Open research questions in Educational Strategies and Epistemologies

What the literature leaves open

• The study notes limitations in convergent validity and reliability, highlighting the need for further refinement of the PADS. The research identifies the potential role of disciplinary context in the manifestation of argumentative discourse styles. The study highlights the need for continued psychometric scrutiny and refinement of the PADS.

  Validation of the Measure of Peer Argumentive Discourse Style (PADS) in a Science Context: Evidence for the Construct Validity and Reliability · 2026 · DOI

• item refinement, - systematic comparison of four-factor and three-factor structures, - cross-cultural validation, - instructional applications to develop the PADS

  Validation of the Measure of Peer Argumentive Discourse Style (PADS) in a Science Context: Evidence for the Construct Validity and Reliability · 2026 · DOI

• One challenge identified is the need to ensure that the curriculum is socially organised and allows students to interact in accomplished ways when proposing, communicating, assessing, and legitimising knowledge claims. Another challenge is the limited frequency of epistemic teaching practices that support students in qualifying claims, arguments, and actions.

  Examining Epistemic Teaching Practices: Cases From Integrated and Monodisciplinary Science Laboratory Lessons · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need to understand how teachers' curricular considerations shape epistemic outcomes. The paper identifies a gap in the frequency of epistemic teaching practices that support students in qualifying claims, arguments, and actions.

  Examining Epistemic Teaching Practices: Cases From Integrated and Monodisciplinary Science Laboratory Lessons · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of an integrative guiding framework that conceptualizes what prompts are, how they work, and which characteristics are central across different application areas. Conceptual and terminological inconsistencies in the field of digital prompting in education.

  Digital Prompting in Education: A Design Framework and Bibliometric Analysis · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of strong metacognitive reading skills in graduate students. The need for sustained, cross-curricular integration of metacognitive instruction. The limited understanding of how explicit instruction within the Gradual Release of Responsibility framework supports metacognitive comprehension through strategic reading.

  “I Get It Now”: Insights from Implementing Metacognitive Strategy Instruction through an Asynchronous Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework · 2026 · DOI

• Investigate the long-term effects of GenAI literacy on academic achievement, - Examine the impact of GenAI literacy on academic achievement in different educational settings, - Develop and test interventions to enhance GenAI literacy and academic self-efficacy

  The effect of generative artificial intelligence literacy on academic achievement: the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and the moderating role of critical thinking · 2026 · DOI

• Pre-service teachers face challenges in acquiring the necessary skills to teach information literacy. The study highlights the need for educators to have a profound knowledge of information literacy and to be able to organize this knowledge in a way that makes it easier to retrieve and apply. The research identifies the lack of competence and confidence among teachers as a significant challenge in incorporating or teaching new content.

  Information literacy in the digital age: information sources, evaluation strategies, and perceived teaching competences of pre-service teachers · 2024 · DOI

• However, the integration of digital assessment tools in basic science classrooms remains underexplored, particularly in relation to shaping student attitudes across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

  Digital assessments boost science attitudes and sustainable education · 2025 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the understanding of how epistemological beliefs and achievement motivation influence student learning in a flipped classroom context. The study highlights the need for further research on the psychological mechanisms underlying student learning in flipped classrooms.

  The Impact of Epistemological Beliefs and Achievement Motivation on Learning Outcomes and Academic Self-Efficacy in Education · 2026 · DOI

• Several limitations of the present study warrant consideration. First, the sample size was relatively small (n = 83) and drawn from a single university in Germany within the social sciences, which limits the generalizability of the findings across broader populations, different cultural contexts, and other academic disciplines. Second, the International Journal of Instruction, April 2026 ● Vol.19, No.2 Sun, Sailer & Schlag 13 intervention spanned a relatively short duration (10 weeks) and focused on a single course, constraining the study’s ability to capture the long-term effects of a 5E-based flipped classroom on students’ learning trajectories. Finally, although the statistical analyses revealed significant associations among key variables, the correlational nature of the design precludes causal inferences. Based on these findings, we offer several recommendations for practice and future research. First, instructors designing flipped classrooms should employ structured frameworks, such as the 5E model, to ensure implementation fidelity and enhance students’ academic self-efficacy and achievement motivation. Second, professional development programs should explicitly target teachers’ epistemological beliefs, as these beliefs shape how educators enact digital and inquiry-based pedagogies in the classroom. Third, for future research, scholars should recruit larger and more diverse samples, adopt longitudinal designs, and integrate mixed-method approaches to examine the long-term impacts of 5E-based flipped instruction and clarify the mechanisms linking epistemological beliefs, motivation, and learning outcomes. REFERENCES Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191 Béres, I., & Kis, M. (2018). Flipped classroom method combined with project-based group work. In Teaching and Learning in a Digital World: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning-Volume 1 (pp. 553- 562). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73210-7_65 Bråten, I., & Strømsø, H. I. (2010). When law students read multiple documents about global warming: Examining the role of topic-specific beliefs about the nature of knowledge 635-657.

  The Impact of Epistemological Beliefs and Achievement Motivation on Learning Outcomes and Academic Self-Efficacy in Education · 2026 · DOI

• Some students have difficulties in advancing community knowledge due to limited subject knowledge or unfamiliarity with KB pedagogy. Resistance from some novice students toward constructivist approaches has been observed in socio-constructivism educational environment.

  Reflective assessment in knowledge building classrooms: fostering positive epistemic emotions and quality discourse on educational research · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need to understand the relationships between university students' epistemic emotions and their achievement in Knowledge Building discourse. There is a lack of research on the effects of reflective assessment on epistemic emotions and the quality of contributions.

