@phdthesis{Stallasch2024,
  author    = {Stallasch, Sophie E.},
  title     = {Optimizing power analysis for randomized experiments: Design parameters for student achievement},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-62939},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-629396},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {ix, 224},
  year      = {2024},
  abstract  = {Randomized trials (RTs) are promising methodological tools to inform evidence-based reform to enhance schooling. Establishing a robust knowledge base on how to promote student achievement requires sensitive RT designs demonstrating sufficient statistical power and precision to draw conclusive and correct inferences on the effectiveness of educational programs and innovations. Proper power analysis is therefore an integral component of any informative RT on student achievement. This venture critically hinges on the availability of reasonable input variance design parameters (and their inherent uncertainties) that optimally reflect the realities around the prospective RT—precisely, its target population and outcome, possibly applied covariates, the concrete design as well as the planned analysis. However, existing compilations in this vein show far-reaching shortcomings. The overarching endeavor of the present doctoral thesis was to substantively expand available resources devoted to tweak the planning of RTs evaluating educational interventions. At the core of this thesis is a systematic analysis of design parameters for student achievement, generating reliable and versatile compendia and developing thorough guidance to support apt power analysis to design strong RTs. To this end, the thesis at hand bundles two complementary studies which capitalize on rich data of several national probability samples from major German longitudinal large-scale assessments. Study I applied two- and three-level latent (covariate) modeling to analyze design parameters for a wide spectrum of mathematical-scientific, verbal, and domain-general achievement outcomes. Three vital covariate sets were covered comprising (a) pretests, (b) sociodemographic characteristics, and (c) their combination. The accumulated estimates were additionally summarized in terms of normative distributions. Study II specified (manifest) single-, two-, and three-level models and referred to influential psychometric heuristics to analyze design parameters and develop concise selection guidelines for covariate (a) types of varying bandwidth-fidelity (domain-identical, cross-domain, fluid intelligence pretests; sociodemographic characteristics), (b) combinations quantifying incremental validities, and (c) time lags of 1- to 7-year-lagged pretests scrutinizing validity degradation. The estimates for various mathematical-scientific and verbal achievement outcomes were meta-analytically integrated and employed in precision simulations. In doing so, Studies I and II addressed essential gaps identified in previous repertoires in six major dimensions: Taken together, this thesis accumulated novel design parameters and deliberate guidance for RT power analysis (1) tailored to four German student (sub)populations across the entire school career from Grade 1 to 12, (2) matched to 21 achievement (sub)domains, (3) adjusted for 11 covariate sets enriched by empirically supported guidelines, (4) adapted to six RT designs, (5) suitable for latent and manifest analysis models, (6) which were cataloged along with quantifications of their associated uncertainties. These resources are complemented by a plethora of illustrative application examples to gently direct psychological and educational researchers through pivotal steps in the process of RT design. The striking heterogeneity of the design parameter estimates across all these dimensions constitutes the overall, joint key result of Studies I and II. Hence, this work convincingly reinforces calls for a close match between design parameters and the specific peculiarities of the target RT's research context. All in all, the present doctoral thesis offers a—so far unique—nuanced and extensive toolkit to optimize power analysis for sound RTs on student achievement in the German (and similar) school context. It is of utmost importance that research does not tire to spawn robust evidence on what actually works to improve schooling. With this in mind, I hope that the emerging compendia and guidance contribute to the quality and rigor of our randomized experiments in psychology and education.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kager2023,
  author    = {Kager, Klara},
  title     = {Critical Research Needs in Lesson Study: Then, Now, and Looking Forward},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-60271},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-602711},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {iii, 252},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {The collaboration-based professional development approach Lesson Study (LS), which has its roots in the Japanese education system, has gained international recognition over the past three decades and spread quickly throughout the world. LS is a collaborative method to professional development (PD) that incorporates multiple characteristics that have been identified in the research literature as key to effective PD. Specifically, LS is a long-term process that consists of subsequent inquiry cycles, it is site-based and integrated in teachers' practice, it encourages collaboration and reflection, places a strong emphasis on student learning, and it typically involves external experts that support the process or offer additional insights. As LS integrates all these characteristics, it has rapidly gained international popularity since the turn of the 21st century and is currently being practiced in over 40 countries around the world. This international borrowing of the idea of LS to new national