Effects and interaction of linguistic and subject-specific requirements in school-related assessment tasks

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Timo Ehmke; Professorin Dr. Lena Heine; Professor Dr. Dietmar Höttecke; Professor Dr. Dominik Leiss; Professor Dr. Knut Schwippert
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417017613

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

Linguistically demanding assessment tasks cause considerable difficulties for many students, even in mathematics and science classes. The VAMPS research project was able to make an important contribution in identifying barriers that may disadvantage certain groups of students. An important contribution to research is the development of theoretical models that can be used to construct and test performance tasks. During the project, an interdisciplinary model was developed that distinguishes between three levels of cognitive and three levels of linguistic difficulty. For both subjects, the levels were first examined individually and then combined to show interaction processes. An important finding is that the model developed for the three linguistic levels is well suited for application in both subjects and can be used in further studies, while the subjectspecific differences at the cognitive-subject-specific levels were surprisingly large and thus required adjustments. The design developed within the project proved to be effective overall in identifying how gradually increasing language demands and cognitive-subjectspecific aspects affect task difficulty for students in grades 7 to 10. For both subjects, it was confirmed that general language proficiency is one of the most important predictors of both the comprehension of the text and for correct performance of the subject specific tasks. Comparing the two subjects, it was found that in mathematics all categories of the designed model of cognitive-subject requirements have a significant influence on task difficulty, whereas for physics only the category type of activity appeared to be predictive. In the mathematics sub-project, it was also found that modelling ability was directly related to gender and social background, and that this relationship was mediated through intra-mathematical and linguistic skills. In physics, on the other hand, gender and grade did not cause any differences in solution rates, but familiarity with and interest in the task context did. For mathematics, linguistic variation also showed a significant effect on students' solution rates. Interestingly, in contrast to teachers' expectations, these effects were relatively small. An unexpected finding was that male participants performed higher in reading comprehension than females when other student characteristics were controlled for. Overall, the project was able to show that the design is well suited for developing context-rich mathematics and physics tasks. The results underline that, in addition to subject and language variables, contextual factors play a central role in the difficulty of the tasks.

Publications

• Sprachliche und fachliche Anforderungen von Physik-Leistungsaufgaben 27.10.2019, GDCP-Nachwuchskolloquium
  Carina von der Geest; Dietmar Höttecke & Knut Schwippert
  
• Textverständlichkeit sprachlich variierter physikbezogener Sachtexte 12.09.2019, GDCP-Jahrestagung Wien 2019.
  Timo Hackemann; Lena Heine & Dietmar Höttecke
  
• Sprache und Physiklernen? Zusammenhänge und Hamburger Forschungsperspektiven 23.11.2020, Forschungskolloquium Universität Innsbruck
  Dietmar Höttecke; Markus Feser; Timo Hackemann; Nele Kroll & Nadezda Strunk
  
• Effects of Linguistic Complexity on Students’ Text Comprehension – An Experimental Study. 31.08.2021, Symposium The Role of Language in Learning Science in Four Countries: Different Languages, Same Conclusions? Organized by T. Hackemann/Hamburg, ESERA-Conference Braga/Online
  Timo Hackemann & Dietmar Höttecke
  
• Muss man auch mit Sprache im Mathematikunterricht rechnen? 20.05.2021, ERLE-Kolloquium
  Dominik Leiss & Timo Ehmke
  
• The Linguistic Complexity of Test Items: Differential Effects for Students With Low and High Language Proficiency 08.04.2021, AERA Annual Meeting
  Timo Ehmke & Dominik Leiss
  
• Wirkung des sprachlichen Anforderungsniveaus von Sachtexten auf Textverstehen und -wahrnehmung 16.09.2021, GDCP-Jahrestagung Bochum 2021
  Timo Hackemann; Lena Heine & Dietmar Höttecke
  
• Challenging to Read, Easy to Comprehend? Effects of Linguistic Demands on Secondary Students’ Text Comprehension in Physics. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 20(S1), 43-68.
  Hackemann, Timo; Heine, Lena & Höttecke, Dietmar
  
• Das Anfertigen von Notizen als Lernstrategie beim mathematischen Modellieren 02.09.2022, GDM-Jahrestagung
  Lisa-Marie Wienecke
  
• Das Anfertigen von Notizen als Lösungsstrategie beim mathematischen Modellieren 09.03.2022, GEBF-Jahrestagung
  Lisa-Marie Wienecke; Dominik Leiss & Timo Ehmke
  
• Das Lösen von mathematischen Modellierungsaufgaben – Welche Rolle spielen die soziale Herkunft, die Sprachkompetenz und der Aufgabenkontext? 09.03.2022, GEBF-Jahrestagung
  Alina Knabbe; Dominik Leiss & Timo Ehmke
  
• Dekonstruktion mathematischer Modellierungsfähigkeit – Welche Aspekte gilt es bei der mathematischen Auseinandersetzung mit realen Kontexten zu beachten? 10.11.2022, ISTRON-Jahrestagung
  Lisa-Marie Wienecke & Alina Knabbe
  
• Effects of altering linguistic demands of test tasks for students with low and high language proficiency. 23.09.2022, Conference Language in the Mathematics Classroom der European Society for Research in Mathematics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.
  Lena Heine; Domimnik Leiss & Timo Ehmke
  
• Erleichtern Konnektoren das Verstehen von mathematischen Textaufgaben? 08.03.2022, GEBF-Nachwuchstagung
  Lena Dammann
  
• Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst. Welche sprachlichen Verstehenshürden erkennen Lehramtsstudierende in einem fachlichen Erklärtext? 10.03.2022, GEBF -Jahrestagung
  Hanne Brandt; Anke Schmitz; Dominik Leiss; Timo Ehmke & Poldi Kuhl
  
• Modellierungsaufgaben – Der Einfluss von sprachlichen, innermathematischen Fähigkeiten und dem Aufgabenkontext 02.09.2022, GDM-Jahrestagung
  Alina Knabbe; Dominik Leiss & Timo Ehmke
  
• Note-taking while Working on Mathematical Modelling Tasks 24.09.2022, ICTMA
  Lisa-Marie Wienecke
  
• Development of a Test in German Language to Assess Middle School Students’ Physics Proficiency. The Physics Educator, 05(01).
  Feser, Markus Sebastian & Höttecke, Dietmar
  
• Do connectives improve the level of understandability in mathematical modeling tasks? 08.03.2023, DGfS-Jahrestagung
  Lena Dammann
  
• Taking notes as a strategy for solving reality-based tasks in mathematics. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 18(3), em0744.
  Wienecke, Lisa-Marie; Leiss, Dominik & Ehmke, Timo