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Science and Research

General info

The Institute for Educational Research and Development carries out its scientific activities primarily within the framework of research projects obtained in domestic and international grant competitions, in multidisciplinary cooperation with institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad. The Institute conducts empirical research on school education using both quantitative and qualitative research methods and their appropriate combination, with an emphasis on longitudinal and panel studies.

Our focus

  • the passage of pupils and students through the education system, choice of school and transitions between educational levels with an emphasis on the selectivity of the education system in the Czech Republic;
  • determining educational outcomes from pre-school to general secondary and vocational education;
  • inequalities in education, the influence of social and economic status, gender and ethnicity on educational outcomes;
  • secondary analyses of data from international surveys of educational outcomes (e.g. TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA, ICCS, TALIS) and critical evaluation of their impacts on the formation of national education policies;
  • determining the quality and effectiveness of schools and the possibilities of linking internal (internal school evaluation – self-evaluation) and external evaluation (inspection activities and external testing);
  • research on teachers with an emphasis on identifying their attitudes and beliefs, evaluating teachers’ working conditions and opportunities for their further professional growth;
  • transformation of education systems in Central and Eastern European countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain;
  • assessment of pupils and students and development of formative assessment;
  • theory and curriculum development.

Orbis scholae

Since 2007, the IRDE, in cooperation with the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University, has been editing the international peer-reviewed journal  Orbis scholae  with texts in Czech, Slovak and English. The journal is indexed in a number of international databases, including the Scopus database (www.orbisscholae.cz).

Czech Research Group for Shadow Education

Website of the Research Group

The research group aims to advance research and knowledge exchange on shadow education (private supplementary tutoring) in the Czech Republic and anywhere else in the world. Our research foci include, but is not limited to:

  • Nature of shadow education (including new forms of shadow education)
  • Determinants of shadow education (educational, social, economic, geographic, demographic…)
  • Implications of shadow education (for students, families, schools, teachers, education system…)
  • Relationships and interrelations between formal and shadow education
  • Specific issues related to shadow education and other types of extracurricular education

Members of the group publish their research in highly reputed journals (see Publications) and collaborate with external researchers (see International collaboration).

In cooperation with Hong Kong University, Comparative Education Research Center, the research group is also responsible for maintaining the bibliographic database of shadow education resources (see the Shadow Education Resource Center).

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