Dr. Alexander von Bergen

studied Psychology and Philosophy before being a doctoral student in the Professorship for Learning Sciences and Higher Education from April 2019 to June 2023. His doctoral research focused on elementary school children’s mathematics achievement and their mathematics-related attitudes, such as mathematics anxiety, mathematics-gender stereotypes, and mathematics self-concept.

In a collaboration with the University of Washington, he led this research project involving 300 children and could show that already in first grade of elementary school, children start to display the math-gender stereotype.

In addition to his dissertation-related work, he was part of another international collaboration to investigate whether positive and negative attitudes towards mathematics are mutually exclusive. 

Drawing from his methodological expertise and his contact with local schools, he is now a postdoctoral researcher in education science at University of Zurich, where he is leading a large research project focusing on the promotion of self-regulated learning in upper secondary schools.