Adolescents often do not consider sustainability in their consumption behaviours. Sustainability issues are challenging to communicate through course content alone. Against this background, the concept of fashion libraries (FLs) was introduced to adolescents at a non-denominational school in a small German city. The purpose was to explore whether…

The English language plays a major role around the world, making it important to learn English in order to participate and communicate in our globalized age. Adequate foreign language (L2) skills are important for everyday life and can even enhance performance in one's first language (L1). A growing number of very heterogeneous classrooms make it…

In a globalized world, the ability to speak English has become increasingly significant. A large number of students who are learning English as foreign language face obstacles in acquiring and storing vocabulary. Children with learning disabilities are especially at risk because of a limited power of retention and motivational struggles. Having an…

One of the most central tenets of chemistry education is developing an understanding of the processes that involve the Transformation of Matter. Current German curricula postulate content-related abilities ("Kompetenzen") that are expected to be achieved by secondary students when graduating from the lower secondary level at grade 10.…

Several countries have expanded extended education in recent years. In Germany, the most substantial educational reform is the ongoing transformation of the traditional half-day school system into an all-day school system. Among politicians, expectations are high that all-day schools will promote student achievement and reduce social achievement…

The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of self-generation in inquiry-based learning and to identify the role of feedback. While open-ended inquiry-based learning with a high degree of self-generation requirements has long been considered optimal for facilitating effective learning, its long-run effects have been critically challenged.…

Structure in the form of feedback has been shown to be highly relevant to students learning. Offering feedback, stating clear expectations and instructions, might enhance students' perceived competence. The context chosen for this study were experiments studying bird flight in biology lessons. Students experimented in a scientific discovery…

Empirical studies have demonstrated that students who are taught in a group of students with higher average achievement benefit in terms of their achievement. However, there is also evidence showing that being surrounded by high-achieving students has a negative effect on students' academic self-concept, also known as the big-fish--little-pond…

Many studies in science education acknowledge the positive effects of context-based learning on students' interest and attitudes. However, little is known about the design criteria of contextual situations generating these effects and how facets of students' situational interest are affected while learning in a contextualised setting. This paper…

Immigrant boys show higher rates of antisocial behaviour. However, results of previous studies showed some contradictory findings in terms of intercultural differences in antisocial behaviour. In our study, we used an intercultural comparison of antisocial behaviour based on two different definitions of migration status (nationality vs. migration…

This study examined interrelations between three indicators of main challenges during adolescence: academic achievement, self-perceived peer acceptance, and self-esteem. An additional aim was to investigate whether the findings hold for girls and boys and across school types (academically oriented track vs. non-academically oriented track). We…

Plants have an enormous importance for life on earth but are often overlooked. This phenomenon called plant blindness is reinforced as students prefer to spend their recreation time with modern media rather than in nature. Mobile devices have become an omnipresent part of students' everyday lives. Nevertheless, direct experiences with plants are…

To what degree can multilingual students profit from bilingual teaching approaches, even when they lack experience in the academic or technical register in their home languages? This study explores this research question in a mixed methods design for a German/Turkish bilingual intervention aimed at fostering conceptual understanding of fractions…

The present study compared 124 adolescents from special schools for students with emotional and behavioural disturbances (EBDs) and 133 regular schooled adolescents with regard to their perceived maternal behaviour. It was also tested longitudinally whether effects of maternal parenting behaviour on subsequent externalising behaviour vary as a…

Personality traits and social cognitive variables are central constructs in psychological research. It is often assumed that personality traits are less changeable than social cognitive variables, and thus interventions usually tend to focus on the latter. However, these assumptions about the mutability of personality and social cognitive…