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Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology
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)