  Reflective assessment in knowledge building classrooms: fostering positive epistemic emotions and quality discourse on educational research · 2026 · DOI

• Second language students face challenges in academic online searching due to limited linguistic control and reliance on non-academic sites. Institutions face challenges in providing targeted support for second language students to enhance their search practices.

  Hiding in plain sight: the linguistic and behavioural challenges of second language learners in academic search · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could investigate the effectiveness of targeted support for second language students to enhance their search practices. The study suggests that academic online search may form part of a hidden curriculum within UK HE, which could be explored in future research.

  Hiding in plain sight: the linguistic and behavioural challenges of second language learners in academic search · 2026 · DOI

• Further research is needed to explore the implications of epistemic consolidation for epistemic independence and agency. The development of policy and design strategies to guide AI personalized learning approaches towards non-dominating decentralized democratic control of education should be prioritized.

  AI Personalized Learning and the Risk of Epistemic Consolidation · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the discussion on the implications of AI personalized learning systems for epistemic independence and agency. It argues that the focus on diversifying potential can elide deeper structural dynamics present in adopting these systems.

  AI Personalized Learning and the Risk of Epistemic Consolidation · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of research on EMI in humanities subjects. There is a gap in research on the development of disciplinary literacy in EMI lectures.

  Developing Disciplinary Literacy in an EMI Lecture: Real-time Monitoring of Student Comprehension Challenges in Philosophy of Science · 2026 · DOI

• The study had a limited sample size, with 16 groups remaining for final analysis. The study was conducted in a specific context, an introductory astronomy course, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The study relied on self-formed groups, which may have introduced variability in group dynamics.

  From individual annotations to shared attention: How re-annotation supports collaborative knowledge building in CSCL · 2026 · DOI

• Future studies could investigate the effects of re-annotation on learning outcomes in different contexts. Research could explore the design of social annotation tools that facilitate re-annotation practices. Studies could examine the role of re-annotation in other domains, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

  From individual annotations to shared attention: How re-annotation supports collaborative knowledge building in CSCL · 2026 · DOI

• Students need to engage in epistemic thinking to make sense of multiple conflicting documents. Students need to coordinate multiple epistemic processes, such as evaluating sources and constructing arguments.

  Social regulation of epistemic thinking during collaborative inquiry with multiple documents · 2026 · DOI

• The study had a relatively small sample size of 104 participants. The study only examined high school students and may not be generalizable to other populations. The study used a limited range of task difficulties and may not capture the full range of possible difficulties.

  Task difficulty and knowledge exploration among secondary school students: the mediating role of epistemic emotions · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the understanding of the role of epistemic markers in facilitating knowledge building. The study identifies a need for further research on the use of Knowledge Forum as a technological platform to support knowledge building.

  Knowledge building scaffolds: sentence starters or epistemic markers · 2026 · DOI

• The study reported here was very limited in scale. The only students involved were Sixth Formers taking one particular course-the EPQ-in one school. Just one teacher administered the learning programme received by the participants.

  Promoting reflection by students on their use of information · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could involve the use of the models in other educational settings. The paper's findings could be used to inform the development of new information literacy frameworks. The paper's results could be used to improve the teaching of information literacy skills.

  Promoting reflection by students on their use of information · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Educational Strategies and Epistemologies

• The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education · Research in Science Education · 2017 · 7,619 citations
• The Development of Epistemological Theories: Beliefs About Knowledge and Knowing and Their Relation to Learning · Review of Educational Research · 1997 · 1,939 citations
• Effects of beliefs about the nature of knowledge on comprehension. · Journal of Educational Psychology · 1990 · 1,303 citations
• Epistemological and methodological bases of naturalistic inquiry · ECTJ · 1982 · 1,006 citations
• Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning · Higher Education · 2005 · 964 citations
• Are Good Texts Always Better? Interactions of Text Coherence, Background Knowledge, and Levels of Understanding in Learning From Text · Cognition and Instruction · 1996 · 886 citations
• Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship. · Journal of Educational Psychology · 2002 · 765 citations
• A Time For Telling · Cognition and Instruction · 1998 · 709 citations
• Do those who know more also know more about how much they know? · Organizational Behavior and Human Performance · 1977 · 697 citations
• Knowing-In-Action: The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology · Change The Magazine of Higher Learning · 1995 · 643 citations

Most recent work

• Digital mentor paradox: Transforming algorithmic anxiety into professional growth through AI-scaffolded pedagogical reasoning and identity · Teaching and Teacher Education · 2026
• The effect of generative artificial intelligence literacy on academic achievement: the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and the moderating role of critical thinking · Frontiers in Psychology · 2026
• The role of epistemic beliefs in predicting ChatGPT adoption and avoidance in higher education · Acta Psychologica · 2026
• Towards a framework for understanding and assessing critical thinking in generative AI-enhanced learning environments: a scoping review · European Journal of Psychology of Education · 2026
• Generative Artificial Intelligence, Formative Epistemic Injustice, and Educators’ Solutions · Studies in Philosophy and Education · 2026
• How to Increase Children's and Adults’ Interest in Learning From Disagreement · Developmental Science · 2026
• Presupposition, assertion, and epistemic vigilance across development · Journal of Pragmatics · 2026
• Source integration in source-based writing: From theoretical modeling to predictive analytics · Assessing Writing · 2026
• AI Personalized Learning and the Risk of Epistemic Consolidation · Studies in Philosophy and Education · 2026
• Epistemic Agency and Academic Writing in the Age of genAI · MedienPädagogik Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung · 2026

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