Researchers in this unit study learner-centred practices: how teachers, school leaders, and other educational professionals create the conditions in schools and classrooms that foster learner engagement, agency, and inclusion.
A specific and central focus is self-regulated learning (SRL) as a key mechanism through which learners plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning. Rather than treating SRL as an individual trait, the unit studies how it is shaped by instructional design, classroom practices, collaborative learning, and school-level conditions that enable or constrain learner agency, and how educators can deliberately create environments that support learners' ownership of their own learning.
The unit also takes an evidence-informed approach to professional development and the functioning of professional learning communities, using empirical and design-based research to examine what knowledge, beliefs, and practices teachers and educational professionals need to implement learner-centred approaches, and how these are sustained through school-level collaboration and innovation. This research asks, in particular, which interventions work, for whom, and under what conditions.
This learner-centred focus extends to how digital technologies are reshaping teaching and learning, where AI-supported learning and learning analytics take a central place – from personalising instructional decisions and learning trajectories to embedding AI-supported tools directly in educational practice, alongside broader technology-enhanced learning environments. This work examines not only the effectiveness of these tools, but also their implications for professional practice, ethical considerations, and learners' autonomy and participation.
This research is guided by questions such as:
- How can learning environments be designed to foster self-regulated learning, learner agency, and engagement?
- How do teachers and professional learning communities develop and sustain learner-centred practices?
- How can learning analytics and AI be used to support adaptive, ethical, and meaningful learning?
- Under which conditions do educational innovations lead to sustainable change at classroom and system level?