Education, Competence Development and Career Trajectories

1. Introduction -- Education, Competence Development and Career Trajectories (Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Gwendolin J. Blossfeld and Sabine Weinert).- Part I. Competence and Skill Development: Individual Characteristics, Learning Environments, and Contextual Factors. 2. Quality of Early Learning Environments: Measures, Validation, and Effects on Child Development (Sabine Weinert, Manja Attig, Anja Linberg, Franziska Vogel and Hans-Günther Rossbach).- 3. The Emergence of Gender-Specific Competence Patterns and Decision Making During the Course of Educational and Job Careers in Germany (Loreen Beier, Alessandra Minello, Wilfred Uunk, Magdalena Pratter, Gordey Yastrebov and Hans-Peter Blossfeld).- 4. Patterns and Predictors of Literacy and Numeracy Development During Adulthood: Insights From Two Longitudinal Assessment Surveys (Clemens M. Lechner).- 5. The Interplay Between Instructional Pace, Skill Externalities, and Student Achievement: An Empirical Assessment (David Kiss).- 6. Addressing Environmental and Individual Factors in Early Secondary School: The Roles of Instruction Techniques and Self-Perception (Jeffrey M. DeVries, Carsten Szardenings, Philipp Doebler and Markus Gebhardt).- 7. An Illustration of Local Structural Equation Modeling for Longitudinal Data: Examining Differences in Competence Development in Secondary Schools (Gabriel Olaru, Alexander Robitzsch, Andrea Hildebrandt and Ulrich Schroeders).- Part II. Educational Transitions and Pathways: Influencing Factors and Outcomes. 8. Inequality in Educational Transitions During Secondary School: Results From the German National Educational Panel Study (Florian Wohlkinger and Hartmut Ditton).- 9. lternative Routes to Higher Education Eligibility: Inclusion, Diversion, and Social Inequality on the Way to Higher Education (Steffen Schindler and Felix Bittmann).- 10. Dropping Out of Higher Education in Germany: Using Retrospective Life Course Data to

Sabine Weinert is head of the Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Bamberg. Her research focuses on the development of competencies, their impact and influencing factors. She acted as scientific head of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; a large-scale multicohort study) and coordinates the interdisciplinary DFG Priority Programme 'Education as a Lifelong Process'.

Gwendolin J. Blossfeld is a coordinator of the DFG Priority Programme 1646 'Education as a Lifelong Process' and a postdoctoral fellow of the Twinning Project 'YouthLife' which are both located at the University of Bamberg. She has organized substantive and methodological workshops for the DFG Priority Programme 1646. Her substantive research interests are in the fields of educational sociology, methods of longitudinal data analysis, social inequality, and demography.

Hans-Peter Blossfeld is Emeritus of Excellence at the University of Bamberg and coordinates (together with S. Weinert) the interdisciplinary DFG Priority Programme 'Education as a Lifelong Process.' He is the founder of the NEPS and held a Chair of Sociology at the University of Bamberg. He is an internationally renowned expert on life-course research, statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis, modern methods of quantitative social research, cross-national research, social inequality, youth, family, educational sociology, labor market research, demography, and social stratification and mobility.