CIDER Workshop Autumn 2017 Promotes Outstanding Young Educational Researchers

From 18 to 20 September 2017 ZEW hosted the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research’s (CIDER) Autumn 2017 workshop. The College, set up and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Jacobs Foundation and seven institutes within the Leibniz Association, has been supporting outstanding young researchers (referred to as fellows) based at European research institutions since 2012, helping them to develop further their own projects in the field of interdisciplinary educational research. As one of CIDER’s founding institutes, ZEW brings an economic perspective to educational research.

The three-day workshop was organised by GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and ZEW with the following three goals in mind: First, fellows of the college had the opportunity to present the results of their research and discuss them from an interdisciplinary perspective. The workshop also gave participants a forum to initiate new interdisciplinary research projects. Secondly, the potential application of the wide range of individual data gathered by GESIS in empirical educational research was raised for discussion. Thirdly, fellows were given the opportunity to reflect on selected findings from recent educational scientific studies from different disciplines, as well as on project work and publication strategies, together with experts in the field.

Educational research from an interdisciplinary perspective

The interdisciplinary workshop was supplemented by a number of more subject-specific talks. Beatrice Rammstedt, professor of psychological assessment, survey design and methodology at the University of Mannheim and scientific head of the Survey Design and Methodology department at GESIS, gave a talk on measuring personality traits in large survey-based studies. A different talk dealt with investigating the effects of offering career guidance to students at secondary schools (Hauptschule and Realschule) in Freiburg im Breisgau, as well as how to go about designing a study to measure these effects. According to Bernd Fitzenberger, professor of econometrics at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a ZEW Research Associate, who gave the talk, offering career guidance particularly helps under-performing students transition from secondary school into an apprenticeship or further education.

PD Dr. Friedhelm Pfeiffer, deputy head of the ZEW Research Department “Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy”, pointed out that educational research benefits greatly from interdisciplinary and international cooperation. While educational researchers investigate, among other things, how education systems, educational institutions and teaching processes can be designed in terms of content to produce the desired educational outcomes, economics is interested in how efficiency and equality of opportunity in the face of limited resources can be improved through education and to what extent investing in education pays off. By working together, the two disciplines can help to improve both our basic understanding of educational processes and how best to design them. The autumn workshop has proven to be a successful building block for CIDER, encouraging researchers to become more independent early on in their careers and helping them to forge interdisciplinary and international connections.

About CIDER

The College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant no.: 01JG1201), the Jacobs Foundation (grant no.: 2011-963) and the seven participating members of the Leibniz Association. These institutes represent a range of different disciplines, including educational science, economics, psychology and sociology. The project is run by Professor Heike Solga of WZB Berlin. The first cohort of 30 fellows received both professional and financial support from CIDER over the period from 2012 to 2016. The second cohort of a further 30 fellows will receive a similar programme of support from 2016 to 2019. As part of the programme, fellows participate in two workshops a year intended to promote their interdisciplinary skills and help them to cultivate international research connections.

Participating Leibniz institutions:

·    The German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF)

·    DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research)

·    GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

·    Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi)

·    Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN)

·    WZB Berlin Social Science Center

·    Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)