Abstracts - Earli

language achievement, tend to be also effective for their students’ academic self-concept.However, the magnitude of the interrelation between language and academic self-conceptdecreases over time.Concentration and motivation within school contextMonika Buhl, German Institut of International Educational Resea, GermanyFollowing recent results of Positive Youth development (Larson 2005), the major aim of thispresentation is to show that experiences of concentration and motivation during class time are nothomogeneous and that variations could be observed depending on the nature of the learning settingand the quality of individual experience within the situation. Data is drawn from the study "Schoolas a Developmental Context during Adolescence" where 130 7th and 8th graders and their teachersfrom an East-German "Regelschule" were investigated intensely during one week of schoolclasses. HLM-Analyses for explaining concentration and motivation as outcomes of positivedevelopment show mainly effects of experiences within the concrete learning situation. Effects ofteaching method are small but stable compared to the results for motivational goal orientations.Discussion will focus on the relevance of these findings for teacher education, especially on themeaning of the high impact of students experiences in concrete situations compared to generalorientation styles.Political orientations in adolescence and in adulthood – does a democratic school climate make adifference?Urs Grob, University of Zurich, Institut of Education, Switz, SwitzerlandSubject-specific instruction in civics is known to foster political knowledge. The hiddencurriculum thesis, however, states that learning in everyday school life might be even moreimportant for political socialization, i.e. for the development of basic political orientations andcompetences. One key argument is that, when encountering respect and experiencing successfulcooperation with others in order to protect common interests, students will develop a sense ofbelonging, which encourages them to assume responsibility for the common welfare and serves asan affective basis for further political participation. Ideally, in school democratic principles can belearned "in nuce". Several studies already yielded some evidence for systematic relations betweenclassroom climate and certain political competences and attitudes. Still, little is known about sucheffects on the long run. This paper is intended to shed some more light on potential influences ofschool and classroom climate factors on the students’ political socialization not only in a short- butalso in a long-term perspective. Based on data of the German longitudinal LifE-Study, single- andmultilevel regression analyses are carried out to predict political interest and tolerance towardsforeigners at ages 16 and 35, drawing on school and classroom climate factors. The findingsconfirm some consistent, albeit small, short- and long-term effects of indicators of democraticschool life and of prevalent social norms in the classroom, as perceived by the students, onto bothcriteria variables. Most interestingly, a more democratic and less competitive social climate ispositively associated with tolerance towards foreigners even 20 years later. However, all of theseeffects are small compared to those exerted by the family of origin and its socio-cultural and socioeconomicbackground.– 819 –