2015-05, Hachfeld, Axinja, Hahn, Adam, Schroeder, Sascha, Anders, Yvonne, Kunter, Mareike

This study uses the framework of professional competence to investigate the relationship between two cultural beliefs, multiculturalism and colorblindness, and different aspects of professional competence for teaching immigrant students. Results from path model analyses with 433 beginning teachers showed that participants with multicultural beliefs reported higher motivational orientations (self-efficacy and enthusiasm for teaching, and more integrative career motives), more positive values (lower agreement with negative stereotypes), and more reported willingness to adapt their teaching. Colorblind beliefs showed no relationships to the former constructs and were negatively related to reported willingness to adapt teaching to culturally diverse students.

2012-04, Hachfeld, Axinja, Schroeder, Sascha, Anders, Yvonne, Hahn, Adam, Kunter, Mareike

In letzter Zeit wurden vermehrt Initiativen gestartet, Lehrende mit Migrationshintergrund zu gewinnen, unter der Annahme, dass sie über mehr Kompetenzen für das Unterrichten in kulturell heterogenen Kontexten verfügen. Jedoch ist empirisch ungeklärt, ob sich Lehrkräfte in ihrer professionellen Kompetenz für das Unterrichten von Kindern mit Migrationshintergrund unterscheiden und ob mögliche Unterschiede allein auf den Migrationshintergrund zurückzuführen sind. Ausgehend vom COACTIV-Modell der professionellen Kompetenz von Lehrkräften untersuchte die vorliegende Studie an 433 Mathematiklehramtsanwärter(inne)n mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen, Enthusiasmus und Vorurteile für das Unterrichten von Schüler(inne)n mit Migrationshintergrund vergleichend und testete, ob multikulturelle Überzeugungen (MKÜ) eine vermittelnde Rolle spielen. Ergebnisse aus Strukturgleichungsmodellen bestätigen letzteres: Lehramtsanwärter(innen) mit Migrationshintergrund berichteten ausgeprägtere MKÜ, die wiederum Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen und Enthusiasmus positiv und Vorurteile negativ beeinflussten.

2008-07, Hachfeld, Axinja, Grabbe, Yvonne, Schroeder, Sascha, McElvany, Nele, Kunter, Mareike

2013, Kunter, Mareike, Klusmann, Uta, Baumert, Jürgen, Richter, Dirk, Voss, Thamar, Hachfeld, Axinja

This study investigates teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, professional beliefs, work-related motivation, and self-regulation as aspects of their professional competence. Specifically, it examines how these aspects impact instruction and, in turn, student outcomes. In a nationally representative sample of 194 German secondary school mathematics classes, multiple measures were used to assess teacher competence, instructional quality, and students’ achievement and motivation. The effect of teachers’ professional competence on student outcomes was estimated in a 1-year repeated-measures design. Two-level structural equation models revealed positive effects of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, enthusiasm for teaching, and self-regulatory skills on instructional quality, which in turn affected student outcomes. In contrast, teachers’ general academic ability did not affect their instruction. The multidimensional model of teachers’ professional competence introduced in this article seems suited to stimulate further research on the personal indicators of teacher quality.

2011-08, Hachfeld, Axinja, Hahn, Adam, Schroeder, Sascha, Anders, Yvonne, Stanat, Petra, Kunter, Mareike

The article describes the newly developed Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS). The TCBS assesses multicultural and egalitarian beliefs about diversity, both of which reflect favorable attitudes toward immigrant students, but differ with regard to how cultural diversity is believed to be best accommodated in schools. Results from a first study with 433 beginning teachers supported the two-factor structure and the measurement invariance of the scale. Results from a second study with 340 teacher candidates and educational science students showed that proponents of multiculturalism and egalitarianism shared a motivation to control prejudiced reactions, but that they differed in their views on acculturation, prejudices, and authoritarianism.

2013, Voss, Thamar, Kleickmann, Thilo, Kunter, Mareike, Hachfeld, Axinja

Teacher beliefs are thought to play a decisive role in the provision of classroom instruction (Richardson. Handbook of research on teacher education. Macmillan, New York, pp 102–106, 1996). This chapter investigates mathematics teachers’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge (epistemological beliefs) and about mathematics teaching and learning. To this end, 328 mathematics teachers from the COACTIV study were administered 44 Likert items tapping their professional beliefs. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that epistemological beliefs and beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning tend to co-occur into two characteristic, and negatively correlated, patterns of beliefs: a transmissive orientation and a constructivist orientation. The results of multilevel structural equation modeling confirmed the relevance of teacher beliefs for instructional practice and student learning outcomes: Constructivist beliefs were positively related to instructional quality and student achievement, whereas the potential for cognitive activation mediated the relationship between teacher beliefs and students’ achievement. Tentative implications for practice are drawn in the Discussion, followed by an outlook on two other aspects of teacher beliefs investigated in COACTIV: beliefs about the role of the teacher and beliefs about the cultural diversity of the student population.

2010-01, Hachfeld, Axinja, Anders, Yvonne, Schroeder, Sascha, Stanat, Petra, Kunter, Mareike

Accurate teacher evaluations of student performance are crucial for effective teaching. This study examined whether students’ immigration and language background affect teachers’ evaluations. Multilevel analyses tested whether teachers overestimate the performance of immigrant relative to that of non-immigrant students. As part of the German PISA 2003 assessment, 305 teachers predicted the performance of seven of their students on two mathematics problems of different linguistic complexity. Results revealed an interaction effect of students’ language background and linguistic complexity of the problem on teachers’ predictions. Teachers overestimated the performance of bilingual students more than the performance of monolingual immigrant or non-immigrant students on a linguistically complex problem. Teachers need to consider both students’ language background and linguistic demands of the material used to appropriately support bilingual students.