There is considerable international interest in transitions from school to work. This article approaches the issue as part of the debate around 'vocational maturity' ("Ausbildungsreife") in Germany and 'employability' in the United Kingdom. Vocational education and training systems in these two countries differ significantly, so the…

Causal asymmetry is a situation where the causal factors under study are more suitable for explaining the outcome than its absence (or vice versa); they do not explain both equally well. In such a situation, presence of a cause leads to presence of the effect, but absence of the cause may not lead to absence of the effect. A conceptual discussion…

In Germany and Canada, the integration of immigrants into the labour market is closely related to the various approaches towards the recognition and validation of informal learning. This paper aims to analyse the informal learning measures undertaken by immigrants as well as those offered by employers in the health and information and…

Mixed-mode surveys are popular as they can save costs and maintain (or improve) response rates relative to single-mode surveys. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how design decisions like survey mode or questionnaire length impact measurement quality. In this study, we compare measurement quality in an experiment of three distinct survey designs…

To tackle the growing challenges facing our societies, such as climate change, we need to understand scientific knowledge and methods. Developing scientific literacy in schools is therefore necessary. To do so, we need to be able to assess competencies associated with scientific literacy. Secondly, educators need meaningful tools which can be…

With individual, social, and emotional skills increasingly emerging as integral components of a comprehensive education, this scientific study aims to organize and summarize the range of different approaches found in the literature regarding the role and contribution of to the holistic development of students and adolescents. This study serves as…

Dimensional comparisons--i.e., comparisons between achievements in different domains--have to date been examined particularly between students' achievements in different school subjects. Numerous studies have documented that dimensional comparisons between mathematical and verbal achievements significantly affect students' mathematical and verbal…

In recent years, higher education systems worldwide have been marked by a considerable expansion of work-based higher education (WBHE), with the institutional spheres of academia, industry and state increasingly coming together. We take the case of WBHE to analyse institutional arrangements in the different skill formation systems of France,…

Mind-wandering during reading is often associated with worse comprehension performance. Research suggests that metacognitive competences (i.e., the knowledge about as well as monitoring and regulation of one's own cognitive processes) are positively related to reading performance and may play a role in the prevalence of mind-wandering. However,…

Reflective practice holds critical importance, for example, in higher education and teacher education, yet promoting students' reflective skills has been a persistent challenge. The emergence of revolutionary artificial intelligence technologies, notably in machine learning and large language models, heralds potential breakthroughs in this domain.…

The storming of the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 shocked the world and challenged democratic norms. Considerations on how to teach the events of January 6th remains an open question, not just for the United States but for other democratic nations, including Germany. This comparative case study explored the similarities and differences in how US…

Evaluating and improving instructional quality is important in pre-service teacher education, given it is a crucial factor for students' learning gains. This process is complex and involves multiple classroom events with various interpretations. Criteria for instructional quality are rarely applied systematically in teacher education, leading to…

Differences between academic disciplines have been a well-studied theme in higher education research. But even though students' subjective study values are a key factor for successful studying, research examining their disciplinary differences in the higher education context is lacking. To address this, this study draws on expectancy-value theory,…

Reluctance of respondents to participate in surveys has long drawn the attention of survey researchers. Yet, little is known about what drives a respondent's decision to answer the survey invitation early or late during the field period. Moreover, we still lack evidence on response timing in longitudinal surveys. That is, the questions on whether…

Comparison is an important geographic method and a common task in geography education. Mastering comparison is a complex competency and written comparisons are challenging tasks both for students and assessors. As yet, however, there is no set test for evaluating comparison competency nor tool for enhancing it. Moreover, little is known about…