Chair of the Professorship in Child Development and Socialization Processes at the Institute for Kindergarten/Elementary Education

Research Interests

Socialization and skill development in early childhood education settings, motivational and learning development during the transition from kindergarten to elementary school, early childhood language development.

Professional Experience and Education

• Since 2022, Chair of the Professorship for "Child Development and Socialization Processes", School of Education, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland
• 2016 – 2022, Research Associate, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Department of Educational Science and Educational Psychology
• 2016 – 2021, Lecturer for the Master's Program in "Management of Early Childhood Education Settings", Europa-Universität Flensburg
• 2012 – 2016, Project Manager and Authorized Signatory, Educational Quality Information Systems (PädQUIS) gGmbH
• 2009 – 2012, Ph.D. Candidate, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental  and Comparative Psychology

Education

• 2014, Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Leipzig
• 2003-2009, Studies in Patholinguistics, University of Potsdam
• 2007-2008, Studies in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego

Journals (peer reviewed)

Schmerse, D., Dominke, H., Mohr, J., & Steffensky, M. (2023). Children’s understanding of scientific inquiry: The role of instructional support and comparison making. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000836.

Schmerse, D. (2021). Peer effects on early language development in dual language learners. Child Development, 92, 2153–2169.  https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13588

Junge, K., Schmerse, D., Carstensen, C. H., Lankes, E. M., & Steffensky, M. (2021). How the home learning environment contributes to children's early science knowledge - Associations with parental characteristics and science-related activities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 56, 294–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.04.004

Schmerse, D., & Zitzmann, S. (2021). Early school adjustment: Do social integration and persistence mediate the effects of school-entry skills on later achievement? Learning and Instruction, 73, Article 101374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101374

Schmerse, D. & Hepach, R. (2021). How socialization goals and peer social climate predict young children’s concern for others: Evidence for a development shift between 2 and 4 years of age. Social Development, 30, 239–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12478

Schmerse, D. (2020). Preschool quality effects on learning behavior and later achievement in Germany: Moderation by socioeconomic status. Child Development, 91, 2237–2254.

Schmerse, D., Anders, Y., Flöter, M., Wieduwilt, N., Roßbach, H.-G., & Tietze, W. (2018). Differential effects of home and preschool quality on early language development. British Educational Research Journal, 44, 338–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3332

Schmerse, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Young children use shared experience to interpret definite reference. Journal of Child Language, 42, 1146–1157.

Köymen, B., Schmerse, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Young children create partner-specific referential pacts with peers. Developmental Psychology, 50, 2334–2342.

Schmerse, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Discourse particles and belief reasoning: the case of German doch. Journal of Semantics, 31, 115–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/fft001

Schmerse, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Error patterns in young German children’s wh-questions. Journal of Child Language, 40, 656–671. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000912000104

Books and book chapters

Schmerse, D. (2021). Domänenspezifische Förderung in Kindertageseinrichtungen. In: T. Schmidt, U. Sauerbrey & W. Smidt (Hrsg.). Frühpädagogische Handlungskonzepte. Eine wissenschaftliche Bestandsaufnahme, S. 217–236. Münster: Waxmann.

Schmerse, D. & Tietze, W. (2015). Sozialisation in Krippe und Kindergarten. In: K. Hurrelmann, U. Bauer, M. Grundmann & S. Walper (Hrsg.). Handbuch der Sozialisationsforschung. 8. Auflage, S. 414–436. Weinheim: Beltz.  

Schmerse, D. (2014). Children’s Acquisition of Grounding Elements. Investigations of Definiteness and Discourse Deixis. Dissertation. Universität Leipzig.

Current Projects

PEERS – Peer Effects in Early Childhood Education Research

Peers in kindergarten and elementary school play a crucial role in children's development. However, little is known about the significance of peers in children's language development. This project investigates the extent to which the composition of peer groups in kindergartens and elementary schools affects language acquisition and, subsequently, future educational opportunities. An extensive statistical analysis of multiple existing datasets involving over 21,500 students from both kindergarten and elementary levels will be conducted. The study also aims to examine the shift in peer groups during the transition from kindergarten to elementary school. Another goal is to compare peer effects across various European countries. The results will provide insights into the importance of peer groups for children's language development. The applied methodology yields particularly robust and reliable results. This project contributes to a better understanding of early learning environments in kindergarten and elementary school.

Duration: 2023 – 2026

Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

Project team: Franziska Hürlimann, Prof. Dr. Daniel Schmerse (Lead)

Collaborative partner: Prof. Dr. Oliver Lüdtke, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education

Completed Projects

LESIC – The Role of Effective Learning Environments in Preschool Children's Understanding of the Scientific Inquiry Cycle

Knowledge about the generation of scientific knowledge is considered a central component of scientific education, along with content knowledge. This includes understanding the research cycle, which links various steps of scientific discovery and emphasizes the cumulative nature of this process. The central question of this project is under what conditions preschool children can recognize and compare steps of the research cycle across examples and build an initial understanding of the entire cycle (rather than isolated steps). A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-assessments will be used to compare two learning environments where children receive targeted learning support against a control group (conducting scientific activities without specific learning support) and a baseline group. Secondly, the two supported learning environments, where the similarity between the examined scientific phenomena is systematically varied, will be compared.

Duration: 2020 – 2022 Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Project team: Prof. Dr. Mirjam Steffensky, University of Hamburg (Co-Lead); Dr. Jana Mohr, Europa-Universität Flensburg; Henning Dominke, University of Hamburg

EarlyEd – Leibniz Competence Center for Early Education

Duration: 2016 – 2021

Funding: Leibniz Association and Leibniz Education Research Network

Education Needs Language – Scientific Evaluation

Duration: 2014 – 2016

Funding: German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS), Mercator Foundation