Uta Klusmann

Lehrerbelastung und Unterrichtsqualität aus der Perspektive von Lehrenden und Lernenden

Der Fragebogen zu Arbeitsbezogenen Verhaltens- und Erlebensmustern (AVEM; Schaarschmidt & Fischer, 1996, 1997) erfasst anhand von 11 Subskalen personale und soziale Ressourcen bei der Bewaltigung berufsbezogener Anforderungen. In Clusteranalysen mit Lehrerinnen und Lehrern resultierten in den meisten vorliegenden Studien vier Typen (Gesundheitstyp, Schontyp, Risikotyp A, Risikotyp B). Bisherige Arbeiten zum Zusammenhang zwischen dieser Typologie und Unterrichtsverhalten verwendeten ausschlieslich Selbstberichtsdaten von Lehrkraften. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, inwieweit sich die erlebte Belastung von Mathematiklehrkraften auch in dem von den Schulern berichteten Unterrichtsverhalten dieser Lehrkrafte widerspiegelt. Datenbasis ist eine Stichprobe von 314 Klassen der 9. Jahrgangsstufe und ihrer Mathematiklehrkrafte, die im Rahmen der nationalen PISA-Erhebung 2003 befragt wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zum einen die clusteranalytische Replizierbarkeit der Schaarschmidtschen Typologie. Zum zweiten fand...

Eingangsvoraussetzungen beim Studienbeginn : Werden die Lehramtskandidaten unterschätzt?

In offentlichen Diskussionen uber den Berufsstand der Lehrkrafte wird haufig die Annahme formuliert, dass sich fur diesen Beruf Personen mit ungunstigen kognitiven und psychosozialen Merkmalen entschieden, was dazu fuhre, dass ein Teil der Lehrkrafte seine beruflichen Aufgaben nicht erfolgreich erfullen konne. Allerdings haben nur wenige Studien die These von den negativen Selektionseffekten bei den kognitiven und psychosozialen Eingangsvoraussetzungen zukunftiger Lehrkrafte empirisch untersucht. Auf Basis einer Langsschnitterhebung mit uber 2000 Abiturienten in Baden-Wurttemberg («Transformation des Sekundarschulsystems und Akademische Karrieren», TOSCA; Koller, Watermann, Trautwein & Ludtke, 2004) vergleicht die vorliegende Arbeit die kognitiven Fahigkeiten, beruflichen Interessen und Personlichkeitsmerkmale angehender Lehramtsstudierender mit den entsprechenden Merkmalen bei Studierenden anderer Fachrichtungen und untersucht daruber hinaus die relative Wichtigkeit dieser Merkmale bei der Studienwahl. D...

Assessing post-event processing after social situations: a measure based on the cognitive model for social phobia

Abstract In their cognitive model of social phobia, Clark and Wells (1995) described a process called post-event processing that is characterized by prolonged ruminative and negative thinking about a past social event. Referring to this concept, Rachman and colleagues (2000) developed a questionnaire that has been used in several studies subsequently (Post-Event Processing Questionnaire (PEPQ)). Our aim was to examine a German version of the PEPQ and, where necessary, modify this measure. In Study 1 (N=130 students), we inspected the psychometric properties of the German version of the PEPQ. According to the item analyses, problematic items were identified and eliminated or reformulated. To map aspects of post-event processing that were missing in the original questionnaire, new items were developed. In Study 2, the psychometric properties of the revised instrument were analyzed in a sample of students (N=268).The revised instrument showed excellent internal consistency and a meaningful pattern of correlations with anxiety, depression, and dysfunctional self-consciousness. With regard to the factorial structure of the construct, our data suggest that a four-factorial model may be more appropriate than the one-dimensional structure proposed by Rachman and colleagues.

The Development of Teachers’ Professional Competence

This chapter offers a theoretical overview of the development of teachers’ professional competence. Drawing on the literature on teacher quality and teacher education, it discusses two diverging perspectives on the development of teachers’ professional knowledge and skills, namely, the “individual aptitude” approach and the “professional qualification” approach. It then presents a theoretical model that integrates various theoretical approaches that have been used to explain the emergence of interindividual differences in teacher competence. Based on empirical evidence, this model predicts that teachers’ professional competence develops through the active uptake of various learning opportunities and that individual characteristics influence the degree to which teachers utilize these learning opportunities. Moreover, the model assumes that the provision of learning opportunities is dependent on certain contextual variables, such as the education system or school-specific characteristics. This model of the determinants and consequences of professional competence provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for the empirical studies presented in the subsequent chapters.

