Teacher education standards emphasise that teachers should be aware of cultural and gender influences and should value diversity in the classroom. Above all, teacher shall "implement teaching strategies that are responsive to the particular needs of students from diverse … backgrounds" (Australien Institute, o. D., p. 1, KMK, 2019). At the same time, qualitative studies suggest that such pedagogical norms are already rejected by preservice teachers during their first extended teaching experiences (Liegmann & Racherbäumer, 2019).

Regarding classroom management as an important basic dimension of teaching quality (Praetorius et al., 2020), ethnically diverse classes, and – in terms of gender – male-dominated classes are considered challenging or even difficult teaching contexts (Downey & Pribesh, 2004; Schönbächler et al., 2011; Sloane, 2014). This is noteworthy as students with a migrant background particularly benefit from effective classroom management (Seiz et al, 2016).

Therefore, classroom management, which is considered to include preventive, proactive and reactive practices to be effective, is increasingly examined in a context-oriented manner in research on teaching quality (Fauth et al., 2020; Göllner et al., 2020; Helmke & Helmke, 2014; Praetorius et al., 2016).

While for primary schools and lower upper secondary school education, at least some empirical results for the relevance of context- and class-composition factors for the demands of classroom management are available, classroom management at vocational schools has rarely been studied with systematic consideration of the heterogeneous contextual conditions.

This is a relevant research desideratum since it is likely that class contexts are significant sources of variation for the efficiency of classroom management in German vocational schools, which include a variety of school types and educational programs (Pahl, 2014).  

Hence, this presentation highlights two main research questions:
1. How relevant are class-composition factors (gender; proportion of students from migrant families) and the divergent educational programmes within vocational schools for classroom management and its efficacy? We expect to find empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that male dominated classes, classes with high proportions of migrants, and classes of vocational education programmes which do not provide a full vocational qualification are difficult to manage. 

2. How important are preventive, proactive and reactive classroom management practices – in comparison with the context and composition factors – for the effectiveness of classroom management?

The analysed sample was obtained in 2022 as part of an ongoing DFG project at 26 vocational schools and includes over 4000 students from 314 classes. Classroom management and its effectiveness were operationalised based on Helmke and Helmke's (2014) impact model of classroom management. In line with the literature, the main criteria used to measure the effectiveness of classroom management were "active learning time" and "absence of disruption", each with one scale. A total of eight scales were used to assess preventive, proactive, and reactive process characteristics of classroom management. Most of the items and scales were taken from well-established instruments on classroom-management; (KODEK-S by Thiel, Ophardt & Piowar, 2013; Linzer Diagnosis sheet on classroom management by Mayr et al., 2013). Only a few parts of the questionnaire are own developments. The scales have satisfactory to very good internal consistencies. Intraclass correlations induce for both success criteria as well as for the process-dimensions of classroom management that a simultaneous multilevel regression-analysis of the data on two levels is necessary (Lack of disruptions: ICC1 = 0.31; active learning time: ICC1 = 0.21; for example for the classroom management processes: momentum and smoothness: ICC1 = 0.19; monitoring ICC1 = 0.18, classroom climate ICC = 0.24). Therefore, results of the stepwise multilevel analysis of classroom management will be presented. Separate models for both outcome variables of classroom management, that are the "absence of disruption" and "active learning time", will be calculated. The educational programmes of vocational schools, class-composition variables and the preventive, proactive and reactive features of classroom-management are introduced into the models as independent variables. Starting from the zero model, which estimates the constant of the regression model without considering the differences between the classes, and the intercept-only model, which assumes that the variance of the class-specific regression constant is 0, the education programme as the main context factor, the class composition variables and the scales on preventive, proactive and reactive classroom management practices will be be introduced into the models up to the random intercept and random slopes-models successively (Langner, 2009).

First calculations, still separated at individual and class levels, indicate−basing on individual student ratings—weak effects of student gender and the course of education attended on both criteria for the efficacy of classroom management, that are the absence of disruptions and (to an even lesser extent) to the active learning time. For the aggregated ratings of the students, slightly stronger correlations are found. The absence of disruption and the actively used learning time tend to decrease with increasing proportions of male and migrant students in the classes. These effects partly disappear when the course of education attended is controlled for. Overall, current results indicate that classes in school tracks of German vocational schools that do not lead to a full vocational qualification are more difficult to manage than classes in the apprenticeship system, for example. Moreover, the same applies to the male-dominated classes in the dual system of the German VET. We expect that good preventive, proactive and reactive processes of classroom management reduce the influence of the class-context and class-composition on the two outcome factors. That means, if students perceive good preventive classroom behaviour such as monitoring, momentum and smoothness in the sense of Kounin (1970), if certain rules and routines are implemented, the scores of rule clarity are high, and teachers respond appropriately to disruptions, the classroom disruptions decrease and learning time should increase. Moreover, the scales on the preventive, proactive and reactive dimensions of classroom management in total should statistically explain more variance in the outcome variables than the class context and the class composition factors. The practical implications of the findings for the training and further education of teachers at vocational schools will be discussed. In addition, future research perspectives will be showed.

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