Hans-Günther Roßbach

Auswirkungen eines Kindergartenbesuchs auf den kognitiv-leistungsbezogenen Entwicklungsstand von Kindern

Vor dem Hintergrund der gegenwartigen Diskussion um eine starkere Bildungsforderung im Kindergarten hat der Beitrag zum Ziel, den aktuellen Forschungsstand uber Auswirkungen eines Besuchs institutioneller Betreuungsformen in der fruhen Kindheit zu sichten. Auf der Basis methodisch gut abgesicherter Langsschnittstudien wird zentral analysiert, welche langerfristigen Auswirkungen institutionelle Betreuung und ihre Qualitat im Kindergartenalter auf den kognitiv-leistungsbezogenen Bereich bis in die Grundschule hinein haben. Des Weiteren wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich kompensatorische Fordereffekte bei Kindern aus benachteiligten Familien identifizieren lassen und inwieweit die Anregungsqualitat von Kindergarten und Grundschule miteinander in Beziehung stehen. Im Ergebnis lassen sich generell kurz- und langerfristige positive Auswirkungen eines Kindergartenbesuchs festhalten. Benachteiligte Kinder profitieren von einem Kindergartenbesuch insbesondere von einem qualitativ hochwertigen Kindergartensetting. Ein inkonsistentes Bild ergibt sich im Hinblick auf das Zusammenspiel von Kindergarten- und Grundschulqualitat. (DIPF/Orig.). In view of the German discussion regarding a more curriculum guided education in German preschooling, the present paper summarizes the current state of international research and analyses the effects of childcare on early childhood development. The paper analyses the long-term effects institutional care and education during the preschool years - and its quality - have on childrens cognitive development and achievement in primary school based on methodologically sound longitudinal studies. Furthermore it analyses whether family risk factors can be compensated for and to what extent quality in preschool and in primary school are interrelated. We conclude that preschool attendance results in overall positive outcomes in the short-run as well as in the long-run. Especially children coming from at-risk-families seem to profit from high quality childcare. However, results concerning the interrelatedness of quality in preschool and primary school must be seen as inconsistent. (DIPF/Orig.).

Measurement of Preschool Quality Within the National Educational Panel Study—Results of a Methodological Study

It has been argued that for the assessment of educational quality—especially in preschool—observational methods are the silver bullet. However, in large-scale assessments like the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), observations can hardly be conducted. Against this background, we carried out a study organized around the question of the extent to which preschool quality can be assessed using teacher questionnaires. Therefore, a standardized observation of 60 preschool groups, using the German versions of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS; KES-R and KES-R-E)—a well-established rating instrument for (process) quality in preschool environments—was conducted. Moreover, teachers filled out a questionnaire on preschool quality from pilot studies of the NEPS. In this paper, we present main results from the comparative analyses of observations and surveys of preschool quality using regression analytical methods. It can be shown that on a global level, preschool quality can be reproduced quite well by means of questionnaire data. Conclusions concerning the questionnaire design of the NEPS main study in Starting Cohort 2—Kindergarten are drawn. Finally, some cautionary notes on the use of single indicators of preschool quality and on causal inferences are given.

The National Educational Panel Study: Milestones of the Years 2006 to 2015

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung—BMBF), the National Educational Panel Study (Nationales Bildungspanel—NEPS) started in August 2008 with the aim of collecting urgently required longitudinal data about educational processes and competence development from early childhood to late adulthood. As of January 2014, the NEPS is now situated at the newly founded Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (Leibniz-Institut fur Bildungsverlaufe—LIfBi). The NEPS provides these data to the scientific community as quickly as possible after each data-collection sweep. During the years 2006 to 2015, several important milestones have been achieved by the NEPS team: First, an interdisciplinary network of excellence has been built up including the best educational researchers and research institutions in Germany—initially with the University of Bamberg as the home of the NEPS center. Second, a clear structure for the NEPS has been developed focusing on five substantively oriented pillars and eight life-course stages. Third, a multicohort sequence design was defined in order to be able to quickly collect and disseminate data on different educational stages and to enable an easy comparison of different cohorts. Fourth, six cohorts with more than 60,000 target persons (plus some 40,000 context persons) were sampled in educational institutions or based on register data. Fifth, innovative longitudinal instruments were designed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers bringing together relevant theories, concepts, and variables from various disciplines. Sixth, procedures in order to collect representative data based on different samples have been defined, following up individuals through their educational pathways. Seventh, an effective infrastructure for the dissemination of data to the scientific community in Germany and abroad, a program of introductory user courses, and a user support center have been set up. Data from all six NEPS cohorts have been released to date. More than 1,000 researchers from various disciplines are already using NEPS data. Eighth, the institutionalization under the umbrella of the Leibniz Association has created a long-term perspective for NEPS to establish itself as an infrastructure facility for educational research.

Early Childhood Learning Experiences

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are receiving increased attention in many countries, and research has provided evidence that ECEC experiences influence children’s later development in school. It seems valuable therefore to collect information on ECEC experiences also in international school achievement studies. In this chapter a broad outline of the theoretical grounding for such an assessment framework as well as the reasoning for the choice of ECEC indicators in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 field trial is provided. Definitions of key concepts in ECEC are introduced: quantitative indicators of ECEC experience, curriculum, pedagogy, pedagogical approaches and concepts of quality. The practical relevance of these concepts and their relations to other aspects of school effectiveness and educational policy research and practice are highlighted. Finally, those constructs are described that seem to be the most relevant for international school achievement studies. At the same time, mainly due to the retrospective nature, there are strong limitations to the assessing of ECEC experiences in the context of school achievement studies. These limitations are discussed to help the reader understand the measurement framework.

