Student case vignettes for the investigation of teachers' tracking decisions

Report (in press)

Teachers’ information processing and judgement accuracy: effects of information consistency and accountability

in European Journal of Psychology of Education (2020), 35(3), 675-702

Research has shown that teachers are able to adapt their processing strategy of student information to situational demands, whereby they flexibly use either an automatic and category-based strategy or a ... [more ▼]

Research has shown that teachers are able to adapt their processing strategy of student information to situational demands, whereby they flexibly use either an automatic and category-based strategy or a controlled and information-integrating strategy. However, the effect of teachers’ accountability for task and the consistency of student information on strategy use is less clear. In two experimental studies, teachers were presented with consistent and inconsistent student profiles, whereby accountability levels were systematically varied. In the first study, the attention to and memory of information were investigated as indicators of changes in information processing strategy. In the second study, resulting changes in judgement accuracy were investigated. Results of study 1 provided support for the theoretical assumption that people apply the category-based strategy when confronted with consistent information under low accountability conditions, while inconsistent information and high accountability conditions led to the use of information-integration strategy. Results of study 2 showed that teachers’ judgement accuracy generally increased in relation to high accountability conditions and to lesser extent profile consistency, whereby inaccuracy reflected both under- and overestimation of student ability. The combined results suggest that the use of differential information processing strategies not only leads to differences in the attention to and processing of information, but also results in differences in the quality of judgements and decision making, especially under high accountability conditions. [less ▲]

The Role of Implicit Nationality Preference in Speaker Evaluations in the Multilingual Context of Montreal

in Journal of Language and Social Psychology (2018)

Multilingual contexts in cross-border regions are characterized by a high number of inhabitants making use of various languages depending on the context. A language that a person speaks thus cannot be ... [more ▼]

Multilingual contexts in cross-border regions are characterized by a high number of inhabitants making use of various languages depending on the context. A language that a person speaks thus cannot be used as indicator of national group membership, which highlights the need for a distinction. The present study aimed to transfer an adapted model positing language and nationality attitudes as distinct factors of speaker evaluations, both on an explicit and implicit level, to the context of Montreal. Explicit attitudes were assumed to primarily affect explicit speaker evaluations, whereas implicit attitudes were expected to be the primary predictor of implicit speaker evaluations. Results primarily confirmed the distinctness of language and nationality concepts on an implicit attitude level. Moreover, the crucial role of nationality preference on an implicit level was highlighted: Quebecers’ implicit nationality attitudes affected implicit preferences for the Quebec nation suggesting affirmation of model transferability. [less ▲]

Übergangsentscheidungen in Luxemburg – Die Passung zwischen Leistungs- und Anforderungsniveau und deren Relation zum späteren Lernerfolg

in LUCET; SCRIPT (Eds.) Nationaler Bildungsbericht Luxemburg 2018 (2018)

Teachers´ judgments and decision making: Studies concerning the transition from primary to secondary education and their implications for teacher education

in Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Olga; Toepper, M.; Pant, H.A. (Eds.) et al Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education – Cross-national Comparisons and Perspectives (2018)

Accuracy in assessing academic achievement and potential is a core component of teachers’ diagnostic competence. Large-scale studies in the Luxembourgish and German educational systems show that teachers’ ... [more ▼]

Accuracy in assessing academic achievement and potential is a core component of teachers’ diagnostic competence. Large-scale studies in the Luxembourgish and German educational systems show that teachers’ secondary school track decisions are biased by a student’s social background. Therefore, biased assessment of students may contribute to the social inequalities observed in secondary schools in both countries. Within a social cognitive framework of dual-process theories, bias is explained by heuristic information processing, which, in contrast to information-integrating processing, relies on stereotype-based expectations to form judgments about students. A series of experimental studies investigated the information processing strategies of teachers, identifying a low accountability of the decision setting and a high consistency of student information as key moderators that promote stereotype-based information processing strategies in teachers’ school track decisions. Similar effects were shown for novice teachers at the beginning of their professional career. Further research evaluated intervention modules based on increased accountability, feedback, and increased knowledge about judgment formation processes. Results demonstrated that all evaluated intervention modules led to higher judgment accuracy and more information-integrating processing. Reviewing current models of teachers’ diagnostic competence, the findings on teachers’ information processing emphasized the need to include situational and process-oriented components into models of diagnostic competence. Beside a cognitive component – the ability to form accurate and unbiased judgments – diagnostic competence includes an adaptive choice of information processing strategies, depending on the accountability and information consistency of the judgment setting. Results on intervention modules gave insights how to increase diagnostic competence in teacher education programs. [less ▲]

