The German school system employs centrally organized performance assessments (some of which are called "VERA") as a way of promoting lesson development. In recent years, several German federal states introduced a computer-based performance testing system which will replace the paper-pencil testing system in the future. Scores from…

Previous research has focused on self-assessments rather than objective assessments for assessing teachers' technological knowledge (TK). Notwithstanding, empirical studies have failed to show stable relationships between self-assessments and objective assessments. In this study, we investigate the extent to which scenario-based self-assessments…

Context: In this paper, we review and discuss the piloting in Norway of a German methodology for competence diagnostics in vocational education and training: the Competence Development and Assessment in TVET (COMET) project. Our overarching theme is determining to what extent such large-scale assessment systems are valid for international…

Bystanders play a crucial role in aggressive behavior in group contexts. Cyberbystanders can react in proactive ways such as assisting a cyberbully or defending the victim. Since school relationships spill over to the online world, the school context is likely to influence students' online behavior. In the present study, we examine the influence…

In March 2020, many schools worldwide were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This closure confronted mathematics teachers with the challenging transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT). How did students experience ERT, and how did these experiences relate to context variables and to their teachers' beliefs and practices? In particular, what…

Educational research emphasizes the advantages of multimethod designs. However, if the design comprises different perspectives, the question of construct validity emerges. We related this question to student and teacher ratings of student-student relations, which are of high interest in research on physical education. In our study, 2,160 students…

When competence tests are administered, subjects frequently omit items. These missing responses pose a threat to correctly estimating the proficiency level. Newer model-based approaches aim to take nonignorable missing data processes into account by incorporating a latent missing propensity into the measurement model. Two assumptions are typically…

People use many different products made from plastics every day. But conventional plastics such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) do not always have a good reputation in society at large. Bioplastics such as thermoplastic starch (TPS) promise to be better alternatives but are they really better than conventional plastics? This article presents a new…

For this study we examined collaborative assessment in counseling 820 German students who were going abroad and who were exposed to the Test to Measure Intercultural Competence (TMIC). A randomized pretest-posttest control group design was used. The control group did not get any test feedback. The remaining groups received written feedback or…

This paper gives an overview of research on modelling science competence in German science education. Since the first national German educational standards for physics, chemistry and biology education were released in 2004 research projects dealing with competences have become prominent strands. Most of this research is about the structure of…

The topic of "teacher professionalism" is one of the most crucial ones in quality education research. It has a potential to generate results that could inform and hence enhance the practice in classrooms. Thus, research in this field needs reliable instruments to measure the professional knowledge of our teachers to be able to generate…

Our study focuses on the correlation of concept map (CMap) structures and learning success tested with short answer tests, taking into particular account the complexity of the subject matter. Novice sixth grade students created CMaps about two subject matters of varying difficulty. The correlation of the complexity of CMaps with the post-test was…

In a German out-of-school laboratory, 293 medium-achieving 10th-grade students participated in a lesson unit about gene technology. They were divided into two groups (I-1, I-2), both of which followed the same hands-on lesson procedure. Students within I-2 were additionally confronted with alternative conceptions to central issues of the specific…

Evaluations of gaming simulations and business games as teaching devices are typically end-state driven. This emphasis fails to detect how the simulation being evaluated does or does not bring about its desired consequences. This paper advances the use of a logic model approach, which possesses a holistic perspective that aims at including all…

Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany. Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced…