Michael Becker

• Professor
• Professor at TU Dortmund University

What shapes (occupational) success in later life? This study examines the differential importance of intelligence in late childhood, socioeconomic background, and education across later occupations. The quantity and quality of educational success are thought to mediate the other dimensions. We analyzed data from N = 4387 participants in a German lo...

Little is known about the socio-emotional consequences of dropping out of college. Here, we investigate the effects of college non-completion on a range of markers for general psychological well-being (self-esteem, life satisfaction, and fear of failure) as well as health-related well-being (self-rated general health and clinical depressive symptom...

Zusammenfassung: Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, inwieweit Geschlechterrolleneinstellungen sowie instrumentelle und expressive Eigenschaften die MINT-Leistungskurswahl von Schülerinnen und Schülern vorhersagen können und ob dieser Zusammenhang über das mathematische Selbstkonzept, das Interesse und die Ängstlichkeit mediiert...

This study examined whether optimism in early adolescence predicts occupational and psychosocial outcomes in early adulthood and explored the functional form of this relation. We also investigated whether these associations continue to hold after accounting for concomitant factors and whether optimism acts as a protective factor that helps early ad...

Self-esteem and test anxiety, perseverance and conscientiousness, and mental health, non-cognitive skills, character development, impulsivity and self-regulation, empathy and/or social skills or character development are exemplary socio-emotional constructs (often also referred to as non-cognitive skills) that can be found in educational discourse...

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick zum Stand der Forschung zu sozioemotionalen Charakteristika (mitunter auch als nicht-kognitive Fähigkeiten bezeichnet) und ihre Beziehung zu Bildung und die Entwicklung über den Lebensverlauf. Im Beitrag werden mehrere Punkte adressiert: Es werden aktuelle taxonomische Überlegungen vorgestellt und te...

Research has shown that gender role attitudes develop during adolescence; however, the relevant predictors remain a matter of debate. In adolescence, the school environment gains in importance. Thus, the present study investigates how students’ and especially teachers’ culture and composition predict the development of gender role attitudes in youn...

As Western societies become more ethnically and culturally diverse, understanding the acculturation of immigrant youth is essential for fostering social cohesion. How the cultural identity formation of ethnic minority adolescents relates to their academic, social, and psychological adjustment is an important and as yet unresolved research question....

Taking as its point of departure the rapid expansion in the proportion of students graduating with a university entrance diploma (Abitur) in Germany, this paper adds to research on the mechanisms and effects of academic educational expansion, a worldwide phenomenon in the 20th and 21st century. Drawing on Boudon’s theory of primary and secondary ef...

The transition to secondary school may negatively impact adolescents’ psychosocial and subjective well-being development. However, how subjective well-being develops during secondary school and how school contextual factors, including aspects of ability grouping and achievement composition, are associated with the development of subjective well-bei...

This article examines the extent to which normative beliefs on acculturation constitute (a) individual resources and risk factors for adolescents facing developmental tasks and (b) institutional norms that define developmental milieus in secondary schools. To what extent do egalitarianism, multiculturalism, assimilationism, and segregationism help...

Der Beitrag gibt einen konzeptuellen Überblick über längsschnittliche Studiendesigns in der Schulforschung. Es wird skizziert, welche längsschnittlichen Designs sich grundsätzlich unterscheiden lassen, welche Untersuchungsperspektiven und statistischen Ansätze zur Verfügung stehen sowie welche Probleme bei längsschnittlichen Designs grundlegend und...

Die 22. Ausgabe der IFS-Jahrbuchreihe befasst sich mit dem Thema »Multiperspektivität von Unterrichtsprozessen«. Die neun Beiträge betrachten die Perspektiven der Lernenden (z. B. Studien zur Entwicklung von Leistungsmotivation, gender-spezifischen Entwicklungsverläufen), der Lehrenden (z. B. Studien zum Training und Entwicklung beruflicher Kompete...

