Impressions from an Evaluation of Research Projects on Subject Didactics Elke Sumfleth

Quality of Research The quality of research in subject didactics as a subcategory of educational science is independent of the main focus or topic of research the kind of research the methods used

Elke Sumfleth Research Fields Improving the description of effective learning situations Testing theory-based hypotheses in order to improve learning Influencing interest and understanding Investigating critical conditions for learning Analysing effects of out-of-school learning Developing tasks and learning environments professionally Evaluating new conceptions and examples of best practice

Elke Sumfleth Critical Findings Expectations concerning research and research results tend to be too ambitious to be fulfilled. ➨ Therefore research questions are too ambitious. Discussion of the theoretical base in relation to the planned project and of previous results are needed in more detail. Research questions have to be researchable. Results described often do not fit to the research questions. Research results could not be brought into practice by writing articles or developing material.

Elke Sumfleth Reasons The field of subject didactics is young. There are far more questions than answers. There is no research tradition. There is no discipline-specific body of knowledge and there are no real standards for this kind of research. Questions and methods come from a lot of different disciplines and have to be combined. The demand of bridging research and professional practice seems to be a problem.

Elke Sumfleth Rethinking Research Quality in the Field of Education I More financial support for projects and funding of grants for Ph.D-students dealing with complementary research questions ➨ Establishing specific research centers and continuing with graduate schools Focusing on interdisciplinary groups of researchers because theories of different research fields and different expertise are needed Demanding for financial and organizational support by the universities which are interested in that research field Funding of limited projects and not of more or less unclear parts of huge projects

Elke Sumfleth Rethinking Research Quality in the Field of Education II Constructing a research framework, where one project is starting from the results of the preceding project Fostering research projects which may lead to results which could be generalized under specific conditions Dividing the two challenges: Contribution to research and contribution to the practice without decreasing the meaning of relevance

Elke Sumfleth Special Recommendations Research should start from a detailed analysis of the theoretical base, independent of the project being more exploratory or more hypothesis testing. Research results from different disciplines have to be considered and discussed in a multi-perspective way. Expected answers to the research questions have to be discussed in advance. ➨ Then the research questions will become more concrete. The methods used to collect data, to interpret and to evaluate them have to be described in advance