Intrinsische und extrinsische Lebensziele : Reliabilität und Validität einer deutschen Fassung des Aspirations Index

Zusammenfassung. Der Aspirations Index (Deci & Ryan, 1997; Kasser & Ryan, 1993) ist ein auf der Basis der Selbstbestimmungstheorie entwickelter Fragebogen zur Erfassung allgemeiner Lebensziele mit Hilfe von sieben Subskalen (Personliches Wachstum, Beziehungen, Gesellschaft, Gesundheit, Wohlstand, Ruhm, Attraktivitat). In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird eine deutsche Ubersetzung dieses Instruments vorgestellt und in drei Teilstudien (4565 Schulerinnen und Schuler; 76 bzw. 136 Studierende) untersucht. Der Fragebogen erwies sich als intern konsistent, zeigte eine hohe Stabilitat und entsprach in seiner faktoriellen Struktur den theoretischen Annahmen. Zur Validierung wurden die mittels des Aspirations Index erfassten Ziele frei generierten personlichen Zielen gegenubergestellt. Hierbei zeigten sich deutliche Belege fur die konvergente Validitat der beiden Verfahren. Auserdem wies der Aspirations Index in einer gemeinsamen Faktorenanalyse mit dem GOALS von Pohlmann und Brunstein (1997) teilweise deutliche Uberla...

Soziale Unterstützung beim Berufseinstieg ins Lehramt: Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Bedeutung von Mentoren und Mitreferendaren

ZusammenfassungDie Arbeit untersucht die Unterstützung von Mentoren und Mitreferendaren innerhalb des Vorbereitungsdienstes und geht der Frage nach, inwiefern die Unterstützung dieser Akteure zur beruflichen Entwicklung von Referendaren beiträgt. Die Stichprobe umfasst 551 Referendare des Faches Mathematik, die zweimal innerhalb des Vorbereitungsdienstes im Abstand von einem Jahr befragt und getestet wurden. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass sowohl die Mentoren als auch die Mitreferendare als wichtige Unterstützungsquellen wahrgenommen werden. Beide Akteure unterstützen jedoch die Referendare beim Aufbau unterschiedlicher Kompetenzaspekte. Die Befunde der Strukturgleichungsmodelle machen deutlich, dass die informationsbezogene und emotionale Unterstützung der Mentoren mit erhöhten Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen und geringerer emotionaler Erschöpfung der Referendare einhergeht. Für die Unterstützung der Mitreferendare zeigten sich sowohl positive als auch negative Effekte.AbstractThis study investigates the support that novice teachers receive from their mentors and peers during the teacher induction phase in Germany. It examines the relationship between the support of these two groups and the development of new teachers’ professional competencies. The sample comprises 551 novice teachers in mathematics, who were surveyed twice within one year during their induction period. Results show that both mentors and peers are perceived as providing important support, but that the two groups support different aspects of teaching competencies. Structural equation models indicate that informational and emotional support provided by mentors is associated with an increase in the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and a decline in their emotional exhaustion, whereas the support of peers has both positive and negative effects.

Professional competence of teachers, cognitively activating instruction, and the development of students' mathematical literacy (COACTIV): A research program

This first chapter gives an overview of the studies that constitute the COACTIV research program, summarizes the research questions guiding the program, and outlines the research traditions on which it builds. The research strands informing COACTIV include research on teaching and learning, expertise research, and research on motivational and occupational health psychology. Based on the ideas that instruction is the core business of teaching and that teaching can be understood as a professional activity, the COACTIV research program addresses two guiding research questions. The first concerns the individual characteristics that teachers need in order to practice their profession successfully over the long term. COACTIV employs a multidimensional definition of occupational success that covers both teachers’ ability to provide powerful learning environments and their ability to regulate their professional development independently and on a long-term basis. The second guiding research question concerns the determinants of teachers’ professional competence. Specifically, COACTIV seeks to identify individual and institutional factors that are conducive to the development of the professional competence that teachers needed to succeed in their profession. The chapter also includes an outline of the structure of the book and a description of the research environment in which the COACTIV research program was conducted.

