News

Abstracts for the 4th International NEPS Conference taking place at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories on 7 and 8 November 2019 as well as for the conference „Bildung und Raum“ held the day before can now be submitted. The deadline for submission is 15 July 2019.

To what extent does the place of residence in Germany also influence the range of educational opportunities on offer, participation in education, and the performance of learners? In its annual report, the experts of Aktionsrat Bildung formulate concrete recommendations to political decision-makers on this issue. Three leading members of the NEPS Network contributed to the compilation of this report.

An Analysis of Incomplete Data (AID) workshop will take place in memory of Prof. Dr. Susanne Rässler at the University of Bamberg on Friday, June 21, 2019. Susanne Rässler, who died unexpectedly at the age of 55 on August 29, 2018, was the initiator of this series of events offering students and researchers alike the opportunity to present their work in the field of statistical analysis of incomplete data.

On May 17, the kick-off event of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the National Action Plan on Integration (NAP-I) took place in Berlin. It is the aim of the Federal Government to adapt the National Action Plan on Integration to the current challenges and to further develop and strengthen existing support services for people with a migrant background. The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) contributed its expertise with the project “Refugees in the German Educational System (ReGES)”.

To what extent is social origin related to educational achievement? And does this link become stronger or weaker over time? Previous studies have shown seemingly contradictory results. Prof. Dr. Louis-André Vallet investigated this paradox as part of the LIfBi lectures series.

At the beginning of May, the surveys of students with and without special educational needs have started as part of the second substudy of the project “INSIDE–Inclusive Education in Lower Secondary Schools in Germany”.

At the beginning of May, the surveys of students with and without special educational needs have started as part of the second substudy of the project “INSIDE–Inclusive Education in Lower Secondary Schools in Germany”.

At the conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Toronto at the beginning of April, the team of the LIfBi refugee study “ReGES–Refugees in the German Educational System” presented their research design as well as first findings on the school integration of refugees. The project group also addressed different conditions for the integration of refugees and the use of care facilities for families with preschool children. “Many are concerned with questions about the opportunities of young refugees in their transition to vocational training. We will be able to answer these and other questions with ReGES in the coming years,” says Dr. Jutta von Maurice, Head of the study financed by the German Ministry for Education and Research. In addition, first findings on German-language proficiency of young refugees were discussed during an international session organized by the liaison office “International Cooperation in Education” (ice).

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) organizes two related conferences: On 6 November 2019, the conference "Education and Space" will discuss current quantitative-empirical analyses in educational research on spatial questions. This will be followed by the 4th International NEPS Conference on 7 and 8 November 2019 with empirical contributions from all areas of educational research and a special focus on internationally comparative approaches.

It was not the official motto for the celebrations but somehow still remained a central theme of the evening: fortune and change. On April 2, 2019, the outgoing Interim Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) Prof. Dr. Sabine Weinert passed the symbolic baton to the new Director Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt—a day of joy and change.

NEPS data are becoming more and more valuable every year—Professor Karl Ulrich Mayer came to this conclusion as part of the LIfBi lectures series. In his talk on March 19, 2019 in Bamberg, the former President of the Leibniz Association demonstrated the connection between modernity and the increase in higher education. He showed who has benefitted from this trend over the last 100 years and what potential lies in longitudinal data.

The 2019 Educational Research Conference “Educational worlds of the future” took place in Berlin from March 12 to 13. On this occasion, questions that are relevant to society were extensively discussed among representatives of various institutions from the education sector, while projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) had the chance to present their work to a broad audience.

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt has taken over with immediate effect the leadership of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg and thus also of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The certified psychologist is Chair of the Department of Educational Research at the University of Bamberg and has been Head of Department 1 “Competencies, Personality, Learning Environments” since April 2017.

Success in education and work, health and recognition—people need socio-economic skills besides cognitive skills to achieve key life outcomes such as these. Prof. Dr. Martin Brunner, University of Potsdam, gives an insight into empirical data and potential mechanisms that can explain how competencies are related to these outcomes.

Leading survey statisticians and promising young scientists from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany met at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) from February 13 to 15, 2019, to present and discuss the latest developments in the field of survey statistics. Small area estimation problems, microsimulation and non-probability surveys were the main topics of the event, which takes place every 18 months.

The Priority Programme 1646 “Education as a Lifelong Process. Analyzing Data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)” of the German Research Foundation (DFG) is now in its third funding phase. As part of the event on February 14 and 15 at the LIfBi, the research projects presented their current work in 16 presentations and exchanged their results and methodological challenges.

Go to program (English)

The number of scientists registered for using data from the National Education Panel (NEPS) has exceeded the threshold of 2,000 users in January 2019.

It is a scientifically proven fact that intelligence simplifies and accelerates all types of learning. Only gradually have scientists come to understand that intelligence is not only characteristic of individual cognitive abilities but has to be seen much more within the context of the respective environmental and cultural background. But what are the differences in the quality of the learning paths of more or less intelligent students? Prof. Dr. Elsbeth Stern, ETH Zurich, presented data in her lecture at the LIfBi on February 5th that provide information on the effects of intelligence on the use of learning opportunities.

Go to English abstract (PDF)

Overview of LIfBi lectures 2019

In November 2018, the research team published first results of the study "ReGES–Refugees in the German Educational System" on the integration of refugees in Germany.

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) has been conducting the panel "Labour Market and Social Security" (PASS) for more than ten years. One of the central problems of long-term surveys, however, is the ability to instantaneously record events that occur between individual time points of the survey. In order to remedy this weakness, but also to obtain very specific data on smartphone use, the IAB has developed an Android application as part of a feasibility study for PASS.