Despite the importance of dual VET for economic growth and stability, internationally, systems struggle with quality assurance and quality improvement. In recent years, numerous research efforts have been made to identify and describe quality aspects in dual VET, especially with regard to in-company training conditions as perceived by apprentices.…

International study results point to potential negative associations of time spent in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in the first 3 years of a child's life and socio-emotional outcomes. However, the transferability of international results to the German ECEC system and the impact of characteristics of the home learning…

Research findings: Developing adequate socioemotional competencies is of great relevance for later health and academic outcomes. Shared book reading creates valuable social situations that provide opportunities to talk about characters' emotions and social interactions with children and thus might contribute to children's socioemotional…

This study investigates social and ethnic differences in the use of early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers with different learning environments in an ECEC system with universal state-subsidized provision and low fees. Based on the German National Educational Panel Study-Kindergarten Cohort from 2011, we matched data on 587 groups in 253…

Although observational instruments are considered to be the gold standard for measuring toddler childcare quality, large-scale studies often have to rely on interviews or questionnaires. However, it remains unclear whether such reports can serve as reliable indicators for childcare quality. The present study used the ITERS and FCCERS to examine…

Based on the concept of educational quality of the home learning environment, stimulating and responsive family time is crucial for children's development. In turn, time use depends on the developmental stages in childhood. International studies indicate that family patterns of time use are associated with a family's resources (i.e. level of…

The willingness to solve conflicts without violence and to strive for a reconciliation of interests is of central significance for the continued existence of democracies. In this paper, we aim to analyze school-related determinants of adolescents' conflict behaviour. Models predicting the conflict styles of "integrating",…

Early literacy and numeracy activities in family and preschool are considered important for promoting children's early literacy and numeracy skills. However, little research exists, especially in Germany, on the frequency of such activities in different contexts. The current study identified patterns of literacy and numeracy activities in…

Home literacy environment (HLE) makes an important contribution to children's reading acquisition in early years. Even though some research on children's perception exists, children's reports about HLE have been neglected. The present study focuses on N = 281 six-year-old's reports about HLE and its influences on literacy enjoyment, frequency, and…

Cooperation between preschools and parents is one key dimension of pedagogical quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC). We examined the structural characteristics of ECEC that predict preschool cooperation activities and how they are associated with children's language and social-emotional skills at the age of 3. The results are based…

Recently, research has focused on attitudes towards inclusive education, and the majority of studies use questionnaires to measure this vital variable. In two consecutive experiments, we showed that attitudes towards inclusive education are not stable but instead are significantly influenced by social context. We manipulated information on the…

Children's fine motor skills (FMS) are being increasingly recognized as an important aspect of preschool development; yet, we know very little about the experiences that foster their development. We utilized a parent-administered children's fine and gross motor activities questionnaire (MAQ) to investigate links with FMS. We recruited a sample of…

Problem-based learning can have a great impact on the acquisition of practical knowledge, which is a central learning aim in the field of teacher education. Therefore, we implemented a problem-based learning approach in four seminars on educational assessment. In this paper, we outline our didactic design and discuss the results of the first…

This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to…

Against the background of demographic change and skill shortages continuing vocational training is of great significance in Germany. However, the training effectiveness is mostly assessed only at the end of a training program or several months after the training. Since in continuing vocational training the two contexts learning field (training)…