impacts on processes in educational systems. So far, findings from such studies are insufficient when it comes to sparking the development of more effective systems.
IPEA is an initiative that derives from the debate on consequences of standardised achievement tests. The international team is managed by Prof. Daniel Koretz, Harvard Graduate School of Education. The group focuses on researching the effect of monitoring systems. In particular, the initiative is concerned with assessing effects of formative and summative tests, consequences of tests regarding instruction, school, and system level predictors of test score inflation, the improvement of test designs and the role of school inspections, as well as other elements of school evaluation in conjunction with standardised achievement tests.
DATAFIED
On the First of December, the joint research project DATAFIED (DATA For and In EDucation) has been officially launched. Together with the GEI, the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg (HSU), and the DIPF, the effects of the advancing digitisation and the attached datafication in the school education system will be investigated. Datafication, by the means of the school education system, can be perceived in a way that data is collected on all processes of the school system, which simultaneously influences decision-making and opinion-forming processes of various school actors (e.g. education policy, school supervision, school authorities, teachers, or parents).
BRISE
The Bremen Initiative to Foster Early Childhood Development (BRISE) is a longitudinal study that systematically investigates the effects of early childhood intervention. Early childhood programs for children from socially and culturally disadvantaged families aim to prevent future disparities in cognitive and social abilities. The insights gained in Bremen will inform policy on early childhood and be constructive in providing equal opportunities for all children, protecting children, and promoting their development and participation in society.
BRISE is the first longitudinal study to investigate the effects of a program fostering early childhood development that is broadly implemented within a specified region. BRISE systematically links early childhood and preschool programs into a chain of interventions. The programs forming that chain — home-based as well as center-based interventions — are all integrated into everyday life and most of them are already established in Bremen. The intervention begins in the prenatal period and ends after the children start elementary schooling.
Research within the scope of BRISE examines the cumulative effects of a coordinated intervention program on the participating children’s cognitive, social and emotional development. The first four years of funding come from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); a subsequent 4-year grant period is planned. Families participating in the intervention chain will be compared with families who decide for themselves in which and in how many of Bremen’s programs they enroll. Over a period of up to two years, approximately 1,000 disadvantaged families in Bremen will be included in our sample. Linking BRISE to the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) as well as to the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) further enables comparative analyses with additional high-quality data.
National Report on Education
The national report on education periodically presents a major empirical review which covers the entire German education system. Published every two years, each report provides indicator-based information about the general conditions, features, results and output of education processes.
The reports analyse the entire structure of the education system from early childhood education and school education to vocational training, higher education and adult education. As a data-based, problem-centred analysis the reports do not include assessments and recommendations. What is special about these reports is that they are mainly based on selected indicators, i. e. combined statistical parameters, each representing a central feature of education processes or a central aspect of education quality. These indicators are derived from official data and representative socio-scientific assessments and wherever possible, they are compared as regards developments over the past years and decades, broken down by the federal states (Länder) and compared internationally. However, this claim to quality and explanatory power of the data also renders evident the limits of the educational report. It can only take into account current problems in the development of education to the extent that reliable data have been ascertained. The core set of indicators remains the same in each report, hence a comparison of developments is guaranteed while the accentuation differs. Educational reporting receives its specific informative power from this consistency. Moreover, each volume includes further indicators for additional subject areas.
Acquisiton of Knowledge in Geometry
How do basic competencies in geometry develop?
The project of the Leibniz Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education focused on the promotion of children’s basic geometry competencies in preschool and the first years of school. The focus was on recognition and categorization of geometric figures as well as spatial navigation. The overarching question was how these basic geometry competencies can be enhanced and which role linguistic interactions play in this process. The project also seeked to identify whether promoting geometry competencies has an effect on processing of quantities and numbers or on arithmetic skills.
Early Childhood Science Education
How do early science skills develop?
Observing phenomena, forming hypotheses, comparing, measuring, and testing hypotheses – so far, there is very little knowledge of how such basic science skills (inquiry skills and practices) effect subsequent learning development. The aim of the project of the Leibniz Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education was to investigate the extent to which the promotion of these competencies has an impact on the acquisition of new knowledge. The study compared different interventions in which the instructional support for inquiry skills was systematically varied. The overarching question was to what extent available inquiry skills and practices support the development of conceptual knowledge, e.g., in the domains of magnetism, swimming and sinking or aggregate states.
Development Contexts
What are the relationships between general cognitive abilities and domain-specific competences?
The project of the Leibniz Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education examined early roots of competence development in cooperation with the University of Bamberg. Specifically, we analyzed links between general cognitive abilities (information processing skills, executive functions) and domain-specific competency development (linguistic, mathematical competencies) in early childhood. The role of language and language development received special attention. This was of particular importance for fostering development as language is both an important means of instruction and communication as well as a central means of mental representation. The project focused on two main topics which are analyzed using existing longitudinal data (NEPS, BiKS). On the one hand, we examined the influence of early skills at the ages of 7 and 16 months on later competency development in preschool. The second focus was on the relationship between linguistic, cognitive, mathematical and early science skills in the transition from preschool to primary school.
Digi-EBF
The framework program empirical education research of the BMBF contributes with its research focus on „Digitalization in Education” in the field of „Creating and Using Technological Developments in Education” to the “Education Offensive for the Digital Knowledge Society”. The meta project is coordinated by the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) which accompanies the projects of the research area.
It presents the results of the projects in an overall scientific and social framework, analyzes the developments in the research area in a scientific manner, identifies research gaps, and promotes the networking of researches with each other as well as the exchange with educational practice. For successfully handling these divers and extensive tasks the University of Duisburg-Essen works closely together with DIPF, DIE, and IWM. The meta project thus contributes to the further development of the research field and promotes the quality of the research area “Digitalization in the Field of Education”. The work done within the meta project strengthens the relevance of the research project for the educational practice, promotes collaboration between science and practice, and transmits central research results for the public.
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