Die Untersuchung Aspekte der Lernausgangslage und der Lernentwicklung (LAU) ist eine Längsschnittstudie, die nahezu alle Hamburger Schüler*innen der fünften Klassen im Jahre 1996 bis zum Schulabschluss im Jahr 2005, jeweils im Abstand von zwei Schuljahren, erfasst hat. Getestet wurde die Lernausgangslage sowie die Lernentwicklung innerhalb der Schu...

This study addresses two questions: Do Big Five traits change from early to middle adolescence? How do developmental trajectories differ between educational environments (i.e., secondary school tracks)? We used a representative random sample from Germany, following 6th graders (T1, N = 1662; age: M = 11.68; SD = 0.63; female = 47.4%; from N = 87 pr...

How gender role attitudes develop during adolescence, and how biological, social, and cognitive factors predict this development, remains a matter of debate. This study examines the development of gender role attitudes from early adolescence to emerging adulthood and investigates how the developmental trajectory is affected by sex, socioeconomic st...

In recent studies, the existence and relevance of achievement composition effects on students’ individual achievement have been called into question due to the methodological challenges arising in multilevel analyses. Our study examined how class-average achievement is related to students’ achievement development across one school year. We used dat...

Sociocognitive characteristics—ranging from self-concepts and interests to goals and self-esteem—have been discussed as key drivers predicting adult socioeconomic success. This study analyzes how childhood sociocognitive characteristics relate to adult socioeconomic success (education, occupational status, and income). Drawing on Eccles et al.’s ex...

Vocational education and training (VET) is a common form of upper secondary school tracking in countries around the world. There are ongoing debates regarding the effects of this differentiation on academic and labor market outcomes; however, evidence on civic outcomes is lacking. Using a unique cohort study in Germany (N = 2461) and a doubly robus...

Eine der zentralen Fragen sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung ist die Vorhersage sozioökonomischen Erfolges im Erwachsenenalter. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Bedeutung des Selbstwertes und dessen Zusammenspiel mit sozialer Herkunft und kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten im frühen Jugendalter für die Vorhersage des Bildungs- und beruflichen Erfolge...

Students compare their achievement to different standards in order to evaluate their ability. We built on the theoretical frameworks of situated expectancy-value theory, dimensional comparison theory, and the big-fish-little-pond effect literature to examine the role of social and dimensional comparisons for ability self-concept and subjective task...

When establishing a career in adulthood, two major socioemotional ingredients are expected to affect people’s success: how people act (personality) and what motivates them to act this way (motivation). However, little is known about whether and how personality and motivation change together and how their possible dynamic interplay predicts success....

Adults’ ratings of children’s personality have been found to be more closely associated with academic performance than children’s self-reports. However, less is known about the relevance of the unique perspectives held by specific adult observers such as teachers and parents for explaining variance in academic performance. In this study, we applied...

Zusammenfassung Die Sekundarstufe ist gekennzeichnet durch eine Sequenz von Übergängen, an denen Ungleichheiten durch Leistungsdisparitäten (primäre Effekte) und Bildungsentscheidungen (sekundäre Effekte) nach sozialer Herkunft relevant werden. Diese Herkunftseffekte werden mit dem vorliegenden Beitrag erstmals anhand von Daten einer vollständigen...

Zusammenfassung Inwiefern der Besuch unterschiedlicher Schulformen Lernen und Bildungsverläufe beeinflusst, ist ein vieldiskutiertes Thema. Arbeiten zu Effekten der Schulformen für den Erfolg auf dem Arbeitsmarkt liegen jedoch bislang nur wenige vor. Hier setzt der vorliegende Beitrag an, in dem in einer längsschnittlichen Perspektive ( N = 5292 Pe...

Expectancy-value theory (EVT) proposes that students’ appraisals of success expectancy and task value are the main drivers of their study and career choices. Dimensional comparison theory proposes that these beliefs are themselves affected by students comparing their ability across different domains. However, only a few studies have aimed to integr...

The present study investigates whether teacher perceptions of students’ cognitive skills, their learning motivation, and their classroom behavior differ according to students’ socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and gender. Data from N= 4746 German fourth graders and data from their parents and teachers were analyzed using structural equati...

