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Preservice teachers’ evaluations of students’ achievement development in the context of school-track recommendations

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Abstract

We experimentally examined whether preservice teachers considered both the gender of primary school students and their development of GPAs, indicated by two successive school reports, when making secondary school-track recommendations. We used student vignettes to mimic real students and orthogonally varied student gender, their GPA development (positive vs. negative), and the grand mean of grades. We found that students who improved were more than twice as likely to be recommended for the highest track than those who deteriorated. Moreover, we could show that with deteriorating students, male participants preferred boys relative to girls. These results are discussed regarding possible rules of extrapolating current achievements and concerning the gender of students and participants, and conclusions are drawn with respect to preservice teacher education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical School Berlin, Calandrellistrasse 1-9, 12247, Berlin, Germany

    Florian Klapproth & Birthe Doreen Fischer

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  1. Florian Klapproth
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  2. Birthe Doreen Fischer
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Correspondence to Florian Klapproth.

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Florian Klapproth. Medical School Berlin, Calandrellistrasse 1-9, 12247 Berlin, Germany. Email: florian.klapproth@medicalschool-berlin.de

Current themes of research:

Predictors and consequences of grade retention. Predictive validity of tracking decisions. Prediction of school failure.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Klapproth, F., Schaltz, P., Brunner, M., Keller, U., Fischbach, A., Ugen, S., & Martin, R. (2016). Short-term and medium-term effects of grade retention in secondary school on academic achievement and psychosocial outcome variables. Learning and Individual Differences, 50, 182–194.

Klapproth, F. (2015). Do algorithms homogenize students’ achievements in secondary school better than teachers’ tracking decisions? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23, 1–18.

Klapproth, F., & Schaltz, P. (2014). Who is retained in school, and when? Survival analysis of predictors of grade retention in Luxembourgish secondary school. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 30, 119–136.

Klapproth, F., & Schaltz, P. (2013). Identifying students at risk of school failure in Luxembourgish secondary school. International Journal of Higher Education, 2, 191–204.

Birthe Doreen Fischer. Medical School Berlin, Calandrellistrasse 1-9, 12247 Berlin, Germany

Current themes of research:

In the field of Social and Educational Psychology focusing on stereotypes and stereotyping and she does not have a previous publication.

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Klapproth, F., Fischer, B.D. Preservice teachers’ evaluations of students’ achievement development in the context of school-track recommendations. Eur J Psychol Educ 34, 825–846 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-018-0405-x

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