Netzwerken: Reflexionen und Erfahrungen am Beispiel eines TrainerInnen und BeraterInnen-Netzwerkes

How are social networks organized and how much structure and openess do they have? The ambiguity of networking and the grade of organization are discussed and described theoretically and with an authentic example.     

Schule und Schulklasse als soziale Kontexte der Entwicklung im Jugendalter

Studies dealing with the importance of social contexts already have a long tradition in empirical sociological and educational research. One possibility of applying context analysis is to consider schools as multi-level systems. The contribution focuses on the question of the relevant context factors on classroom and school level for the development of school achievement as a key aspect of development in adolescence. It is also examined whether social responsibility goals and norms are indicators of mediating processes between context variables on the one hand and school achievement on the other hand. Data base is the study “Competences and attitudes of students” (KESS) that examines the development of Reading achievement from grade 7 to 8 of a whole student cohort (9,682 students in 467 classes and 142 schools in Hamburg, Germany). Stepwise multi-level regression analyses reveal individual student characteristics, the average ability composition on the class level and the attended track on the school level as relevant predictors of the development of achievement. Social responsibility goals and norms are relevant indicators of mediating processes within the proximal context of the classroom, but not within the context of the schools. These processes are, however, gender-specific.     

Email-Debatte: „Lehrprofessuren“ und „Lehrkräfte für besondere Aufgaben“

For a few years now German universities have the opportunity to employ teaching professors and lecturers with fixed-term work contracts. Trutz von Trotha, Armin Nassehi and Jo Reichertz discuss the implications that this development may have for university employment structures as well as for the future of research and teachings.     

Bildungsverhalten in institutionellen Kontexten: Schulbesuch und elterliche Bildungsaspiration am Ende der Sekundarstufe I

In the German school system a scientifically widely ignored process of modernization took place. It can be described as disconnection of visited school type and aspired graduation at the end of the lower secondary school. These so called “options of disconnection” are obviously used more often than the change of school type and possibly contribute better for a compensation of suboptimal school decisions. In this context the varying institutional arrangements (e.g., restriction of access) of the German states are to be considered, particularly for the upgrading at the Hauptschule (less prestigious level of secondary school). Based on the theory of rational choice, the article investigates the impact of social origin, ethnicity and gender on the parent’s aspired graduation under the different opportunity structures of German federal states. For the analysis the national PISA 2000 — data are used. The results show that parent’s desired graduation is strongly associated with social background and ethnicity. Additionally, the effects of social origin vary by institutional arrangements: In federal states characterized by a wider institutional opening lower status parents aspire more often towards an upgraded certificate for their offspring than in states characterized by more restrictive conditions.     

Sektion Alter(n) und Gesellschaft 2003, 2004 und Ausblick

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Entwicklung und Validierung eines Fragebogens zum Technikbezogenen Selbstkonzept (TSK): Eine gendersensitive Studie

In Germany, just like in most western industrialized countries, the workforce is still highly horizontally as well as vertically segregated: Women generally hold only a small proportion of managerial positions; engineering and computing can still be considered as male domains. In this article we present thetechnology-related self-concept as a new theoretical approach to analyze and understand technology-related attitudes, emotions, and behaviors, especially regarding vocational development. We developed and validated a standardized questionnaire to measure the technology-related self-concept in a differentiated, yet economical manner. To this end, we conducted a comprehensive qualitative (N?=?35) and quantitative (N ₁?=?916;N ₂?=?1142) study. Results show that the questionnaire possesses good psychometric properties. The reliability coefficients are good. The structure of the questionnaire, as postulated by the theoretical model, could be confirmed by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Correlation and regression analyses showed substantial relations with career success as external criterion. Furthermore, gender differences already known from related work were replicated in our study. Thus, construct and criterion validity can be considered satisfactory.     

Einsatz von Simulationspatienten im Kommunikations- und Interaktionstraining für Medizinerinnen und Mediziner (Medi-KIT): Bedarfsanalyse — Training — Perspektiven

Communication skills are of central importance within daily medical life providing effective treatment. In the modern high-tech field of medicine, trustful conversations play a prominent role. In order to help students of the Heidelberg Medical Faculty to be ready for their highly responsible role as communication partner, training is carried out in the framework of HeiCuMed (short for Heidelberger Curriculum Medicinale) using specially trained simulation patients. The communication and interaction training program (referred to as Medi-KIT) enables to practice conducting conversations with challenging communication partners and grave conversational content in difficult situations. Feedback from the standardized patients, as well as from peers and tutors represents a central didactic element.In order to secure knowledge transfer into daily clinic life and as well to build a relation to cognitive knowledge transfer, all medical students are assigned, alongside Medi-KIT lessons, to a ward, and training units are coordinated in terms of content to correspond with symptom-oriented lectures and parallel POL-groups (problem-oriented learning groups). In addition, communication learning objectives are examined at the end of the semester in the form of a clinical practical exam (OSCE: Objective Structured Clinical Examination) and at patient’s bedside (Mini-CEX: Mini Clinical Examination). The goal in imparting communication skills within medical education is that the longitudinal communication curriculum be maintained and continued in subsequent medical specialization studies.