School closures due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic put challenges on teachers, students and their parents. In particular, students with special educational needs or students with low achievement levels who need more support in learning may have more difficulties coping compared to their peers. Using longitudinal data of the German National Educational Panel Study, the circumstances of students in secondary school during the time of school closures are characterised, in particular focusing on students who have been diagnosed with special educational needs or showing low achievement levels at the end of primary school. Overall, parents of students with special educational needs or low achievement levels do not report more challenges with respect to the situation of learning at home. However, differentiated results are found with regard to satisfaction with the support provided by the school, the amount of weekly learning time, and parental support. The situation of students with less favourable conditions in terms of learning at home by themselves needs special attention when face-to-face-instructions cannot be carried out as usual to achieve successful learning.

No abstract

Given the importance of schools as socializing institutions, a key dimension of children’s subjective well-being (SWB) is their perception of school-related aspects. This study complements previous literature on various determinants of children’s SWB by focusing on students with special educational needs (SEN). Due to academic challenges, stigmatization, and exclusion, they are at risk of experiencing reduced SWB. With the implementation of inclusive education around the globe, students with SEN are more frequently enrolled in regular schools, and a question arises regarding how students with SEN assess their school-related SWB in inclusive settings. Drawing on longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study in Germany (NEPS) we systematically investigate the effect of the SEN status on various facets of school-related SWB measured in Grade 4 of primary school. Applying a propensity score matching approach, we contrast children with SEN status to children without SEN status who are comparable in a rich set of observed confounding variables. We find that at the end of primary school, students with SEN report being less satisfied with life in general, being less satisfied with school and their friends than their comparable counterpart without SEN. Moreover, they experience more tiredness and feelings of loneliness, and show lower levels of learning enjoyment and task mastering. The potential mechanisms leading to lower school-related SWB are discussed.

If children fail to understand test instructions, measurements of their competence may be unfair and invalid. This is especially relevant for students with special educational needs (SEN) because they face greater challenges in comprehending instructions. Two interventions were designed to facilitate the comprehension of test requirements by presenting intensified instructions and to enhance students’ attention by engaging them in physical activity before receiving the test instructions. Three-hundred forty-eight students with SEN aged 8–12 years were randomly assigned to an experimental condition or a control group. Even after controlling for relevant variables (reading speed, basic cognitive skills), students participating in the interventions performed better in a reading test than controls. As hypothesized, the intensified test instructions reduced the number of responses that were not compliant with instructions. In conclusion, this study shows the importance of adapting test instructions for students with SEN, and it proposes interventions that can be implemented in other assessments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students were facing great challenges. Learning was shifted from the classroom to the home of the students. This implied that students had to complete their tasks in a more autonomous way than during regular lessons. As students’ ability to handle such challenges might depend on certain cognitive and motivational prerequisites as well as individual learning conditions, the present study investigates students’ cognitive competencies as well as affective-motivational factors as possible predictors of coping with this new learning situation at home. The study uses data of Starting Cohort 2 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Data of two measurement points are analyzed: Predictors were assessed at the earlier time point, when students (N=1,452; Mage=12years, 8months; 53.4% female) mostly attended seventh grade of a secondary school. They completed competence tests in reading as well as mathematics and rated affective-motivational aspects in terms of willingness to exert effort, learning enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. One and a half years later − during the COVID-19 pandemic and the first period of school closures − the second measurement point took place. Students’ parents rated the situation of learning at home with respect to students’ coping with the new situation and parents’ difficulties to motivate them. Regression analyses controlling for school track, students’ gender, and parents’ educational level and parental stress revealed that students’ reading competencies and their willingness to exert effort were significant predictors of their coping with the new learning situation at home. Moreover, parents reported that boys were more difficult to motivate to learn during this time as compared to girls. Other predictors (e.g., learning enjoyment) turned out to be non-significant when entered simultaneously in the regression analyses. The results point to the importance of children’s prerequisites for autonomous learning situations without structuring elements by teachers within the school context.

Students with special educational needs in the area of learning (SEN-L) have learning disabilities that can lead to academic difficulties in regular schools. In Germany, these students are frequently enrolled in special schools providing specific training and support for these students. Because of their cognitive difficulties, it is unclear whether standard achievement tests that are typically administered in educational large-scale assessments (LSA) are suitable of students with SEN-L. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of a short instrument for the assessment of reasoning abilities that was administered as part of a longitudinal LSA to German students from special schools (N = 324) and basic secondary schools (N = 338) twice within 6 years. Item response modeling demonstrated an essentially unidimensional scale for both school types. Few items exhibited systematic differential item functioning (DIF) between students with and without SEN-L, allowing for valid cross-group comparisons. However, change analyses across the two time points needed to account for longitudinal DIF among students with SEN-L. Overall, the cognitive test allowed for a valid measurement of reasoning abilities in students with SEN-L and comparative analyses regarding students without SEN-L. These results demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating students with SEN-L into educational LSAs.

No abstract

Während der Schulschließungen im Frühjahr 2020 galt es verschiedene Herausforderungen in Bezug auf das eigenständige Lernen zuhause zu bewältigen. Die Sicht der Eltern auf diese besondere Situation wird anhand einer Zusatzbefragung des Nationalen Bildungspanels dargestellt. Zusammengefasst zeigte sich, dass Schüler*innen während dieser Zeit vermehrt digitale Lernangebote nutzten sowie dass die Zufriedenheit der Eltern mit der schulischen Unterstützung einen Einfl uss auf den wahr genommenen Lernerfolg der Kinder hatte.