contexts has given rise to a research field that aims to investigate the effectiveness of LS on teacher learning as well as the circumstances and mechanisms that make LS effective in various settings around the world. Such research is important, as borrowing educational innovations and adapting them to new contexts can be a challenging process. Educational innovations that fail to deliver the expected outcomes tend to be abandoned prematurely and before they have been completely understood or a substantial research base has been established. In order to prevent LS from early abandonment, Lewis and colleagues outlined three critical research needs in 2006, not long after LS was initially introduced to the United States. These research needs included (1) developing a descriptive knowledge base on LS, (2) examining the mechanisms by which teachers learn through LS, and (3) using design-based research cycles to analyze and improve LS. This dissertation set out to take stock of the progress that has been made on these research needs over the past 20 years. The scoping review conducted for the framework of this dissertation indicates that, while a large and international knowledge base has been developed, the field has not yet produced reliable evidence of the effectiveness of LS. Based on the scoping review, this dissertation makes the case that Lewis et al.'s (2006) critical research needs should be updated. In order to do so, a number of limitations to the current knowledge base on LS need to be addressed. These limitations include (1) the frequent lack of comparable and replicable descriptions of the LS intervention in publications, (2) the incoherent use or lack of use of theoretical frameworks to explain teacher learning through LS, (3) the inconsistent use of terminology and concepts, and (4) the lack of scientific rigor in research studies and of established ways or tools to measure the effectiveness of LS. This dissertation aims to advance the critical research needs in the field by examining the extent and nature of these limitations in three research studies. The focus of these studies lies on the LS stages of observation and reflection, as these stages have a high potential to facilitate teacher learning. The first study uses a mixed-method design to examine how teachers at German primary schools reflect critically together. The study derives a theory-based definition of critical and collaborative reflection in order to re-frame the reflection element in LS. The second study, a systematic review of 129 articles on LS, assess how transparent research articles are in reporting how teachers observed and reflected together. In addition, it is investigated whether these articles provide any kind of theorization for the stages of observation and reflection. The third study proposes a conceptual model for the field of LS that is based on existing models of continuous professional development and research findings on team effectiveness and collaboration. The model describes the dimensions of input, mediating mechanisms, and outcomes in order to provide a conceptual grid to teachers' continuous professional development through LS.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Hasl2023,
  author    = {Hasl, Andrea},
  title     = {Time matters: Adopting a lifespan developmental perspective on individual differences in skills, cumulative advantages, and the role of dynamic modeling approaches},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-59511},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-595112},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {274},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {The impact of individual differences in cognitive skills and socioeconomic background on key educational, occupational, and health outcomes, as well as the mechanisms underlying inequalities in these outcomes across the lifespan, are two central questions in lifespan psychology. The contextual embeddedness of such questions in ontogenetic (i.e., individual, age-related) and historical time is a key element of lifespan psychological theoretical frameworks such as the HIstorical changes in DEvelopmental COntexts (HIDECO) framework (Drewelies et al., 2019). Because the dimension of time is also a crucial part of empirical research designs examining developmental change, a third central question in research on lifespan development is how the timing and spacing of observations in longitudinal studies might affect parameter estimates of substantive phenomena. To address these questions in the present doctoral thesis, I applied innovative state-of-the-art methodology including static and dynamic longitudinal modeling approaches, used data from multiple international panel studies, and systematically simulated data based on empirical panel characteristics, in three empirical studies. The first study of this dissertation, Study I, examined the importance of adolescent intelligence (IQ), grade point average (GPA), and parental socioeconomic status (pSES) for adult educational, occupational, and health outcomes over ontogenetic and historical time. To examine the possible impact of historical changes in the 20th century on the relationships between adolescent characteristics and key adult life outcomes, the study capitalized on data from two representative US cohort studies, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997, whose participants were born in the late 1960s and 1980s, respectively. Adolescent IQ, GPA, and pSES were positively associated with adult educational attainment, wage levels, and mental and physical health. Across historical time, the influence of IQ and pSES for educational, occupational, and health outcomes remained approximately the same, whereas GPA gained in importance over time for individuals born in the 1980s. The second study of this dissertation, Study II, aimed to examine strict cumulative advantage (CA) processes