Development of Competencies during Elementary School: Matthew or Compensatory Effects?

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Hartmut Ditton; Dr. Florian Wohlkinger
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427444891

It is often taken for granted that individual differences in cognitive domains as well as lan-guage, number and other skills increase over time and that those growing differences – often labelled as Matthew effects – can also be found over the (whole) school career. Furthermore, it is assumed that the association of cognitive and domain specific skills with socioeconomic and migration status or minority background gets stronger over time. Nevertheless, a closer look at research so far reveals that findings are rather mixed and that compensatory effects – a reduc-tion of differences between individuals – are found at least as often as Matthew effects. This seems to be especially true for the first years of schooling, whereas differences seem to grow in preschool age. In the German (-speaking) context, there are only a few studies addressing this question. Moreover, they are based on data that do not capture the whole period of elemen-tary school and are not representative for Germany in total. Starting cohort 2 (SC2) of the NEPS gives the first data set for Germany to overcome both shortcomings. [1] The research questions in this proposal will first of all address the development of cognitive skills and com-petencies in reading and mathematics from 1st to 4th grade in elementary school to find out whether Matthew or compensatory effects (vs. stability of differences) can be found. [2] Fur-thermore, stability vs. changing differences according to individual characteristics and social / migration or minority background will be investigated. [3] Finally, it will be analysed whether classroom (teacher) and/or school and institutional or regional characteristics are influential for potential differences in patterns of development during elementary school.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants