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THE POWER OF BIG DATA: HISTORICAL TIME SERIES ON GERMAN EDUCATION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2017
Abstract
Numerous primary investigators collected and processed long-termed time series on German educational statistics in the context of their studies. As a result, there are a multitude of quantitative empirical studies. On the one hand, there is the project group on German Educational Statistics.1 Its projects were targeted at describing and analyzing the long-term structural changes of the German educational system on a broad empirical and statistical basis. On the other hand, there are comprehensive data compilations of individual research projects, focusing on a wide variety of special educational research topics. The online database “histat” provides central digital access to these datasets on German educational history. Currently, it offers more than 120,000 long-term time series on the German educational system for a period of 200 years. The striking size of the database shows its key importance for researchers in the field of education. Thus, this paper aims to provide useful insights into the background of the database, the special characteristics of the data compilations and their analytical potential. Additionally, examples are given of how the data have already been used by researchers.
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- Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2017
Footnotes
The authors thank Professor Dr Rainer Metz for his helpful comments.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the writers and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.
References
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