School transitions from primary to secondary school: development of intervention strategies to improve the quality of teachers´transition decisions

The TRANSINTER project focused on intervention modules to improve teachers’ diagnostic
competence, especially in regards to decisions on students’ transition from primary to
secondary education in Luxembourg. The main aims of the project were to investigate the
effect of three different intervention / training modules, separately and in combination, as well
as the influence of group constellation on decision making processes. In order to address the
aims, several steps were taken. First, we conducted a thorough literature review, which
provided a solid theoretical framework for the studies within the project. Second we
developed materials and a criterion to evaluate changes in teachers’ decision making
accuracy.
At the individual level, we conducted 3 studies to investigate the short and long term effects
of accountability, theoretical knowledge and the application of prediction rules on teachers’
decision accuracy. All 3 studies showed at the baseline that teachers’ general decision
accuracy was of high standard but also that decision accuracy for ethnic majority students
was significantly better than for ethnic minority students. Similarly, teachers were generally
more accurate in decisions for students with typical academic profiles compared to mixed
profiles. The study on the effects of accountability showed that increased accountability resulted in increased decision accuracy, especially in regards to decisions for ethnic minority students with typical profiles. The studies concerning the introduction of theoretical models of decision making and judgment formation and the application of SPRs resulted in an improvement of transition decisions for ethnic minority students only. Unfortunately, the differential intervention effects of increased accountability, the introduction of theoretical models, and the application of SPRs could not be maintained over time, that is, at follow up, the ethnicity bias reappeared. Interestingly, when we combined the intervention modules to investigate their combined effect on the accuracy of transition decisions, the training in the application of formal decision rules seemed most effective in reducing ethnicity bias. It should be noted that this training was delivered to preservice teachers whilst the intervention studies were conducted with experienced inservice teachers.
At the inter-individual level, we investigated the effect of group constellation on the accuracy
of transition decisions. In contrast to our hypothesis, we did neither detect a social loafing nor
a social facilitation effect and decisions taken in groups did not differ from decisions taken
alone. From these studies we can conclude that teachers’ transition decisions can be improved by providing experienced teachers with theoretical knowledge and by increasing accountability.
Preservice teachers may profit most from training in the application of formal decision rules
as part of a comprehensive training concerning diagnostic competence.