At the European Conference on Educational Research 2019 in Hamburg the conference program of Network 9 comprised 25 sessions with a total number of 75 contributions. Most sessions were attended by 15 to 25 people with audience numbers varying with the topics and formats of the presentations. A few sessions of particular interest for conference participants and members of Network 9 such as a number of symposium sessions and the network meeting attracted 50 people or more. With authors, chairpersons and discussants from 29 countries and reviewers from 18 countries across Europe and from overseas the network program and its organization continued to reflect a noticeable international commitment to and participation in evaluating, presenting and discussing research on the network’s themes of Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement.
Two symposia were organized in the conference program of Network 9. The symposia had the following themes:
- Feedback as Part of a Pedagogic Process: Reintegrating assessment in student learning using digital tools (Symposium Organizer: Stefanie A. Hillen)
- Outcomes and their Determinants in International Comparative Assessments (3 sessions) (Symposium Organizers: Jan-Eric Gustafsson, Monica Rosén, Isa Steinmann and Rolf Strietholt)
Furthermore 19 paper sessions were held in Network 9 with the following topics (in alphabetic order):
- Assessing and Investigating Achievement in STEM and Music Education • Assessing and Investigating Achievement under conditions of Migration
- Assessing and Investigating ICT competencies
- Assessing and Investigating Soft Skills
- Assessing and Investigating Teacher Characteristics
- Assessment in Teacher Education
- Discussing the Validity of PISA
- (Formative) Assessment in Higher Education
- Investigating Academic Resilience, Perseverence & Problem Solving
- Investigating Achievement in Different Context
- Investigating Emotion, Cognition and Learning in Secondary and Tertiary Education
- Investigating the Validity of TIMSS & PIRLS • Investigating Tracking and Educational Choices
- Investigating Trends in Education Systems
- Relating Motivation and Self-Concept to Achievement
- School Evaluations
- Students Perception of Assessment and Feedback
- Substantive and Methodological Issues in Assessing Social and Civic Skills and Mathematics
- Teachers Uses and Views of Assessment In the general poster session at ECER six posters from Network 9 were presented.
A further contribution to the network program was a research workshop on the theme of “IEA ICCS 2016 – Teachers Views and Perceptions towards Civic Education”, organized by Falk Brese and Wolfram Schulz. Workshops such as this one are of high value and relevance for the network’s goal of building professional capacities particularly for emerging researchers. The continuation of such sessions at the ECER main conference and in the Tuesday morning workshop format is encouraged for the next conferences.
With 101 submissions before redirections, rejections and withdrawals the overall intake of initial submissions of proposals for contributions to Network 9 at ECER 2019, while being lower than at the previous conferences, continues to remain high among the EERA networks. The number of contributions presented at the conference was considerably lower due to the selection process in the review of submissions and also due to a number of authors withdrawing their submissions shortly before the conference. For the latter reason, the rule by EERA to withdraw contributions if the authors did not register for the conference by the stated deadline continued to have an effect. As further reasons for late withdrawals a lack of travel funds, unforeseen work commitments and urgent personal reasons were stated.
In terms of offers for capacity building and professional development, members of Network 9 gladly continued supporting the Emerging Researchers’ Conference (ERC) by participating in the review process and by serving as mentors for sessions in the ERC 2019. For further details on the work and activities in Network 9 see the minutes of the network meeting at ECER 2019 and the different sections of the website of Network 9.