Diagnosing resources for effective learning via teacher and parent checklists

Checklists are an economical form of diagnostic instruments and are therefore well suited to support decision making on individual fostering of students in every day school life. We developed a teacher and a parent checklist based on the theory of educational and learning capital (Ziegler & Baker, 2013), that is, assessing the students' resources for learning. A study with 5th to 8th graders demonstrated the checklists' diagnostic properties. Overall, the teacher ratings of students' capitals proved to be reliable, objective and highly valid while parent ratings turned out to be less valid. Implications and possibilities of practical usage are discussed.