as possible mechanisms underlying individual differences and inequality in wage development across the lifespan. It proposed dynamic structural equation models (DSEM) as a versatile statistical framework for operationalizing and empirically testing strict CA processes in research on wages and wage dynamics (i.e., wage levels and growth rates). Drawing on longitudinal representative data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, the study modeled wage levels and growth rates across 38 years. Only 0.5 \% of the sample revealed strict CA processes and explosive wage growth (autoregressive coefficients AR > 1), with the majority of individuals following logarithmic wage trajectories across the lifespan. Adolescent intelligence (IQ) and adult highest educational level explained substantial heterogeneity in initial wage levels and long-term wage growth rates over time. The third study of this dissertation, Study III, investigated the role of observation timing variability in the estimation of non-experimental intervention effects in panel data. Although longitudinal studies often aim at equally spaced intervals between their measurement occasions, this goal is hardly ever met. Drawing on continuous time dynamic structural equation models, the study examines the -seemingly counterintuitive - potential benefits of measurement intervals that vary both within and between participants (often called individually varying time intervals, IVTs) in a panel study. It illustrates the method by modeling the effect of the transition from primary to secondary school on students' academic motivation using empirical data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Results of a simulation study based on this real-life example reveal that individual variation in time intervals can indeed benefit the estimation precision and recovery of the true intervention effect parameters.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Jung2022,
  author    = {Jung, Jana},
  title     = {Does youth matter?},
  pages     = {176},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This dissertation is a compilation of publications and submitted publication manuscripts that seek to improve the understanding of modern partnership trajectories. Romantic relationships constitute one of the most important dimensions in a person's life. They serve to satisfy social and emotional needs (Arr{\´a}nz Becker, 2008) and have an impact on various other dimensions of life. Since the 1970s, partnership formation has been characterized by increased heterogeneity, has become less ordered and much more diverse in terms of living arrangements and the number of unions across the life course (Helske et al, 2015; Ross et al, 2009). This dissertation argues that while partnerships have become more unstable, the need for attachment and the importance of relationship have remained high, if not increased, as evidenced by the prevalence of couple relationships that have remained quite stable (Eckhardt, 2015). The life course perspective (Elder, 1994; Elder et al., 2004; Mayer, 2009) offers an appropriate framework for the understanding of partnership formations throughout the life course. This perspective stresses the path dependency of the life course as well as the interdependencies of life domains (Bernardi et al., 2019). Thus, it can be argued that conditions, resources, and experiences in youth have a substantial influence on later life course outcomes. Given the increasing heterogeneity of partnership trajectories, research to understand partnership processes cannot be based only on single events (e.g., marriage or divorce) or life stages, but must be explored in a dynamic context and over a longer period of time. In sum, this thesis argues that partnership trajectories have to be considered from a holistic perspective. Not only single transitions or events are useful to describe modern partnership histories adequately, but rather the whole process. Additionally, as partnership trajectories are linked to various outcomes (e.g., economics, health, effects on children), it is therefore highly relevant to improve our understanding of partnership dynamics and their determinants and consequences. Findings in this field of research contribute to a better understanding of how childhood and youth are of prospective importance for the later partnership trajectories and whether there are any long-term effects of the conditions and resources formed and stabilized in youth, which then help to understand and explain partnership dynamics. Thus, the interest of this thesis lies in the longitudinal description and prediction of the dynamics of partnership trajectories in light of the individual resources formed and stabilized in youth, as well as in the investigation of the consequences of different partnership trajectory patterns on individual well-being. For these objectives, a high demand on the data is required, as prospective data at the beginning of the partnership biography are needed, as well as data on current life dimensions and the detailed partnership history. The German LifE Study provides this particular data structure as it examines life courses of more than 1,300 individuals from adolescence to middle adulthood. With regard to the overall aim of this dissertation, the main conclusion is that early life conditions, experiences, and resources influence the dynamics of individual partnership trajectories. The results illustrate that youth matters and that characteristics and resources anchored in youth influence the timing of early status passages, which sets individuals on specific life paths. However, in addition to personal and social resources, partnership trajectories were also significantly influenced by individuals' sociodemographic placement. Additionally, individual resources are also linked to the overall turbulence or stability of partnership trajectories. This overall dynamic, which is reflected in different partnership patterns, influences individual well-being, with stability being associated with greater satisfaction, and instability (women), or permanent singlehood (men), having a negative impact on well-being. My analyses contribute to life course research by examining path dependency against the background of various individual factors (socio-structural and psychological characteristics) to model decision-making processes in partnerships in more detail. They do so by including also non-cohabitational union types in the analyses, by accounting for pre-trajectory life conditions and resources, and, most importantly, by modeling the partnership trajectory in a holistic and dynamic perspective, applying this perspective to appropriate and modern statistical methods on a unique dataset.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Bosch2020,