Occupational Self-Regulation

This chapter introduces occupational self-regulation as the fourth aspect of teacher competence in the COACTIV model. Occupational self-regulation describes teachers’ ability to achieve a balance between their personal resources and the demands of the profession. People with strong self-regulatory skills demonstrate a level of occupational engagement that is commensurate with the challenges of the teaching profession while at the same time maintaining a healthy distance from work concerns. It has been postulated that self-regulatory skills predict occupational well-being and teachers’ instructional performance in the classroom. This chapter first situates the concept of occupational self-regulation theoretically in the framework of conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll. American Psychologist 44(3): 513–524, 1989) and introduces a typological approach that posits four types of self-regulation, each of them adaptive in different ways (Schaarschmidt and Fischer. Zeitschrift fur Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie 18(3): 151–163, 1997). Second, the chapter summarizes previous findings from COACTIV on the importance of self-regulation for successful instructional performance and teachers’ occupational well-being. The results underline the importance of teachers’ self-regulation in the professional context. Third, the incremental validity of occupational self-regulation relative to the other aspects of professional competence is empirically tested. The findings indicate that self-regulation should be conceptualized as an independent aspect of professional competence.

Individual Characteristics of Prospective Teachers

The questions of who becomes a teacher and whether the transition to teacher education is associated with a negative selection process have been discussed in both national and international studies on teacher quality (Denzler and Wolter. Cambridge Journal of Education 39(4): 423–441, 2009; Klusmann et al. Zeitschrift fur Padagogische Psychologie 23(3–4): 265–278, 2009; Hanushek and Pace. Economics of Education Review 14(2): 101–117, 1995). This chapter examines the background to these questions and presents empirical findings on the characteristics of teacher candidates in Germany. First, data on the cognitive and motivational characteristics of prospective mathematics teachers were obtained from the COACTIV-R study of teachers in the induction phase of teacher education. The results revealed considerable differences in the motivational and cognitive characteristics of teacher candidates preparing to teach in the academic track versus other school types. Second, the cognitive and psychosocial attributes of prospective teachers were compared with those of other students, based on data from the Transformation of Secondary School Systems and Academic Careers study (Koller et al. Wege zur Hochschulreife in Baden-Wurttemberg: TOSCA – Eine Untersuchung an allgemeinbildenden und beruflichen Gymnasien [Educational pathways to college in Baden-Wurttemberg. TOSCA: a study of traditional and vocational Gymnasium schools]. Leske + Budrich, Opladen, 2004). Again, teacher candidates preparing to teach in the academic versus nonacademic tracks showed considerable differences in cognitive and personal characteristics, but the data did not support the widespread idea that the teacher candidates are a negatively selected group in terms of cognitive and motivational characteristics.

Social Support and Classroom Management Are Related to Secondary Students’ General School Adjustment: A Multilevel Structural Equation Model Using Student and Teacher Ratings.

Teachers’ social support and classroom management are related to secondary students’ achievement, domain-specific interest, and self-concept. However, little is known about whether social support and classroom management shape secondary students’ general school adjustment beyond these domain-specific outcomes. To investigate this question, we drew on data from a large longitudinal research project (N = 5,607 secondary students, N = 227 classes). We applied student and teacher ratings of social support and classroom management to investigate their perspective-specific validities for predicting student outcomes. To measure students’ school adjustment, we assessed achievement as a domain-specific indicator and school satisfaction, truancy, and self-esteem as more general aspects. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses showed that both teachers and students distinguished between social support and classroom management. Teacher and student ratings of classroom management largely converged, whereas their perceptions of social support were not statistically significantly associated with one another. In multilevel structural equation modeling, both perspectives uniquely predicted students’ school adjustment: Student-rated social support was linked to all outcomes at the student level and to school satisfaction and self-esteem at the class level. Classroom management showed only weak associations with outcomes at the student level, but at the class level, student-rated classroom management was related to truancy and teacher-rated classroom management was linked to school satisfaction and student achievement. These findings highlight the important role of teachers in students’ general school adjustment and show the benefit of considering different perspectives and levels of analyses.