Research

ESoE aims to advance education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in response to new societal challenges. To contribute to this aim, we conduct scientific research on education and professional development of teachers and on the design and evaluation of educational innovations. In a recent update of our research program, the successful research strand on preparing and supporting teachers for innovative STEM learning and teaching in secondary education has been continued. This research has been extended with two new developments.
First, teachers in higher education have been included as a focus of our research. Innovations in higher STEM education like challenge-based learning raise many questions about the new expertise teachers need and how they can develop this expertise. Second, questions about the optimal pedagogy of innovative STEM teaching and learning in secondary and higher education have been included. Answering these questions requires systematic design and evaluation research to provide evidence for successful practices. In these endeavors, research and development go hand in hand, aligned with ESoE’s mission to contribute to both scholarly advancement as well as to improvement of educational practice.