Entwicklungsverläufe akademischer Selbstkonzepte und schulischer Leistungen nach dem Übergang in differentielle Lernumwelten der Sekundarstufe I

Abstract

In Germany students change to a tracked system of Secondary school after Primary school. For students attending the Gymnasium the higher class-average achievement leads to lower academic self-concepts (Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effekt, BFLPE; Marsh, 1987) but to a better development of achievement (Baumert et al., 2006). Although there are a lot of studies about self-concept and development of achievement in connection with school transition, there are still some unanswered questions which are focussed in the present thesis: When does the BFLPE sets in after the transition? How does students academic self-concept change direct after the transition to secondary school and are there any differences between students assigned to different types of school and class (e.g. comprehensive school, standard Gymnasium classes, Gymnasium classes with a mathematics/ science or bilingual profile)? Do goal orientations influence the development of self-concept after the transition? How does the achievement of the students develop in different types of class? The analyses are based on a sample of grade 5 students who had received a Gymnasium recommendation: 139 attending a Gymnasium with three standard classes and two classes with special profiles and 99 attending a comprehensive school. In the first part of the thesis, it is examined how the academic self-concept develops in the first six months following the transition from primary school to a Gymnasium and to a comprehensive school. There are five measurement time points analyzed, placed only several weeks apart from one another. On the basis of a quadratic growth curve model, no changes in self-concept are shown on average, but the students differ significantly in terms of their individual self-concept development. In addition, effects of ability grouping as well as different goal orientations on the course of self-concept development are examined. A conditional growth curve model shows that directly following the school transition, both learning goal orientation and (at the Gymnasium) performance approach orientation are associated with a positive self-concept. The performance avoidance orientation shows a positive association with the growth rate of self-concept development at comprehensive school. The negative effect of ability grouping at the Gymnasium sets in immediately following the transition. The second part of the thesis examines whether students assigned to different school and class types (comprehensive school, standard Gymnasium classes, Gymnasium classes with a mathematics/ science or bilingual profile) show differential developmental trajectories in general self-concept of ability and domain-specific self-concepts in mathematics and German after the transition to secondary education. The analyses reveal that students in high-ability classes with special profiles showed a decrease in general self-concept of ability, but not in mathematics or German self-concept. The aim of the third part of the thesis was to analyze how ability grouping within the Gymnasium influences the development of educational achievement during the first year. Both classes with a special profile showed better performances in mathematics than the standard classes at the first measurement point. Regression analyses showed that the mathematics/science class had a positive influence on both mathematic and reading performance development. The bilingual class had a positive influence on the performance development in reading but a negative influence on the performance development in mathematics when compared with the standard classes.