This article intends to identify the effects of school social capital on the educational plans of students, particularly those staying in school and obtaining an intermediate certificate. It is hypothesised that social capital helps to explain individual educational plans and differences between schools regarding the amount of students with…

This paper examines how students learn to collaborate in English by participating in an intercultural project that focuses on teaching students to work together on a digital writing project using various online tools, and documents their reflections working in an intercultural context. Students from Université Paris Sud Orsay and Bonn…

Questionnaire data from a cross-sectional study of a randomly selected sample of 5,149 middle-school students from four EU countries (Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Spain) were used to explore the effects of family violence burden level, structural and procedural risk and protective factors, and personal characteristics on adolescents who are…

System thinking is usually investigated by using questionnaires, video analysis, or interviews. Recently, concept-mapping (CM) was suggested as an adequate instrument for analysing students' system thinking. However, there are different ways with which to use this method. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether particular…

Both reading and language experiences contribute to vocabulary development, but questions remain as to what effect each has and when. This article investigates the effects that reading, telling and sharing a story have on vocabulary acquisition. Children (N = 37) were told nine stories in a randomized, single-blind and counterbalanced 2 × 3 mixed…

This study investigates who chooses primary teaching and how prospective primary school teachers differ from future teachers in other types of schools. Using variance analysis, future student-teachers of different types of schools are compared with regard to their motives for the choice of studies and profession. As a main result, prospective…

This paper analyses which aspects of spirituality are valued by adolescents, and how they are interconnected with youths' life satisfaction and "self-centeredness". The participants were 254 adolescents (11th grade) of four different high schools from west Germany. After re-validation of the 6-factorial student's version of the ASP…

There is accumulating evidence that individual differences in stress reactivity contribute to the risk for stress-related disease. However, the assessment of stress reactivity remains challenging, and there is a relative lack of questionnaires reliably assessing this construct. We here present the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale (PSRS), a…

This study analyses Russian-speaking immigrant parents' beliefs and attitudes toward the education of their children in German and Israeli bilingual kindergartens. Why did the parents chose bilingual education? Which convergences and divergences exist in parents' beliefs, expectations and attitudes toward bilingual kindergartens in Germany and…

Recent studies illustrate the potential that intercultural telecollaborative exchanges entail for language development through the use of corrective feedback from collaborating partners (Kessler, 2009; Lee, 2008; Sauro, 2009; Ware & O'Dowd, 2008). We build on this growing body of research by presenting the findings of a three-month-long…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and burnout among vice-principals (VPs) in primary schools. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 103 VPs at 103 different primary schools in Germany were surveyed with a questionnaire that assessed the four dimensions of psychological…

This paper reports on the results of an observational parallel study conducted simultaneously at 2 universities--one each in New Zealand and Germany. It deals with university engineering students' difficulties in the formulation step of solving a typical application problem from a first-year calculus course. Two groups of students (54 in New…

This contribution deals with theoretical conceptualizations and empirical research analyzing young adults' activity in reaching normative developmental goals in emerging adulthood. It explores whether establishing a stable relationship, starting a career, and achieving residential independence are still important developmental goals now as…

We explored the everyday experiences of 18- to 36-month-old toddlers at two study sites and the influence of adaptation to the host culture on the everyday experiences of children from migrant families. First- and second-generation Puerto Rican families in Connecticut, USA, first- and second-generation Turkish families in Bochum, Germany, as well…

Little is known about differences in the impact of economic stress on students as compared to persons holding secure job positions. Besides the macroeconomic effects, an economic downturn can also affect individual's physical health and psychological well-being (Aytaç & Rankin, 2009). Prior research showed that socio-demographic…