Migrationsbedingte Disparitäten in der Notenvergabe nach dem Übergang auf das Gymnasium

Automatic and controlled information processing in the context of students’ ethnic background and social status: An eye-tracking study

Based on the continuum model of impression formation (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990), information processing can be more or less automated or controlled and thus relies more or less on stereotype-based or individual-based characteristics. Also, teachers’ impression formation can be influenced by social categories like students’ ethnic background or social status. However, when teachers form an impression of students’ abilities or performance social categories should not play a role. But a lot of empirical findings show that teachers make a difference depending on students’ backgrounds. Whether this can be explained by a more automated or controlled information processing depending on students’ backgrounds is still an open question. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate teacher students’ impression formation in dependence on students’ ethnic backgrounds and social status. In order to investigate whether information processing differs according to students’ ethnic backgrounds and social status, an experimental eye-tracking study with 45 teacher students was designed. As physiological processes are strongly connected to psychological processes, specific eye-movements can be interpreted as indicators for physiological arousal in first place, but might also allow conclusions about mental processes like information processing. Pupil diameter and blink rate were measured while participants read three case vignettes with manipulated student background. Analysis of variance with repeated measures showed differences in pupil diameter and blink rate according to students’ background. Results showed less arousal when forming an impression about students without immigrant background and with high social status compared to students with immigrant background and with low social status. This might indicate more automated information processing for non-immigrant students with high-status, and more controlled processing for students with immigrant background and low-status.

Teachers’ dysfunctional feedback to students from immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds: A pilot study

Teachers often provide more positive feedback to ethnic minority students than to ethnic majority students in order to compensate for potential discrimination. However, even feedback that sounds positive can have unwanted effects on the students, such as reinforcing negative beliefs and reducing motivation. In this experimental pilot study, we investigated whether teachers were more likely to convey such dysfunctional feedback to students from immigrant backgrounds than to students from non-immigrant backgrounds. Teachers (N = 186) read descriptions of classroom situations and indicated the feedback they would provide to the fictive students. The students’ names implied either an immigrant background associated with low competence stereotypes or no immigrant background. For the most part, feedback did not differ according to immigrant status. Yet, there were some situation-specific differences: When immigrant students failed despite effort, teachers used a simpler language in their feedback. In one of two scenarios describing students who succeeded easily without effort, teachers were more likely to provide dysfunctional ability feedback, dysfunctional effort feedback, and inflated praise to a student from an immigrant background than to a student from a non-immigrant background. A subsequent expert survey (N = 12) was conducted to evaluate the scenario-based feedback test. In sum, the study contributes to the field by providing first signs that students from immigrant backgrounds might be at risk of receiving not only more positive but actually more dysfunctional feedback. Furthermore, the study presents a practice-oriented, standardized, and economic instrument to assess teachers’ dysfunctional feedback, which may be used in future research.

When ethnic minority students are judged as more suitable for the highest school track: a shifting standards experiment

When students are grouped into school tracks, this has lasting consequences for their learning and later careers. In Germany to date, some groups of students (boys, ethnic minority students) are underrepresented in the highest track. Stereotypes about these groups exist that entail negative expectations about their suitability for the highest track. Based on the shifting standards model, the present research examines if and how stereotypes influence tracking recommendations. According to this theory, members of negatively stereotyped groups will be judged more leniently or more strictly depending on the framing of the judgment situation (by inducing minimum or confirmatory standards). N = 280 teacher students participated in a vignette study in which they had to choose the amount of positive evidence for suitability they wanted to see before deciding to recommend a fictitious student to the highest track. A 2 (judgment standard: minimum vs. confirmatory) × 2 (target student’s gender: male vs. female) × 2 (target student’s ethnicity: no migration background vs. Turkish migration background) between-subjects design was used. No effects of target gender occurred, but the expected interaction of target’s ethnicity and judgment standard emerged. In the minimum standard condition, less evidence was required for the ethnic minority student to be recommended for the highest track compared to the majority student. In the confirmatory standards condition, however, participants tended to require less evidence for the ethnic majority student. Our experiment underlines the importance of the framing of the recommendation situation, resulting in a more lenient or stricter assessment of negatively stereotyped groups.

Welchen Einfluss hat ein Migrationshintergrund auf die kognitiven Leistungen in der WISC-V?

Zusammenfassung. Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund fallen in vielen Vergleichsstudien durch schwächere schulische Leistungen auf. Die vorliegende Studie analysiert auf Basis der Normstichprobe der deutschsprachigen WISC-V (N = 1085) verschiedene Einflussmerkmale auf die kognitiven Fähigkeiten von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Alter von 6;0 bis 16;11 Jahren und vergleicht dabei Kinder mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund. Es zeigt sich, dass nicht der Migrationshintergrund, sondern für Grundschulkinder der elterliche Bildungshintergrund und für Kinder ab Klassenstufe 5 die Schulform das eigentliche differentielle Entwicklungsmilieu darstellen, welches Leistungsunterschiede zwischen Kindern mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund erklärt. Allerdings zeigt sich gleichzeitig auch eine Ungleichverteilung von Kindern auf die entsprechenden Schulformen unter Berücksichtigung des Migrationshintergrunds. Für eine bessere Bildungsbeteiligung sollte die Förderung in der Bildungssprache Deutsch weiter ausgebaut werden.

(Biased) Grading of Students' Performance: Students' Names, Performance Level, and Implicit Attitudes

Biases in pre-service teachers’ evaluations of students’ performance may arise due to stereotypes (e.g., the assumption that students with a migrant background have lower potential). This study examines the effects of a migrant background, performance level, and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background on performance assessment (assigned grades and number of errors counted in a dictation). Pre-service teachers (N = 203) graded the performance of a student who appeared to have a migrant background statistically significantly worse than that of a student without a migrant background. The differences were more pronounced when the performance level was low and when the pre-service teachers held relatively positive implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background. Interestingly, only performance level had an effect on the number of counted errors. Our results support the assumption that pre-service teachers exhibit bias when grading students with a migrant background in a third-grade level dictation assignment.