In two project phases, INSIDE provides comprehensive and reliable information for the first time on the current implementation of school inclusion at lower secondary level and on the transition of pupils with special educational needs to upper secondary level, the vocational training system or another life situation. INSIDE creates a sound data basis by surveying various groups of people involved in inclusion, such as children and young people with and without special educational needs, parents, teachers, school management and school support staff. On the one hand, this can contribute to the creation of a basis for political objectives to promote inclusion in everyday school life and at the transition to education and work, and on the other hand it is made available to the scientific community for further research purposes.
WATB
The BERLIN study evaluated the structural reform of Berlin’s secondary school system. One goal of the study was to compare students’ competencies in the domains of economics, labour, technics and vocational education before and after the reform. Since no achievement tests for these fields existed, a new test had been developed within the study to evaluate the students’ knowledge at the end of lower secondary school.
German Education Index
The German Education Index (FIS Bildung Literaturdatenbank) presents the most comprehensive compilation of educationally relevant references in the German language area. This service predominantly targets educational science (research and training), but it also delivers comprehensive services to educational practitioners (pre-primary school, primary and secondary education, special needs education etc.). The database records scholarly literature from all of the disciplines in educational science, as well as educational policy papers and practice-related texts and materials. Printed and online material published after 1980 is indexed: Journal articles, collective works, contributions to collective works, and monographs are described by keywords and occasionally abstracts. Users are assisted in obtaining titles by direct links indicating where journals are held in German libraries and other links informing about the obtainability of journals.
BERLIN-Study
The BERLIN-study evaluated the structural reform of Berlin‘s secondary school system. This reform merged the two non-academic tracks (Hauptschule, Realschule) as well as the comprehensive school (Gesamtschule) into one track called the “integrated secondary school” (Integrierte Sekundarschule, ISS) while retaining the academic track, the Gymnasium. Another feature of the reform was increased parental choice: parents may now send their children to any secondary school within the city boundaries and are not restricted to schools in their neighborhood.
In the course of the study an achievement test for the assessment of student competencies in economics – labour – technics – vocational orientation (WATB) was developed.
The Assessment of Teacher’s Instructional Quality in National Large-Scale Studies
Instructional design is of crucial significance in students’ educational progress. It is often possible to make connections between aspects of classroom management, student-orientation, or the level of stimulus with the learning progress in mathematics or German. However, measuring or assessing such qualitative characteristics remains a great challenge.
The project addressed the quality of student evaluations. Both established analytical models for the evaluation of nested verdicts were reviewed and frequently used survey instruments (items) were processed.
NEPS
The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) is a study carried out by the LIfBi. It is an interdisciplinary and multilocational network of excellence consisting of research institutes, research groups, and individual scientists. To find out more about the acquisition of education and its effects on individual life courses and to describe and analyze key educational processes and trajectories over the entire life span, this longitudinal study examines educational processes and competence development from early childhood to late adulthood. Data collected by NEPS are made available free of charge to international scientists aiming to study educational processes. Over the mid- and long-term, the design of NEPS will make an important contribution towards answering the following key questions:
- How do competencies develop over the life course?
- How do competencies influence decision-making processes at various critical transitions in educational careers (and vice versa)?
- How and to what extent are competencies influenced by learning opportunities in the family, in the peer group, and in the learning environments of kindergarten, school, higher education, vocational training, and further education?
- What competencies are decisive for obtaining educational qualifications, which for lifelong learning and which for a successful personal and social life?
PISA Plus
PISA Plus was a longitudinal national add-on study to the PISA 2012 survey in which the performance of the same students was tested who had been tested one year before. The study used PISA-tasks as well as tasks of the competence-test for education standards.
The study aimed to show perceptions on the influencing factors of students’ competence development and to motivate developing and validating methods for data evaluation (control sampling, scaling of performance data).
The research focused on the following question:
- What kind of increases in competencies and knowledge can be made through PISA tests and other tests for reviewing the accomplishing of education standards within the academic year?
- What influencing factors can be seen on the development of (mathematical) competencies of students by repeating classes?
- What characteristics in teaching classes are influencing the performance and motivational development of students?
- Are there reciprocal correlations between competencies, motivational characteristics and interests of students?
