Educational trajectories and psychosocial development of students at the Waldau Open School (BiO)

The “Offene Schule Kassel-Waldau (OSW)” is an integrated comprehensive school from the 5th to the 10th school year and one of a total of five experimental schools in Hesse. The catchment area is located in a socially deprived area, but due to the high enrollment from the entire city, the composition of the student body is very heterogeneous. The composition of the classes consistently takes into account an appropriate mix of social milieus, different talents and support needs as well as the proportion of boys and girls. The OSW understands this heterogeneity as an enrichment and an opportunity to create learning opportunities in the personal, social, and cognitive areas.

The study is designed as a multi-cohort longitudinal study and examines the educational trajectories of students at OSW from 5th grade until they leave school after 10th grade. In the first survey wave in May 2012, all 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students* (N=594) were asked about their verbal skills (KFT-V1), academic self-concept, self-regulated learning, school performance (grades), interests, motivational goal orientations, school aspirations, social behavior, social skills, political attitudes, self-esteem, and time perspectives, among other things, using a questionnaire. The surveys take place at annual intervals;in 2018 - after the seventh wave of the survey - data will be available, from two cohorts of students who went through OSW from 5th to 10th grade. In addition, at the second measurement point, teachers were also surveyed and asked to assess the social behavior of individual students. One aim of the study is to analyze differential effects in relation to the recorded constructs over time.