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The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) announces a personnel change in management. Dr. Robert Polgar is leaving his position as Executive Director of Administration and member of the Board of Directors after six years.

In cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF), the German Youth Institute (DJI), the Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (DZHW), the Sociological Research Institute at the University of Göttingen (SOFI), the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) and the statistical agencies of the Federal Government and the States (Destatis, StaLä), the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) has completed the 8th National Report on Education in Germany “Bildung in Deutschland 2020“, which was presented on June 23, 2020. A particular concern in the education report is the presentation of trajectories, risk factors, and conditions for success in education, thus providing insights into educational outcomes and returns. The current report increasingly uses longitudinal data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS), which is based at LIfBi and has been conducted by a nationwide network for around ten years. The following seven results are examples of NEPS findings in the current Education Report.

Ann-Christin Bächmann, LIfBi employee, has been nominated for this year’s Körber Foundation Study Award. In her dissertation entitled “Berufliche Geschlechtersegregation und Geschlechterungleichheiten auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt [Occupational Gender Segregation and Gender Inequality in the German Labor Market]” at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, she examines the unequal distribution of occupational patterns among women and men in Germany and their effects. Her objective: to identify starting points for creating more gender equality in the business world.

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and Chair of Longitudinal Educational Research at the University of Bamberg, represents the field of educational research in the new Commission for Pandemic Research of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim of the commission, whose inaugural meeting took place on June 15, is to support and connect evidence-driven research in all subjects relevant to the pandemic and to accompany research projects.

On Wikipedia and other knowledge-generating communities, even non-experts can provide information that is not inferior in quality to classic encyclopedias. But what individual and systemic prerequisites are required for this collaborative work? And under what circumstances can knowledge platforms become echo chambers of ideological or even extremist positions? In her guest lecture at LIfBi Lectures, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress gave exciting insights into the current research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. 

On Wikipedia and other knowledge-generating communities, even non-experts can provide information that is not inferior in quality to classic encyclopedias. But what individual and systemic prerequisites are required for this collaborative work? And under what circumstances can knowledge platforms become echo chambers of ideological or even extremist positions? In her guest lecture at LIfBi Lectures, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress gave exciting insights into the current research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. 

As part of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)—the largest long-term study on education in Germany—all participants are currently being surveyed concerning the corona pandemic. In the current and all upcoming surveys, the effects of the corona pandemic on everyday school, work, and family life will be examined. As a result, we will be able to research not only retrospective differences in dealing with the crisis but also long-term consequences for educational biographies in Germany.

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), congratulates Prof. Dr. Kai Fischbach on his election as new President of the University of Bamberg.

In the hope of a normalization of the situation in the wake of the Corona crisis and a re-start of academic discourse in personal exchange, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) plans to continue its series of international conferences with the 5th NEPS Conference in Bamberg on 7 and 8 December 2020. From now on, contributions can be submitted for paper and poster presentations on all topics of empirical educational research. Please find further information and the "Call for Papers" on the conference website.

What impact does the coronavirus crisis have on educational trajectories? How do daily routines of school and work life function, and what changes does COVID-19 bring to everyday life? A short survey on these current developments is currently being prepared among participants of the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) in all six starting cohorts. An online survey will start in May.

He has been affiliated with the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) for over ten years and has been acting Head of the Department “Research Data Center, Method Development” at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) since 2016. Now, Prof. Dr. Christian Aßmann has been appointed to the department of Survey Statistics and Data Analysis at the University of Bamberg.

How do education and space interact? The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) explored this question using the example of Upper Franconia. Now, data from the “BiLO” project have become available to the scientific community free of charge. The database is also enhanced by a comprehensive documentation and information package on the Educational Landscape of Upper Franconia [BildungsLandschaft Oberfranken]. This enables researchers to investigate questions about the connection between individual educational decisions and perceived educational opportunities.

To protect against the further spread of the Corona virus, the data collections of the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) and the refugee study ReGES have been partly suspended since the beginning of this week.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the associated risk of infection, the organizers of the conference have decided to postpone the spring meeting on "Education and Social Inequality", which had originally been scheduled to take place in March 2020, to November 12-13, 2020.

Thanks to its innovative approach, the application for the cooperative project "Digital Formative Assessment (DiFA)–Unfolding Its Full Potential By Combining Psychometrics With Learning Analytics" has won the grant from the Leibniz Competition 2020. The project is led by the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF), with the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and Goethe University Frankfurt acting as project partners.

On the path to completing their dissertation, young scientists face many challenges. Therefore, LIfBi published a new doctoral concept at the beginning of this year, which makes the general conditions transparent for all involved parties and provides information about funding opportunities.

Debates about the multi-tiered school system in Germany have a long tradition: Does the division into different types of school lead to better support according to ability or do social inequalities become more pronounced as a result? In his lecture at LIfBi on January 9, 2020, Prof. Dr. Malte Reichelt—from New York University Abu Dhabi and the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency (IAB) in Nuremberg—explored the methodologically exciting question of whether the type of school determines educational success after the fourth grade.

Standardized surveys of refugees pose a variety of methodological challenges. It was not only the translation of survey instruments into the various languages of origin that proved to be difficult in the ReGES study. Challenges also occurred with the choice of survey type where origin-specific characteristics had to be taken into account.

The results of the seventh PISA study with a focus on literacy were the subject of a nationwide symposium on December 12 in Berlin. LIfBi Director Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt is co-author of the study and participant in the panel discussion Promoting reading in schools at the secondary level from the perspective of digitalization and digital reading, disparities, and multidimensional educational goals.

How are children and adolescents doing in Europe? How do they perceive their living conditions and how do they look at education and health in different countries? The first trans-European longitudinal study will explore these questions from the perspective of adolescents. Prof. Dr. Gary Pollock of Manchester Metropolitan University presented the progress of the project at the LIfBi Lectures.