If our goal in education research is to produce knowledge that is useful and used, we need to design impact evaluations that value understanding variation as much as understanding average impact. The context in which an intervention is implemented and the characteristics of participants are integral components of the intervention, and we need to…

Silos are an undeniable and unavoidable reality of knowledge production, particularly within academia. For those who choose to navigate between disciplinary boundaries, as opposed to within them, it is not uncommon to find similar concepts developing in parallel in two or more completely different fields of study. These silos tend to be not just…

In the 2020s, there are both societal and academic reasons to reflect on the field of history of education. In this article, we focus on the issue of the social, which remains central to the field as we acknowledge that society shapes education and education shapes society. By exploring the social on theoretical, methodological and broader…

This paper suggests ways in which the profile of philosophical research in education could be raised, to demonstrate that it is legitimate and genuinely productive to engage in non-empirical research in education. I begin with some historical context for philosophical research in education, exploring the approach known as "conceptual…

In response to the criticism that theory-driven researcher-developed learning tools lack scalability and sustainability in the real world, the design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach was proposed. However, few empirical studies actually describe what a DBIR study looks like and how it can inform readers about learning tool design. We…

Analyzing qualitative data from learning processes is considered "messy" and time consuming (Chi in J Learn Sci 6(3):271-315, 1997). It is often challenging to summarize and synthesize such data in a manner that conveys the richness and complexity of learning processes in a clear and concise manner. Moreover, qualitative data often…

Neuroimaging research has substantially enhanced our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of typical and atypical learning in children. These developments can advance the design of novel approaches to diagnosis and intervention for learning disabilities. Despite the promise of educational neuroscience, there are still walls between…

Purpose: The practice of theory borrowing from other research fields is common in interdisciplinary and applied research. Nevertheless, educational administration researchers seldom discuss this phenomenon and its complexities in depth. Design/methodology/approach: This essay provides an overview of what has been written about the practice of…

Advancements in artificial intelligence are rapidly increasing. The new-generation large language models, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, bear the potential to transform educational approaches, such as peer-feedback. To investigate peer-feedback at the intersection of natural language processing (NLP) and educational research, this paper suggests a…

The 2nd World Congress on Undergraduate Research, held at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, May 23-25, 2019, aimed to foster global dialogue across diverse research disciplines. It brought together exceptional undergraduate researchers to collaborate on pressing international challenges of the 21st century. The event featured six…

The theoretical and empirical foundations of research on trust in education are still weak. To contribute to a better understanding of the role of trust in educational systems, this final article of the special issue "Trust in educational settings. European perspectives" highlights the findings from the contributions in this special…

Information behavior, one of the central topics in information science research, holds a key position as a field of study of how people interact with information. As such it has many points of connection to a large number of neighboring fields from the study of human behavior to management and technical disciplines interested in developing…

From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, the development of the history of education in China can be divided into four stages: a budding period, one of tortuous development, a recovery stage and finally one of stable growth influenced by various ideas and themes from other countries. Abundant academic areas and topics as well as…

Ann Oakley, pioneering social researcher for nearly 60 years, is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at IOE (Institute of Education), UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (University College London, UK). This article explores the innovation and influence of her work and the work of her close colleagues at the Social Science Research Unit…

This volume presents a novel, theoretical, micro-analytical model -- the 3A Methodology -- for assessing the quality of school education. Drawing on philosophers as well as theoretical and pedagogical traditions from European and American contexts, the authors construct a model that is relevant to teachers, researchers, and teacher educators…