Pädagogik der Frühen Kindheit und Kindertageseinrichtungen

Die „Padagogik der Fruhen Kindheit“ ist als erziehungswissenschaftliche Teildisziplin relativ jung und teilweise durch unscharfe Strukturen gekennzeichnet. Sie beschaftigt sich sowohl mit den informellen und formellen Bildungs-, Erziehungs- und Betreuungsangeboten fur Kinder (schwerpunktmasig im Alter vor dem Schulbeginn) als auch mit erganzenden (familienpadagogischen) Angeboten fur Eltern. Der Padagogik der Fruhen Kindheit liegt ein breites Verstandnis des Aufwachsens von Kindern zu Grunde, das sowohl in der Familie als auch in unterschiedlichen Institutionen stattfindet und somit immer in einen gesellschaftlichen Kontext eingebettet ist.

Familie und familienergänzende Infrastruktur für Kinder im Vorschulalter

Familie und familienerganzende Infrastruktur fur die Betreuung und Erziehung von Kindern im Vorschulalter sind in einem facettenreichen Verhaltnis von Wechselwirkungen miteinander verbunden. In diesem Beitrag werden die Verbindungen beider Bereiche unter folgenden Fragestellungen untersucht: Inwiefern beeinflussen Vorhandensein bzw. auch Lucken in der familienerganzenden Infrastruktur die familiale Lebensplanung und Lebenssituation? Sind die infrastrukturellen Angebote familienerganzender Betreuung und Erziehung ausreichend und auf die Bedurfnisse von Familien abgestimmt? Welche Auswirkung hat der familiale Faktor mutterliche Erwerbstatigkeit auf die Betreuungssituation von Kindern und welche Ruckwirkungen ergeben sich fur die Familie und das Kind, wenn dieses eine Einrichtung besucht? Welche Akzeptanz findet die Tagesbetreuung von Kindern in Einrichtungen und inwieweit stimmen Erziehungsorientierungen in den Familien und Einrichtungen uberein?

Medienalltag in Familien

Padagogen und Verantwortungstrager in der Jugendhilfe stehen den modernen Medien vielfach kritisch gegenuber. Die Abwehr gegen ein neues Medium ist so alt wie dieses Medium selbst. Die Befurchtung, Medien konnten Kinder in ihrer Entwicklung eher behindern als ihnen forderlich sein, bestimmte den Unmut damals wie heute (vgl. Paus-H u.a. 1990). So riefen Padagogen — dies ist in der heutigen Zeit allgemeiner Wertschatzung des Buchs kaum mehr vorstellbar — 1847 eine Anti-Lesekampagne ins Leben, um vor den Folgen des zugellosen Buchkonsums bei Kindern zu warnen. Bestand doch die Sorge, die Konfrontation mit ungeeignetem Lesestoff verleite Kinder zu Ungehorsam, mache sie frech und aufsassig.

Das Nationale Bildungspanel als wertvolle Ressource für die Bildungsforschung

Das Nationale Bildungspanel (NEPS) erhebt empirische Daten uber das Zusammenspiel individueller Kompetenzentwicklungen, Lernerfahrungen, Bildungsentscheidungen und -renditen sowie Migrationshintergrund und Personlichkeitsaspekte uber den Lebensverlauf. Im Rahmen seines Multikohorten-Sequenz-Designs werden uber 60.000 Zielpersonen und 40.000 Kontextpersonen aus sechs Startkohorten von der fruhen Kindheit bis in das Erwachsenenalter verfolgt. Die gewonnenen Daten werden der internationalen wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft in Form von Scientific Use Files kostenfrei zur Verfugung gestellt.

Home Learning Environments: A Cross-Cultural Study Between Germany and Iran

The home learning environment (HLE) index is composed of seven questions regarding educational parent–child interactions. To compare the psychometric characteristics of the six items of HLE index between the two different contexts of Germany and Iran, a sample including 468 preschool children from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Germany, and 465 preschool children from the Longitudinal Study of Iranian Children (LSIC; Growing Up in Iran) were examined. Rasch analysis supports the fitness of the five items of HLE into the model in both countries. However, differential item functioning (DIF) results revealed significant differences between items functioning across the two samples. According to the item difficulty maps, reading to children was the most reported item in the German families, while Iranian parents tended to paint and draw with their children more. While findings support the construct validity and reliability of five of the six items in both samples, different Rasch results may reveal the effects of the cultural dimensions of each country on HLE items.

ESTABLISHING A COMPREHENSIVE LARGE-SCALE DATA INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: THE EXAMPLE OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PANEL STUDY

Educational research profits greatly from the availability and analysis of longitudinal survey and competence test data. As the collection of such data and the preparation of a corresponding large-scale database is a challenging and expensive task, the results of these efforts ought to be shared among the scientific community. This article introduces the illuminating example of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and provides an insight into some of the key processes implemented in preparing and disseminating its rich empirical data to researchers from different disciplines and from all over the world. First, a short overview of the design and research topics of the NEPS is presented. The NEPS thus has a clear focus on competence development and educational processes-taking into account the relevant life-course-specific learning environments as well as issues of social inequality and educational decisions. Other major aspects include the special situation of persons with migration background and the various returns to education. As part of six different starting cohorts-ranging from early childhood to late adulthood-about 60,000 participants are interviewed and tested regularly in different survey modes. Second, the article describes the most relevant work processes for the creation of Scientific Use Files-for example, data cleaning and editing, coding and variable generation, documentation and metadata management, as well as data enrichment. The data protection and dissemination strategies are also explained here. Third, the article finally also gives some basic information about data usage as well as an outlook on future developments within the NEPS.