The project was supported by the Stiftung Mercator and the Ministry for School and Further Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MSW).

Conceptual knowledge is a key factor in learning (e.g. Bloom et al., 1956). It comprises the facts and principles within a certain domain and helps organizing biological knowledge. The importance of conceptual knowledge is also reflected within the National Educational Standards in Germany, as it is seen as one of the four competence domains. (Kultusministerkonferenz, 2005). Since education should lead to substantial learnings processes, the analysis of learning pathways is also necessary. Therefore, longitudinal data is crucial to model change appropriately (e.g. Singer & Willett, 2003, p. 9). In addition, students’ diversity plays a crucial role for performance in science (e.g. Prenzel, Schöps et al., 2007, p. 95).

Therefore, the main objective is to describe the development of conceptual knowledge within two central domains in biology. Additionally, the project tries to describe relations between students’ diversity and conceptual development.

As expected, students overall performance increases from fifth to ninth grade. However, there are differences within the conceptual development in respect of the two analyzed domains. These results are also reflected on the level of alternative conceptions. The amount of alternative conceptions decreases from grade 5 to 9.

Concerning personal characteristics, there are almost no differences in the conceptual development. Students with a low socioeconomic status or an immigration background learn as much as their classmates. On the one hand, these results show that existing differences in students´ conceptual knowledge do not become bigger, but on the other hand, current teaching is not yet able to reduce these differences. To improve science learning and to bridge the gap between students of different subgroups, these results indicate the necessity of adjusted material for different subgroups and tasks for individual learning.

Roeling, M. (2016). Konzeptuelles Wissen und Konzeptentwicklung in Biologie: Eine Längsschnittsstudie. Logos.

Sandmann, A., Bongartz, M., Linsner, M. & Schmiemann, P. (2015). Zwischenbilanz der fachdidaktischen Arbeit im Fach Biologie. In H. Wendt & W. Bos (Hrsg.), Auf dem Weg zum Ganztagsgymnasium. Erste Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Begleitforschung zum Projekt Ganz In (S. 324–348). Waxmann.

Bongartz, M., Sandmann, A., Schmiemann, P. (2015). Entwicklung des Fachwissens im Fach Biologie (Biologie-Längsschnittstudie). In H. Wendt & W. Bos (Hrsg.), Auf dem Weg zum Ganztagsgymnasium. Erste Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Begleitforschung zum Projekt Ganz In (S. 519–520). Waxmann.

Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H. & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Classification of Educational Goals (Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain). David McKay Company.

Kultusministerkonferenz. (2005). Bildungsstandards im Fach Biologie für den Mittleren Schulabschluss (Beschlüsse der Kultusministerkonferenz, 1. Auflage). Luchterhand.

Prenzel, M., Schöps, K., Rönnebeck, S., Senkbeil, M., Walter, O., Carstensen, C. H. et al. (2007). Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz im internationalen Vergleich. In PISA-Konsortium Deutschland (Hrsg.), PISA 2006. Die Ergebnisse der dritten internationalen Vergleichsstudie (S. 63–105). Waxmann.

Singer, J. D. & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis. Modeling Change and Event Occurence. Oxford University Press.