In Germany, male students are largely overrepresented in STEM majors at university. Gender differences in important predictors of major choices, namely self-concept and interest in math or science, have been discussed to explain the gender gap in STEM. For both self-concept and interest, social comparisons with peers are important (big-fish-little-...

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht Bildungsverläufe ab der Sekundarstufe II von Hochschulabsolventen mit und ohne aufgenommene Promotion. Auf Grundlage der Längsschnittstudie BIJU wird analysiert, welche bildungsbiographischen Merkmale mit der Aufnahme einer Promotion assoziiert sind. Es werden Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Studiendauer, einer Beru...

Übergänge im Bildungssystem sind zentral für die Entstehung von sozialer Ungleichheit. Die bestehende Befundlage verweist dabei auf abnehmende Herkunftseffekte vom Übergang ins Gymnasium zum Übergang ins Studium sowie auf eine abnehmende Bedeutung primärer Herkunftseffekte (leistungsbezogener Herkunftseffekte) an den beiden Übergangsschwellen. Die...

Which factors help young adults choose educational pathways leading to higher educational attainment? Academic self-concept (ASC), achievement, and socioeconomic background have all been found to be important predictors of postsecondary educational choices and success. Although research has shown that student composition in secondary school may aff...

What drives socioeconomic success within a society? This study analyzes how late childhood intelligence, parental socioeconomic background, and gender relate to multiple dimensions of adult socioeconomic success (i.e., education, occupational status, and income). A particular focus is placed on education, which is considered as both an indicator of...

Self-concept in mathematics (MSC) and interest in mathematics are important predictors of whether a student will choose to major in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field at university. Research on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) has shown that both predictors are affected by the achievement composition of students...

Ein zentraler Trend in der Entwicklung der Bildungsbeteiligung in Deutschland ist der kontinuierliche Anstieg der Quote der Hochschulzugangsberechtigten. Mit der Umstellung des Sekundarschulsystems auf Zweigliedrigkeit scheint diese Expansion neue Dynamik zu erhalten. Gleichzeitig wird das Problem der Standardsicherung und der Vergleichbarkeit von...

Objective: This study examined associations between the five-factor personality traits and indicators of academic achievement (grades and test scores). A particular aim was to investigate whether personality-achievement associations differ between primary and secondary educational contexts and whether these differences vary between differential le...

Item context effects refer to the impact of features of a test on an examinee's item responses. These effects cannot be explained by the abilities measured by the test. Investigations typically focus on only a single type of item context effects, such as item position effects, or mode effects, thereby ignoring the fact that different item context e...

Im Rahmen der Implementation von Schulreformen wird davon ausgegangen, dass es von großer Bedeutung für die (erfolgreiche) Umsetzung der Reformmaßnahmen an den Schulen ist, wie die beteiligten Akteure die Reformbestandteile und die damit einhergehenden Veränderungen beurteilen und bewerten. Gerade Schulleiterinnen und Schulleiter nehmen in diesem P...

Research on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) has shown that the learning environment is important for the development of academic self-concept (ASC) because students use social comparisons to evaluate their ability level. Whereas cross-sectional studies have often replicated the BFLPE, less is known about this effect from a longitudinal pers...

It is widely known that boys, on average, have lower reading competencies than girls. With respect to the development of reading competencies, research has yet to determine whether performance differences between genders increase, decrease, or remain stable over the course of secondary school. Some studies, mainly from the United Kingdom and the Un...

There is a large body of research documenting gender differences in school achievement. According to Eccles' (1983; 2015) expectancy- value theory it may be assumed that parental gender beliefs affect their parenting. Therefore, we investigate the association between parents' gender beliefs and their child's achievement in German and math (N = 5.24...

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag behandelt Platzierungsentscheidungen von Lehrkräften beim Übergang in die gymnasiale Oberstufe an nichtgymnasialen Schulen im mehr- und zweigliedrigen Berliner Schulsystem im Hinblick auf ihre Sensitivität für askriptive Merkmale wie soziale und ethnische Herkunft und das Geschlecht. Auch beim Übergang in die...

