Kommt es auf die Lehrkraft an? Empirische Studien zur Selektion in das Lehramt und zu Lehrereffekten bei der Entstehung ungleicher Bildungschancen

The publication of the PISA 2000 findings drew public attention to two problematic areas of the German educational system. Firstly the poor average performance of German students in an international comparison, and secondly the unequal distribution of educational success in terms of socio-demographic factors, in particular social background. The extent of the reactions to the PISA findings inevitably led to an increased focus on teachers, in view of their central role in the school system. They have responsibility for the key tasks of the school, namely transmitting knowledge, skills, and values to the students. In addition, by giving grades and certificates and making recommendations, they also carry out the other key function of schools, namely that of evaluation and selection, by means of which access to the next levels of education and occupational positions are regulated. Teachers are not only the key agents, but are at the same time also the major cost factor; personnel expenses for schools account for some 80 per cent of the entire budget for public education in Germany. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that teachers are regarded as being particularly important for the quality of the educational system. This intuitive assumption has meanwhile been backed up by empirical studies (cf. Section 1.2.1 in the thesis). Of course, teachers differ in their ability to increase the knowledge of school students. They therefore also influence the extent of the two problematic areas mentioned above. If a country does not recruit able teachers then the average quality of the teaching will be poorer and, other things being equal, so too will the educational opportunities of the students. If the variance in the ability of teachers is great and if they select systematically unequal into different schools or tracks, then there is an increased probability that this will generate unequal educational opportunities. When looking for ways of achieving improvements in student performance and the socio-demographic distribution of success, an obvious approach is therefore to concentrate on the teacher. Against this background, my aim in this publication-based thesis was to analyse the empirical evidence on the importance of teachers in the two problem areas. Starting from the fact that the quality of teaching also depends on the recruitment of suitable trainees, the two empirical papers in the first part of the thesis consider questions of the (self)selection for teacher education. The papers in the second part of the thesis address the unequal distribution of educational success. Two papers consider gender inequality in education, and the extent to which a feminisation of the teaching profession may contribute to the less successful educational outcomes for boys in comparison with girls. A further paper addresses social inequalities at the transition to secondary education and the role of the recommendations given by primary school teachers. The five empirical chapters are framed by an introductory chapter and a concluding chapter. In the introductory chapter, I provide an overview of the state of research on the influence of teachers on student’s advances. I then consider the size of teacher effects. I also explain which specific, observable teacher characteristics are related to student progress. Finally I discuss how teaching skills develop and how they can be improved. The dissertation concludes with an outlook on future research questions which evolve from the previously reported research