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Project duration 01.01.2014 - 31.12.2020

Competence Development in Elementary Schools – Enhancement Study

The study ‘Competence Development in Elementary Schools’ (KEGS) tracked competence development of students in the state of Brandenburg across five years in primary school (grades 2 to 6). The primary focus of the enhancement study lies on the role of individual differences in the experiences and behaviour of the students regarding their academic achievements and decisions regarding their educational careers.

Own funds

Project description

The KEGS study focused on the assessment of student competencies in the domains of German and mathematics, together with individual, social and instructional factors that might cause differential developments. Besides highlighting the students’ achievement-related development, the study focused on modelling the students’ transition from primary to secondary education as well as the teachers’ diagnostic competencies.

Grüner Schriftzug des Projektnamens KEGS-E

The enhancement of the study is concerned with investigating the role individual differences in the students’ experiences and behaviour play regarding their academic achievement and further decision-making in education (e.g. transition processes). The project aims at clarifying whether personality traits from the Big Five model (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) might serve to explain differences in the primary school students’ academic achievement. Existing data from the KEGS study are particularly interesting because of the multi-perspective approach, which assesses the students’ personality in terms of self-reports but also reports from parents and teachers.

Lead researcher at IFS

Project team

  • Dr. Naemi Brandt (Universität Hamburg)
  • Dr. Julia Tetzner (DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation)

External project partners

  • Prof. Dr. Poldi Kuhl (Leuphana Universität)
  • Prof. Dr. Martin Brunner (University of Potsdam)
  • Prof. Dr. Kai Maaz (DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation)

Cafeteria menus

Location & approach

The most convenient highway exits are on the B 1/A 40 (Dortmund-Barop) (closer to the North Campus) and on the A45 (Dortmund-Eichlinghofen). The university is signposted at both exits. In the local road network you will find signs to Campus Nord, where the Campus Treff is also located. From Emil-Figge-Strasse, entrance no. 18 and from Vogelspothsweg entrance no. 23 lead to parking spaces near the venue.

From Dortmund main station, take the S-Bahn "S1" in the direction of Solingen on track 7 to the stop "Dortmund-Universität" (price level A). The S-Bahn runs every 15 minutes during peak hours on weekdays and takes about 6 minutes. From Düsseldorf, the S-Bahn runs every 30 minutes. Directly at the S-Bahn station you will find the CDI building, which houses the Center for Research on Education and School Development.

One of the university's landmarks is the H-Bahn, which has two terminuses on the North Campus. One is located directly above the S-Bahn station and is easily accessible from it by elevators. The other is located in the center of Campus North at the bridge between the University Library and the Mensa, right next to the Audimax. The H-Bahn runs from here to the South Campus and the Eichlinghofen district.

Dortmund has an airport connected with some destinations in Central Europe. There are regular flights, for example, to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Katowice, Krakow, Leipzig-Halle, London, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris, Poznan, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich. For the approximately 20 kilometers from the Dortmund airport to the campus, you can take the bus to the main train station and from there the S-Bahn. Faster is usually the use of a cab. Far more international flight connections are offered by the Rhine-Ruhr Airport in Düsseldorf, about 60 kilometers away, which can be reached directly by S-Bahn from the university station.