Under the banner of “Educational Success: Support, Measurement, and Evaluation,” the joint conference of the LERN Research Network on Educational Potential and the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (CIDER) brought together researchers from various disciplines in Bamberg for two days. The conference, jointly organized by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), and CIDER, opened up a wide range of perspectives on the conditions, promotion, and measurement of educational success. Researchers at various stages of their careers and from different disciplines presented their work, discussed new findings and methodological and conceptual developments in educational research, and took the opportunity to exchange ideas.
The highlights of both conference days were keynote speeches. On the first day, Prof. Orla Doyle, Ph.D. (University College Dublin) presented new findings on the effectiveness of early childhood support measures in her lecture “The Effectiveness of Early Life Investments: Evidence from the Preparing for Life Trial” and showed the importance of early intervention for educational and life trajectories. The following day, Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff (Technical University of Munich) gave an insight into international comparative studies and the question of how PISA data might help to gain a better understanding of education systems in his presentation “Insights from PISA: Understanding Educational Effectiveness in a Global Context.” As part of the LIfBi Lectures series, his keynote speech was also available online for anyone interested.
With 10 posters and a total of 27 paper presentations, the international conference covered a wide range of topics. The contributions ranged from family influences on educational pathways to questions about higher education and the role of digital technologies in the learning context. New approaches to measuring and evaluating educational outcomes were also presented. In addition, participants discussed labor market-related topics such as training, parenthood, and student employment, as well as the connections between political attitudes, cultural factors, and long-term educational effects.
“The idea of examining key issues relating to the organization and quality of education from an interdisciplinary perspective has been a complete success,” said Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, host of the conference at LIfBi.
In the further course of the conference, Dr. Daniel Fuß presented the current data offered by LIfBi, focusing in particular on the new, simplified NEPScomp data set for teaching and study purposes. Prof. Dr. C. Katharina Spieß from BiB presented the data offered by the family demographic FReDA panel, which has been collecting longitudinal data on living situations, relationships, and family life since 2020. Both presentations provided an overview of the possible uses, research potential, and further developments of the respective data infrastructures.
A panel discussion with representatives from the German Research Foundation, the EU Cooperation Office of Science Organizations, and the DLR Projektträger rounded off the conference. Various programs and opportunities that enable researchers at different stages of their careers to acquire subject-specific research funding, both nationally and internationally, were presented.
The CIDER-LERN conference, which was open to all interested researchers, was followed by a meeting for the current cohort of fellows, at which, among other things, the CIDER Public Science Awards were presented. The college is an interdisciplinary network of postdocs in the field of educational research, supported by the LERN Research Network on Educational Potential and its member institutes, including LIfBi.
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