150 Psychologie
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Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on education worldwide. There is increased discussion of possible negative effects on students’ learning outcomes and the need for targeted support. We examined fourth graders’ reading achievement based on a school panel study, representative on the student level, with N = 111 elementary schools in Germany (total: N = 4,290 students, age: 9–10 years). The students were tested with the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study instruments in 2016 and 2021. The analysis focused on (1) total average differences in reading achievement between 2016 and 2021, (2) average differences controlling for student composition, and (3) changes in achievement gaps between student subgroups (i.e., immigration background, socio-cultural capital, and gender). The methodological approach met international standards for the analysis of large-scale assessments (i.e., multiple multi-level imputation, plausible values, and clustered mixed-effect regression). The results showed a substantial decline in mean reading achievement. The decline corresponds to one-third of a year of learning, even after controlling for changes in student composition. We found no statistically significant changes of achievement gaps between student subgroups, despite numerical tendencies toward a widening of achievement gaps between students with and without immigration background. It is likely that this sharp achievement decline was related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in terms of further research needs, practical implications for educating current student cohorts, and educational policy decisions regarding actions in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wörter flüssig und genau lesen zu können ist ein wichtiger Meilenstein beim Lesenlernen, den jedoch nicht alle Kinder erreichen. Schwachen Leser/innen bereitet es oft Schwierig-keiten, den Übergang vom buchstabenweisen Einlesen hin zur visuellen Worterkennung durch orthografische Vergleichsprozesse anhand größerer (sub-)lexikalischer Einheiten zu schaffen. Dabei ermöglicht die Silbe Kindern, die im Deutschen lesen lernen, den Einstieg in orthografische Vergleichsprozesse. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersuchte diese Replikations-studie in einem experimentellen Prä-Post-Design die Wirksamkeit eines silbenbasierten Le-setrainings auf die visuelle Worterkennung und das Leseverständnis von Zweitklässler/innen. Dazu wurden 101 Kinder, deren Worterkennungsleistung in einem standardisierten Lesetest im Vergleich zur Klassennorm unter dem Mittelwert lag, randomisiert der Experimental- oder Wartekontrollgruppe zugewiesen. Die Ergebnisse linearer Modelle nach Abschluss des 24 Sitzungen umfassenden Kleingruppentrainings zeigen signifikante Verbesserungen der orthografischen Vergleichsprozesse in der Experimentalgruppe. Demnach gelang es Kindern, die das Training des wiederholten Lesens und Segmentierens frequenter Silben erhalten hat-ten, Wörter schneller und genauer zu erkennen. Dieser Befund stellt einen weiteren Beleg für die Wirksamkeit des Trainings zur Förderung der Erkennung geschriebener Wörter dar.
The approximate number system (ANS) is assumingly related to mathematical learning but evidence supporting this assumption is mixed. The inconsistent findings might be attributed to the fact that different measures have been used to assess the ANS and mathematical skills. Moreover, associations between the performance on a measure of the ANS and mathematical skills may be discontinuous, i.e., stronger for children with lower math scores than for children with higher math scores, and may change with age. The aim of the present study was to examine the development of the ANS and arithmetic skills in elementary school children and to investigate how the relationship between the ANS and arithmetic skills develops. Individual markers of children's ANS (internal Weber fractions and mean reaction times in a non-symbolic numerical comparison task) and addition skills were assessed in their first year of school and 1 year later. Children showed improvements in addition performance and in the internal Weber fractions, whereas mean reaction times in the non-symbolic numerical comparison task did not change significantly. While children's addition performance was associated with the internal Weber fractions in the first year, it was associated with mean reaction times in the non-symbolic numerical comparison task in the second year. These associations were not found to be discontinuous and could not be explained by individual differences in reasoning, processing speed, or inhibitory control. The present study extends previous findings by demonstrating that addition performance is associated with different markers of the ANS in the course of development.
As demonstrated by the Overlapping Waves Model (Siegler, 1996), children’s strategy use in arithmetic tasks is variable, adaptive, and changes gradually with age and experience. In this study, first grade elementary school children (n = 73), who scored high, middle, or low in a standardized scholastic mathematic achievement test, were confronted with different arithmetic tasks (simple addition, e.g., 3 + 2, simple subtraction, e.g., 7 – 2, and more advanced addition, e.g., 7 + 9) to evoke different calculation strategies. Video analysis and children’s self-report were used to identify individual strategy behavior. In accordance with the Overlapping Waves Model, children in all achievement groups showed variable and multiple strategy usage and adapted their behavior to the tasks of the different categories. We demonstrated that not only low achievers differed from normal achievers but also that high achievers exhibited a unique pattern of strategy behavior in early mathematics.
In the course of elementary school children start to develop an academic self-concept reflecting their motivation, thoughts, and feelings about a specific domain. For the domain of mathematics, gender differences can emerge which are characterized by a less pronounced math self-concept for girls. However, studies are rather sparse regarding the early years of elementary school education, hence, the point in time when such gender differences emerge yet remains a matter of debate. In our study, we found that the math self-concept of elementary school children (n = 81) declined from first to second grade. While no differences in math achievement were observed between girls and boys, it became apparent that girls’ math self-concept was already less pronounced than the math self-concept of boys in the first years of elementary school. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering such gender differences even at the beginning of school education.