  author    = {Bosch, Jannis},
  title     = {Differential consequences of social comparison processes for high and low achieving students},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {136},
  year      = {2020},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Civitillo2019,
  author    = {Civitillo, Sauro},
  title     = {Teachers' cultural diversity beliefs and culturally responsive practices},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-42776},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427763},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {161},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {The present dissertation about teachers' cultural diversity beliefs and culturally responsive practices includes a general introduction (Chapter 1), a systematic literature review (Chapter 2), three empirical studies (Chapter 3, 4, and 5) and it ends with a general discussion and conclusion (Chapter 6). The major focus of investigation laid in creating a deeper understanding of teachers' beliefs about cultural diversity and how those beliefs are related to teaching practices, which could or could not be considered to be culturally responsive. In this dissertation, I relied on insights from theoretical perspectives that derived from the field of psychology such as social cognitive theory and intergroup ideologies, as well as from the field of multicultural education such as culturally responsive teaching. In Chapter 1, I provide the background of this dissertation, with contextual information regarding the German educational system, the theoretical framework used and the main research objectives of each study. In Chapter 2, I conducted a systematic review of the existing international studies on trainings addressing cultural diversity beliefs with pre-service teachers. More specifically, the aims of the systematic literature review were (1) to provide a description of main components and contextual characteristics of teacher trainings targeting cultural diversity beliefs, (2) report the training effects, and (3) detail the methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies. By examining the main components and contextual characteristics of teacher trainings, the effects on beliefs about cultural diversity as well as the methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies in a single review, I took an integrated approach to these three processes. To review the final pool of studies (N = 36) I used a descriptive and narrative approach, relying primarily on the use of words and text to summarise and explain findings of the synthesis. The three empirical studies that follow, all highlight aspects of how far and how teacher beliefs about cultural diversity translate into real-world practices in schools. In Chapter 3, to expand the validity of culturally responsive teaching to the German context, I aimed at verifying the dimensional structure of German version of the Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale (CRCMSES; Siwatu, Putman, Starker-Glass, \& Lewis, 2015). I conducted Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and run correlations between the subscales of the CRCMSES and a measure of cultural diversity- related stress. Data (n = 504) used for the first empirical study (Chapter 3) were collected in the InTePP-project (Inclusive Teaching Professionalization Panel) in which pre-service teachers' competencies and beliefs were assessed longitudinally at two universities: the University of Potsdam and the University of Cologne. In the second empirical study, which forms Chapter 4, the focus is on teachers' practices resembling school approaches to cultural diversity. In this study, I investigated two research questions: (1a) What types of descriptive norms regarding cultural diversity are perceived by teachers and students with and without an immigrant background and (1b) what is their degree of congruence? Additionally, I was also interested in how are teachers' and students' perceptions of descriptive norms about cultural diversity related to practices and artefacts in the physical and virtual school environment? Data for the second empirical study (Chapter 4) were previously collected in a dissertation project of doctor Maja Schachner funded by the federal program "ProExzellenz" of the Free State of Thuringia. Adopting a mixed-methods research design I conducted a secondary analysis of data from teachers' (n = 207) and students' (n = 1,644) gathered in 22 secondary schools in south-west Germany. Additional sources of data in this study were based on pictures of school interiors (hall and corridors) and sixth-grade classrooms' walls (n = 2,995), and screenshots from each school website (n = 6,499). Chapter 5 addresses the question of how culturally responsive teaching, teacher cultural diversity beliefs, and self-reflection on own teaching are related. More specifically, in this study I addressed two research questions: (1) How does CRT relate to teachers' beliefs about incorporating cultural diversity content into daily teaching and learning activities? And (2) how does the level of teachers' self-reflection on their own teaching relate to CRT? For this last empirical chapter, I conducted a multiple case study with four ethnic German teachers who work in one culturally and ethnically diverse high school in Berlin, using classroom video observations and post-observation interviews. In the final chapter (Chapter 6), I summarised the main findings of the systematic literature review and three empirical studies, and discuss their scientific and practical implications. This dissertation makes a significant contribution to the field of educational science to understanding culturally responsive teaching in terms of its measurement, focus on both beliefs and practices and the link between the two, and theoretical, practical, and future study implications.