Bildungsunterschiede von Anfang an?: Die Bedeutung von Struktur- und Prozessmerkmalen für die naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz von Vorschulkindern mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund

This study addressed the question whether disparities in scientific literacy of children with and without a migration background already exist at the age of 4-6 years. Data from the German National Educational Panel Study were used in regression models for identifying structural and procedural variables associated with scientific literacy and its variance. With an increasing number of migrants and refugees the successful integration of children with a migration background into the German education system is of major social and economic importance. Hence this study put a particular emphasis on the language used at home, the knowledge of receptive vocabulary in German, the learning environment and the social background. The results illustrated, that already for pre-school children the receptive German vocabulary was the strongest predictor for their scientific literacy. Consequently, children with a migration background scored significantly lower in the scientific literacy test than children without a migration background. In summary, this study demonstrates, that the disparities with respect to scientific literacy between children with and without a migration background already exist before they start school.