The phenomenon of first impression is well researched in social psychology, but less so in the study of OSCEs and the multiple mini interview (MMI). To explore its bearing on the MMI method we included a rating of first impression in the MMI for student selection executed 2012 at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany (196…

For hard-to-survey populations such as ethnic minorities and immigrants, increasing survey response rates is a crucial element of the fieldwork as these populations often show a higher likelihood of not participating compared with the native population. However, no study has so far compared different strategies for mobilisation within this group.…

Places to study at medical schools are scarce, which makes well-designed selection procedures employing criteria with predictive validity for good students and doctors necessary. In Germany, the pre-university grade point average (pu-GPA) is the main selection criterion for medical school application. However, this is criticised. According to a…

Learning a new language after forced migration has hardly ever been studied from the perspective of children. Their viewpoint, however, gets even more important, if we want to understand the lifelong consequences of their early experiences. With this aim, we use autobiographical accounts of persons who were rescued from Nazi Germany and brought to…

This dissertation explores how four pre-service teachers (PSTs) came to define and understand intercultural competence (ICC) during a short-term student teaching abroad program. In this exploratory, collective case study I highlight the participants' voice by analyzing their definitions of ICC before, during, and after their experience in Germany…

This article examines learning processes and learning opportunities in the outdoor school based on 13 focus-group interviews with children (ages 8-9) at three German elementary schools. For 1 year, cross-curricular teaching had taken place once a week outside the classroom--in natural settings, at cultural sites or on school grounds. The article…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance a classification of satisfactory and unsatisfactory critical incidents of student-university relationships at German universities. Design/methodology/approach: Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), this paper reports the results of an exploratory study of 15 tertiary education students at…

Despite an expansion of educational opportunities throughout the EU, access to university is still distributed based on social inequality. This tendency can be observed in all EU countries, with Germany, Austria and Slovakia showing particularly low levels of upward mobility. Many working-class students or other non-traditional students never even…

This study describes the problem solving behaviour of bilingual (German - Turkish) primary school students, their approaches and preferences while solving the word problems. Four different types of mathematical word problems (combinations, movement, subtraction and addiction) were given successively to four pupils (one girl and three boys) and…

To a greater or lesser extent, specific combinations of commitment, resilience and subjective well-being represent favorable individual resources in order to cope with professional demands. Prior studies have identified different patterns of these behaviors and experiences. The present study deals with the question whether these patterns are also…

This article explores knowledge outcomes of international researcher mobility in the social sciences and humanities. Looking in particular at international experiences of longer durations in the careers of European PhD graduates, it proposes a threefold analytical typology for understanding the links between the modes, durations, and outcomes of…

Computational thinking (CT) is seen as a key competence of the 21st century and different countries have started to integrate it into their compulsory school curricula. However, few indications exist on how to assess CT in compulsory school. This review analyses what tools are used to assess CT in European schools and which dimensions are…

Although inquiry-based learning is connected with a number of advantages, especially in the field of human geography, very little research has been carried out in lessons by the learners themselves to date. The aim of the study at hand is, therefore, to facilitate the process of solving problems from the sphere of human geography through the use…

Skipping a grade, one specific form of acceleration, is an intervention used for gifted students. Quantitative research has shown acceleration to be a highly successful intervention regarding academic achievement, but less is known about the social-emotional outcomes of grade-skipping. In the present study, the authors used the grounded theory…

Interest is a central learning prerequisite for teaching. The article deals with a survey among 1600 primary school pupils in forms 2, 3 and 4 (ages 7-10) in the German federal state of Bavaria who were interviewed on their interest in geographical topics and working methods. They were given a questionnaire including 40 items to indicate their…