Assessing adaptive task assignments in a simulated classroom setting

Scientific Conference (2017, October)

Intervention strategies to improve the quality of teachers´ judgments: Changes in the accuracy of teachers´ transition decisions

Scientific Conference (2017, August 30)

This paper focuses on intervention modules to improve teachers’ diagnostic competence, especially in regards to decisions on students’ transition from primary to secondary education. Although these ... [more ▼]

This paper focuses on intervention modules to improve teachers’ diagnostic competence, especially in regards to decisions on students’ transition from primary to secondary education. Although these transition decisions should be based on academic achievement, research has shown non-academic variables to influence decisions, leading to disadvantages for specific groups of students. Using an experimental pre-post design, we investigated the short and long term effects of accountability, theoretical knowledge and the application of prediction rules on teachers’ judgment accuracy, respectively. Pre-intervention data showed that although teachers’ decision accuracy was of high standard, decision accuracy for ethnic majority students was significantly higher than for ethnic minority students. Increased accountability resulted in increased decision accuracy, especially in regards to decisions for ethnic minority students. Similarly, the introduction of theoretical models of decision making and judgment formation and the application of prediction rules also resulted in an improvement of transition decisions but only for ethnic minority students. Unfortunately, the differential intervention effects of the intervention modules could not be maintained over time, that is, at follow up, the ethnicity bias reappeared. From these studies we can conclude that all three intervention modules can improve the accuracy of teachers’ transition decisions. In line with the intention of the interventions, the disproportionally high rate of decision errors for ethnic minority students observed pre-intervention was eliminated post-intervention and in line with error rates for ethnic majority students. However, training or instruction should be repeated briefly before making such judgments as their influence was not maintained over time. [less ▲]

Teachers’ school tracking decisions

in Leutner, Detlev; Fleischer, Jens; Grünkorn, Juliane (Eds.) et al Competence assessment in education: Research, models, and instruments (2017)

Judging people and their language use: How attitudes towards languages and speakers’ nationality influence speaker evaluations in multilingual contexts, using Luxembourg as an example

Presentation (2016, March 21)

In social encounters, language is one of the most salient cues eliciting evaluative responses. According to models on language attitudes (e.g., Cargile, Giles, Ryan & Bradac, 1994), listeners` attitudes ... [more ▼]

In social encounters, language is one of the most salient cues eliciting evaluative responses. According to models on language attitudes (e.g., Cargile, Giles, Ryan & Bradac, 1994), listeners` attitudes towards the speaker`s language influence the evaluation of this speaking person. However, linguistic stimuli might evoke additional inferences, e.g. on speaker`s nationality. We are therefore experimentally testing whether attitudes towards languages and attitudes towards speaker`s nationality are two distinguishable constructs which has not been addressed in previous research. Furthermore, the distinction between implicit and explicit attitudes is examined, resulting in a theoretical framework of four distinct types of attitudes influencing speaker evaluations. Luxembourg`s linguistic context is determined by the existence of various languages spoken by different inhabitants. In the present study, the model is tested with Luxembourgish and French. Using a combination of explicit measures and an adapted audio Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 2002), language and national attitudes of Luxembourgish university students are assessed. According our hypotheses, it is expected that language attitudes correlate moderately with national attitudes, providing evidence for the factorial separability. Results of regression analyses are discussed to give insight into the predictive impact of the four attitude types on speaker evaluations. A comparison between implicit and explicit attitudes is put into focus to demonstrate the model’s relevance. Overall, this study contributes to ascertaining the complexity of influencing factors on person perception based on linguistic cues by treating language and national attitudes as distinguishable constructs. [less ▲]

The higher the SES the better? Implicit and explicit attitudes influence preservice teachers’ judgments of students

in Fields, Claude (Ed.) Stereotypes and Stereotyping: Misperceptions, Perspectives and Role of Social Media (2016)