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11/29/2019 | Pressemitteilung

Full-day: A win-win if you do it right

How can all-day programs support students in their development? The long-term study on the development of all-day schools (StEG), conducted by several scientific institutions, investigated this question. Prof. Dr. Natalie Fischer from the University of Kassel was also involved. The results show that, under certain conditions and with the help of targeted support measures, all-day schools have the potential to support children and young people individually.

Image: contrast workshop.

In the StEG subprojects, the researchers first worked with experts from school practice to develop support offers and school development measures that were then implemented at schools and scientifically monitored. These included a working group to promote reading comprehension, a concept for homework supervision and learning time in which older students support younger students as mentors, and a measure to improve cooperation among all the educational professions involved in all-day schooling. This should improve the conditions for adequately supporting children and young people. Another StEG sub-study examined the role played by all-day school in the transition from elementary school to secondary school.

The researchers summarize the results, which are now available, as follows:

  • "Students can benefit in many ways from all-day programs, but this requires, among other things, a high level of pedagogical quality."

    For example, homework and practice times supervised by mentors were perceived by students as positive and helpful. In general, however, no improvement in their motivation or learning outcomes was found. Such effects were only found if the pedagogical quality of the offers was high. It is also crucial to prepare the older students well for their mentoring role.
  • "Extracurricular offerings also have the potential to improve learners' subject-specific skills if the offerings are specifically developed with this intention in mind."

    For example, the AG developed according to the current state of research to promote reading comprehension led to improvements in competence in this area for all children. In particular, socially disadvantaged students and those with initially weaker skills caught up considerably as a result of the support offered. Previous research had found only small effects of traditional all-day programs on subject skills.
  • "All-day school supports families in the transition to secondary school."

    When choosing a secondary school, it is comparatively often important for parents whose child will not attend a Gymnasium that it is an all-day school - especially if they want individual support for their child. Regardless of the type of secondary school, children who attend an all-day school are significantly more likely to rate the transition as easier than expected in retrospect - compared to students at half-day schools.
  • "It takes time and perseverance to develop all-day schools."

    The researchers identified several school conditions that foster cooperation among those who work pedagogically in all-day schools - for example, transparent communication and a shared vision. However, it also became apparent that a "we-feeling" and the participation of all those involved were slow to emerge. Even the support services described above could only be introduced into everyday school life in the course of time-consuming school development work.

The researchers responsible for the overall study draw the following conclusion:  "It continues to be a great challenge to provide individual support for students in all-day programs, and corresponding effects can only be found to a limited extent. Valuable indications of how it could be done are provided by the scientifically based reading promotion offer developed together with the schools." Overall, the researchers see a need for a directional decision: "The question is what parents, schools and politicians want: Is it enough that all-day schools can provide a reliable care service and support psychosocial development? Or do people want all-day schools to contribute to the learning culture?" According to the researchers, however, this requires a more systematic approach and binding learning and support programs developed according to the latest research, for which an all-day school supported jointly by all educational professions provides the framework.

The findings of the individual studies in detail and their overall assessment are presented in a freely available brochure. The comments also refer to the representative survey of school principals on all-day school expansion, the results of which were published in April 2019:

http://projekt-steg.de/sites/default/files/20191129_StEG_Broschuere_web.pdf

 

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Natalie Fischer
University of Kassel
Tel.: +49 (0)561 804-3628
E-mail: natalie.fischer[at]uni-kassel[dot]de