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Entrich2016,
  author    = {Entrich, Steve R.},
  title     = {Shadow education and social inequalities in Japan},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Cham},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-69118-3},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-69119-0},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xxv, 309},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {This book examines why Japan has one of the highest enrolment rates in cram schools and private tutoring worldwide. It sheds light on the causes of this high dependence on 'shadow education' and its implications for social inequalities. The book provides a deep and extensive understanding of the role of this kind of education in Japan. It shows new ways to theoretically and empirically address this issue, and offers a comprehensive perspective on the impact of shadow education on social inequality formation that is based on reliable and convincing empirical analyses. Contrary to earlier studies, the book shows that shadow education does not inevitably result in increasing or persisting inequalities, but also inherits the potential to let students overcome their status-specific disadvantages and contributes to more opportunities in education. Against the background of the continuous expansion and the convergence of shadow education systems across the globe, the findings of this book call for similar works in other national contexts, particularly Western societies without traditional large-scale shadow education markets. The book emphasizes the importance and urgency to deal with the modern excesses of educational expansion and education as an institution, in which the shadow education industry has made itself (seemingly) indispensable. This book: • Is the first comprehensive empirical work on the implications of shadow education for educational and social inequalities. • Draws on quantitative and qualitative data and uses mixed-methods. • Has major implications for sociological, international and comparative research on the topic. • Introduces a general theoretical frame to help future research in approaching this under-theorized field.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Austin2015,
  author    = {Austin, Gina},
  title     = {The mediating role of theory of mind in the relationship between executive function and conduct problems in elementary school-age children},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {171},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Tetzner2014,
  author    = {Tetzner, Julia},
  title     = {Stability and change in academic, social, and emotional development from early adolescence to young adulthood},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {191},
  year      = {2014},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Agamy2012,
  author    = {Agamy, Ibrahim},
  title     = {Social networking software in higher education : investigating the influence of using different interaction levels on learners' achievement and satisfaction},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-61888},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Education in knowledge society is challenged with a lot of problems in particular the interaction between the teacher and learner in social networking software as a key factor affects the learners' learning and satisfaction (Prammanee, 2005) where "to teach is to communicate, to communicate is to interact, to interact is to learn" (Hefzallah, 2004, p. 48). Analyzing the relation between teacher-learner interaction from a side and learning outcome and learners' satisfaction from the other side, some basic problems regarding a new learning culture using social networking software are discussed. Most of the educational institutions pay a lot of attentions to the equipments and emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in learning situations. They try to incorporate ICT into their institutions as teaching and learning environments. They do this because they expect that by doing so they will improve the outcome of the learning process. Despite this, the learning outcome as reported in most studies is very limited, because the expectations of self-directed learning are much higher than the reality. Findings from an empirical study (investigating the role of teacher-learner interaction through new digital media wiki in higher education and learning outcome and learner's satisfaction) are presented recommendations about the necessity of pedagogical interactions in support of teaching and learning activities in wiki courses in order to improve the learning outcome. Conclusions show the necessity for significant changes in the approach of vocational teacher training programs of online teachers in order to meet the requirements of new digital media in coherence with a new learning culture. These changes have to address collaborative instead of individual learning and ICT wiki as a tool for knowledge construction instead of a tool for gathering information.},
  language  = {en}
}