Opening the event, the hosts Dr. Jutta von Maurice, Head of the Centre for Study Management at LIfBi, and Dr. Bernd Schaal, Head of the Educational Research Unit of the Policy Department at ISB, emphasised the importance of the EMSE network for the further development of the education system and the improvement of offers that can facilitate transitions.
The words of welcome were spoken by Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of LIfBi and Head of the National Educational Panel (NEPS), Director of Studies Philipp Reichel, Head of the Policy Department at ISB, and Prof. Dr. Martin Heinrich, Professor for School Development and School Research at Bielefeld University, in his function as coordinator of the EMSE Network. The second day of the conference started with a greeting from Anselm Räde, Director of the ISB. The various greetings highlighted the special importance of dialogue between administration, practice and research on concepts and experiences as well as on findings from empirical educational research. They also emphasised the role of the EMSE network for this productive exchange.
In her keynote lecture, Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt presented central findings of the National Educational Panel (NEPS) on the competence development of children, young people and adults in Germany. She showed selected results from the different starting cohorts of the NEPS and also gave an insight into the results of the recently presented National Education Report 2022, in whose author group the LIfBi is involved.
In a second keynote, Prof. Dr. Ilka Wolter (LIfBi) presented results from the NEPS and other studies regarding self-regulated learning during the Corona pandemic, in which, among other things, learning behaviour and reading competence were also considered in the context of motivation and support.
In the third and last keynote of the event, Prof. Dr. Corinna Kleinert (LIfBi) presented findings on transitions from school in Germany based on NEPS data. She showed the area of tension between the expectations of those providing training and the individual paths of young people and outlined structural barriers as well as possible approaches to solutions.
In an exchange format on the first day of the conference, LIfBi researchers presented the new start cohort of the NEPS as well as the studies INSIDE (Inclusion in and after Secondary Tier in Germany), ReGES (Refugees in the German Educational System) and Educational Trajectories of Refugee Children and Adolescents as well as Data Literacy (Digital and Data-Related Skills in Germany). Afterwards, the participants of the EMSE conference had the opportunity to exchange views with the researchers on these studies with regard to the needs of research, administration and practice.
In two work phases on the two conference days, the challenges surrounding current issues in education were discussed in parallel small groups. The focus was on various facets of the design of transitions as well as on ways to better understand individual educational pathways in Germany. In a synopsis and discussion of these two phases of work, it was also discussed how the EMSE network can contribute to making the findings of the conference visible and usable for the constantly changing practice.
The conference was accompanied and visualised by the illustrator Britta Mutzke. The results of this so-called graphic recording can be found here on the EMSE conference website.