YEAR 2020

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.

Since mid-November, the approvals of the Ministries of Education of the Federal States have been available for the second survey in the LIfBi project “INSIDE–Inclusive Education in Lower Secondary Schools in Germany”. This will allow the surveys that have been prepared for the 2019/2020 school year to take place as planned.

What are the characteristics of people who come from a nonacademic background but are themselves pursuing an academic career such as a degree and doctorate? What is special about this group, which is also called "first-generation students"? On November 26, 2019, sociologist Friederike Schlücker from the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories presented research results from a nationwide study at the TU Berlin and discussed—as part of the First Generation Day—what special support services at universities are possible and reasonable.

Dr. Robert Polgar was elected Deputy Spokesperson of the Administrative Committee of the Leibniz Association. "The election is a sign of confidence by the administrative colleagues of the Leibniz Association. I am very pleased to accept it and look forward to actively supporting the work of the Administrative Committee in this role", said Robert Polgar, Executive Director of Administration at LIfBi since July 1, 2014. He takes up office as of November 28, 2019.

The Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, awarded 27 scientists the honorary status of LIfBi Research Affiliate in September.

On November 7-8, 2019, the international NEPS conference took place for the fourth time at LIfBi. Guest speaker was Prof. Eric A. Hanushek from Stanford University, one of the most renowned education economists in the world today. Once again, this year, prizes were awarded for outstanding works based on NEPS data. The award-winning entries deal with, among other things, school-related helplessness that may be experienced by students with poorer performance and also with the effects that higher education can have on health and wages.

Go to program (PDF)

To commemorate the anniversary of the regional edition "ZEIT im Osten" (No. 46/2019), the editors present 100 young East Germans up to the age of 40, who they believe "will be making headlines soon". Among them is LIfBi employee Dr. Gundula Zoch.

The conference "Education and Space" took place on November 6 at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. The focus was on questions and findings of empirical educational research from a spatial perspective. The opening lecture by Prof. Dr. Rainer Schnell offered an exciting introduction to the challenges of data protection law.

In addition to cognitive abilities, socioemotional competencies play a decisive role in educational success. Experts from science, politics, administration, and educational practice discuss the latest state of research in this field at the Forum on Educational Policy held in Berlin on October 23, 2019. The symposium is organized by the Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN), of which the LIfBi is a member.