Aims of the project

When do children learn what? How do kindergarten, school and the home environment influence learning? On which factors do parents base their choice of primary and secondary schools? BiKS, the interdisciplinary research group at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, has set the goal to further examine processes of competence development and selection decisions in preschool- and school age. On the one hand, competence development is being analysed - with regard to its dependency on structural, attitude-related and procedural aspects of support in family, kindergarten and school - as well as the formation of selection decisions regarding primary school (longitudinal study "BiKS 3-10"). On the other hand, the process of decision-making regarding the transition from primary to secondary schools is addressed, accouting for the childrens' level of competence as well as structural and attitude-related influences (longitudinal study "BiKS 8-14").
Within the BiKS study, eight subprojects are working together.

• Interdisciplinary research approach
• Longitudinal survey design
• Representative sampling
• Research of interactions of familial and institutional contexts in the childrens' lives
• Inclusion of children from different social backgrounds and of different nationalities