The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model assumes the interplay of social and dimensional comparisons in the formation of domain-specific academic self-concepts. The present study tests the generalizability of the I/E model assumptions across students from different ability tracks. While the findings from previous studies implied the sim...

Personality is a relevant predictor for important life outcomes across the entire lifespan. Although previous studies have suggested the comparability of the measurement of the Big Five personality traits across adulthood, the generalizability to childhood is largely unknown. The present study investigated the structure of the Big Five personality...

This study examines the relationship between social background and the transition to a doctoral degree, based on data from a longitudinal study (N = 2214) conducted in Germany. Drawing on theoretical concepts developed by Boudon (1974) and Erikson and Jonsson (1996), the study investigates what proportion of the social background effect is transmit...

Objective Although a growing body of research has confirmed the manifold advantages of being an optimist, only a limited body of previous research has addressed the antecedents of optimism in real‐life situations. This study examined whether parental socioeconomic status (SES), age‐salient experiences (i.e., doing well in school and perceiving acce...

Item position (IP) effects typically indicate that items become more difficult towards the end of a test. Such effects are thought to reflect the persistence with which test takers invest effort and work precisely on the test. As such, IP effects may be related to cognitive and motivational variables that are relevant for maintaining a high level o...

Die Frage nach der Implementation von large-scale-Reformen spielte bzw. spielt sowohl in der Vergangenheit als auch in den aktuellen Debatten um Strukturveränderungen und Qualitätsoffensiven im Bildungssystem eine entscheidende Rolle. Bei der Umsetzung dieser Reformen richtet sich der Blick in besonderem Maße auf die einzelne Schule und damit vor a...

Position effects (PE) cause decreasing probabilities of correct item responses towards the end of a test. We analysed PEs in science, mathematics and reading tests administered in the German extension to the PISA 2006 study with respect to their variability at the student- and school-level. PEs were strongest in reading and weakest in mathematics....

Der Fokus des Beitrags liegt auf dem Wechsel vom Gymnasium auf eine Integrierte Sekundarschule (ISS) nach der 7. Klasse (Probejahr) in Berlin. Es wurde untersucht, welche leistungsbezogenen, schulbiografischen und familiären Hintergrundmerkmale prädiktiv für das Nichtbestehen des Probejahres sind. Von Interesse war dabei insbesondere, ob beim Schul...

Research has shown that academic self-concepts (ASCs) are subject to contextual influences, in particular to the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). The BFLPE refers to the phenomenon whereby able students report more negative ASC when exposed to learning environments with relatively higher-achieving students. Although the BFLPE has been identifie...

Background: Researchers often report and discuss gender differences. However, recent research has drawn attention to interaction effects between gender and other social categories. Aims: This study analysed the development of disparities in students' reading-related self-concept, intrinsic motivation, and behaviour, as they relate to differences...

Geschlechterunterschiede im Bildungserfolg werden vielfach berichtet. Obwohl es Hinweise darauf gibt, dass sich diese nicht unabhängig von der sozialen Herkunft vollziehen, wurde eine Wechselwirkung in quantitativen Arbeiten bisher nur unzureichend untersucht. Anhand einer repräsentativen Stichprobe für Viertklässler in Deutschland (N = 5240) wird...

Während die Bedeutung der Eltern im Rahmen des Übergangs hinsichtlich sozialer Disparitäten wiederholt Gegenstand empirischer Studien war, ist die Rolle der Eltern für das psychische Erleben ihrer Kinder angesichts dieses kritischen Lebensereignisses weniger gut erforscht. Ausgehend von einem kognitivtransaktionalen Stressbegriff sowie empirischer...

Grouping students into different learning groups according to their achievement levels, often referred to as ability grouping or tracking, is an almost universal feature of secondary school structures. Explicit school tracking, i.e., providing different school types according to different levels of ability, is one way to implement ability grouping...

The present study builds on two strands of research: (1) the recently established generalized internal/external frame of reference (GI/E) model assuming social (comparing one's achievement in one domain with the achievement of one's peers in the same domain) and dimensional (comparing one's achievement in one domain with one's achievement in anothe...

Objective: Although optimism's beneficial role for various life areas is well documented, previous findings regarding its significance for students' achievement at school are inconclusive. This study examined the relation between optimism and academic achievement in early adolescents. It investigated the functional form of this relation, addressed...

In this study, we analyzed how secondary school tracking relates to students’ self-beliefs (i.e., their academic self-concepts in different domains and their beliefs regarding their labor market chances) and school disengagement during a time period that has received little attention in educational psychological research on tracking: when students...

Gender differences have frequently been reported for educational outcomes. Despite indications that these differences do not occur independently from social background, the reciprocity of effects has so far inadequately been addressed In quantitative research. Drawing on a representative sample of fourth graders In Germany (N = 5240), the study inv...

Geschlechterdisparitäten im Schulerfolg werden vielfach berichtet. Es gibt jedoch Hinweise darauf, dass diese nicht einheitlich ausfallen, sondern mit der sozialen Herkunft variieren. In der quantitativen Forschung wurde die Annahme einer wechselseitigen Wirkung zwischen Geschlecht und sozialer Herkunft bislang jedoch nur unzureichend untersucht. I...

Academic self-concept (ASC) is subject to substantial change throughout the course of schooling. Besides individual factors, contextual characteristics play an important role in driving changes in self-perception. The abilities of classmates are especially important: Equally able students report lower ASCs when in high-achieving classrooms than whe...

This study examined interrelations between three indicators of main challenges during adolescence: academic achievement, self-perceived peer acceptance, and self-esteem. An additional aim was to investigate whether the findings hold for girls and boys and across school types (academically oriented track vs. non-academically oriented track). We used...

Mit dem Studienabschluss stehen Absolventen vor der Entscheidung, ob nach dem Studium eine Promotion angeschlossen werden soll. In der Literatur werden verschiedene Merkmale diskutiert, die die Aufnahme einer Promotion begünstigen können. Dazu zählen unter anderem akademische Leistungen und wissenschaftsbezogene Lernerfahrungen. Anhand längsschnitt...

This longitudinal study investigated the bidirectional relationship between negative life events and self-esteem during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 2272). Drawing on theories of human development over the lifespan and just-world theory, we analyzed age-graded changes in self-esteem and their interplay with negative life...

Different coping patterns for children's transition to secondary school have been reported in the literature, and the influence of the subjective anticipation of this critical life event has been discussed. The current study uses cognitive-transactional theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987) and establishes a connection between primary and secondary appr...

Empirical studies have demonstrated that students who are taught in a group of students with higher average achievement benefit in terms of their achievement. However, there is also evidence showing that being surrounded by high-achieving students has a negative effect on students' academic selfconcept, also known as the big-fish-little-pond effect...

Teacher judgments in terms of grades, proficiency assessments, and recommending placement in ability groups can have important consequences for a child’s future educational path. Whether or not students’ sociodemographic background characteristics are systematically related to teacher judgments has been a controversial topic of discussion. Using da...

Zusammenfassung. Der Ubergang an die weiterfuhrende Schule stellt eine Veranderung der schulischen Lernumwelt dar, die mit Anderungen im Wohlbefinden assoziiert sein kann. Als masgeblicher Einflussfaktor wird in der Literatur die weiterfuhrende Schulform erortert, wobei vor allem Unterschiede in der Bezugsgruppe und institutionelle Unterschiede zwi...

In der empirischen Bildungsforschung ist man häufig mit dem Problem der Nicht-Teilnahme von Zielpersonen einer Untersuchung konfrontiert. In den Sozialwissenschaften wurde aufgezeigt, dass durch gezielte administrative Strategien die Teilnahme verbessert werden kann. Für Bildungsstudien im Schulkontext sind diese Möglichkeiten bisher kaum untersuch...