- What are the impacts of social and immigration related characteristics for developing competencies?
- What effects on student competencies do school level related factors have in the face of teaching structure and outcome?
KANSAS
This research and development project aimed at developing, testing and evaluating the web-based search engine KANSAS. KANSAS will support teachers in adult literacy and German as a second language in preparing classes. Using the search engine, teachers will be enabled to determine both the topic and the linguistic complexity of texts to be searched on the internet and in electronic corpora. Taking into account the learners interests as well as their individual level of reading competence, KANSAS allows teachers to perfectly adjust the query to the needs of their course participants. Moreover, teachers can upload self-developed texts in order to analyze the language complexity. In addition to that, a simplified version of KANSAS will be developed, enabling advanced learners to search for texts with an appropriate level of language complexity on their own.
The interdisciplinary project KANSAS was conducted by the three collaboration partners under direction of the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning. The German Institute of Adult Education (DIE) carried out several usability and quasi-experimental studies to evaluate the efficacy of the search engine. The MI examined the didactic suitability of the texts searched by KANSAS. Computational linguists of the University of Tübingen technically implemented the search engine and adapted it to the users’ needs. In close collaboration of all partners involved, several developmental versions of the search engine were released during the project term in order to test and optimize KANSAS.
MILES
The common reference points of this network were the Hamburg-based longitudinal studies LAU (Aspekte der Lernausgangslage und Lernentwicklung, Aspects of Learning Background and Learning Development) and KESS (Kompetenzen und Einstellungen von Schülerinnen und Schülern, Competencies and Attitudes of Students), which have been conducted by the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg since 1995. Both studies followed a complete cohort of students from grade 5 until the general qualification for university entrance (Abitur) or the end of their apprenticeship. LAU and KESS included achievement tests and questionnaires on personal characteristics, schools and instruction, and students’ family Background.
LAU and KESS have been documented in descriptive reports and in a few in-depth analyses of selected issues. As is true of many data sets in the field of empirical educational research, the analytic potential of the LAU and KESS data is far from exhausted. Against this backdrop, the scientific consortium MILES was established in the summer of 2012 under the leadership of Prof. Olaf Köller. In accordance with an agreement between Hamburg’s Ministry of Schools and Vocational Training (Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung, BSB) and the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN), the LAU and KESS data have been made available to the MILES consortium for the purpose of conducting more detailed secondary analyses. Beginning in the winter of 2012/13, the data sets were gradually transferred to IPN. Since then, the documentation of the studies has been revised and completed. The rescaling of achievement data were completed with the goal of creating a scaling model that is consistent across all measurement points and the two studies. The RemoteMILES system was created as a way of making it possible to store the data at a central location and facilitating cooperation among the consortium members as they analyze the data. At the same time, members of the consortium have been identifying and discussing issues that the LAU and KESS data may be particularly helpful in analyzing. Focus areas included family-related interventions (tutoring, year abroad), school effectiveness and certain aspects of instruction (particularly bilingual instruction), as well as social disparities in academic success over the course of the school years. Either implicitly or explicitly, the research projects also addressed methodological challenges related to the elaborate study design. The members of the MILES consortium agreed on seven research projects to be conducted using the LAU and KESS data.
No child left behind
The aim of the project “The Power of Reading – Elementary Schools” are
- early recognition of children with difficulties in acquiring written language
- deriving individual support based on diagnostic findings
- documentation of learning development for working with parents and defining an educational plan with specialists
- prevention of reading and spelling difficulties
For this purpose, the MI, together with the IPN and the Institute for Quality Development in Schools in Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH) in cooperation with the Cornelsen-Publishing House, is developing a two-part work material combined in a student- and teacher-booklet for diagnosing and supporting of reading and writing skills in elementary schools. The participating teachers are prepared for the implementation of the individual milestones in regular regional training events, the derived support measures are discussed and experiences are exchanged.
Starting in the 2018/19 school year, “Lesen macht stark” launched in first grade with a training concept that complements the diagnostic material. The Mercator Institute is providing scientific advice on the development of the materials for the remedial training and is accompanying its introduction in the schools by researching the implementation conditions. It investigates the conditions under which teachers accept the training program and whether they use the material in accordance with the concept.