Personality development in young adulthood has been associated with the experience of a number of new social roles. However, the causal interpretation of these findings is complicated by the fact that it is not possible to randomize young adults by their life experiences. To address this problem in the context of the first partnership experience, w...

This longitudinal study of N = 1,566 adolescents investigated the protective role of optimism in adjustment to parental separation, focusing on two salient challenges faced by adolescents, namely academic achievement and self-esteem. Based on latent change models, the results indicated associations between parental separation and short-term decline...

The purpose of this paper is to examine disparities in important components of reading acquisition in the context of migration. Previous empirical studies showed significant differences in reading skills between students with and without immigrant backgrounds. Data of N = 712 students tested in grades 3, 4, and 6 were analyzed with respect to group...

In the past, mainly cross-sectional research has shown that nonheterosexuals report lower levels of psychological well-being and functioning than heterosexuals. Drawing on minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003), life span theory, and identity formation theory (Erikson, 1968), the present study analyzed developmental trajectories in psychological func...

Die Vergleichsarbeiten (VERA) sind seit mehreren Jahren ein wichtiges Instrument der Kompetenzdiagnostik, das auf den Bildungsstandards der Kultusministerkonferenz basiert. Sie dienen in erster Linie der Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung, werden teilweise aber auch zur flächendeckenden Information der Schulaufsicht über den Leistungsstand von Einze...

The article focuses on the question how competencies of students with different social backgrounds develop during elementary and secondary school. In particular, it addresses if achievement disparities which exist before school entrance increase, remain stable, or even diminish during schooling. The article draws on both national and international...

Based on a theoretical model, which distinguishes between primary and secondary effects following Boudon, the present paper summarizes empirical evidence regarding the impact of family background on the transition from elementary into secondary school. In doing so, three types of secondary effects are distinguished: secondary effects of school grad...

Comparative tests based on the educational standards set by the Conference of Education Ministers (Vergleichsarbeiten; German abbreviation: VERA) have for many years been an important instrument in competence diagnostics. They serve primarily school and curriculum development; sometimes, however, they are also used for the comprehensive information...

The present study investigates school context effects on psychosocial characteristics (academic self-concept, peer relations, school satisfaction, and school anxiety) of high-achieving and gifted students. Students who did or did not make an early transition from elementary to secondary schools for high-achieving and gifted students in 5th grade in...

Anhand der Berliner Leselängsschnitt-Studie (LESEN 3 – 6) wurde die schriftsprachliche Kompetenzentwicklung (Leseverständnis, Wortschatz und Dekodierfähigkeit) bei Grundschülerinnen und Grundschülern sowie bei Gymnasiastinnen und Gymnasiasten längsschnittlich analysiert. Ein Fokus lag dabei auf der Frage, ob Schülerinnen und Schüler mit frühzeitige...

The present study investigates school context effects on psychosocial characteristics (academic self-concept, peer relations, school satisfaction, and school anxiety) of high-achieving and gifted students. Students who did or did not make an early transition from elementary to secondary schools for high-achieving and gifted students in 5th grade in...

The study investigates the effects of classroom composition (average ability, achievement, and socioeconomic background, proportion of immigrant students) on the development in mathematics achievement, and reading literacy from grade 5 to 6. The study draws on a sample of N = 1892 students in vocational track schools (Hauptschule) and intermediate...

The study investigates the effects of classroom composition (average ability, achievement, and socio-economic background, proportion of immigrant students) on the development in mathematics achievement, and reading literacy from grade 5 to 6. The study draws on a sample of N=1892 students in vocational track schools (Hauptschule) and intermediate t...

Background. Assigning students to different school tracks on the basis of their achievement levels is a widely used strategy that aims at giving students the best possible learning opportunity. There is, however, a growing body of literature that questions such positive effects of tracking. Aims. This study compared the developmental trajectories o...

Equally able students have lower academic self-concepts in high-achieving classrooms than in low-achieving classrooms. This highly general and robust frame of reference effect is widely known as the Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE; Marsh, 1987). This study contributes to research aiming to identify moderators of the BFLPE by investigating the ef...