research paper about education example

Research Topics & Ideas: Education

170+ Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Dissertation, Thesis Or Research Project

I f you’re just starting out exploring education-related topics for your dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of research topics and ideas , including examples from actual dissertations and theses..

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Education Research Topics

• How to find a research topic (video)
• List of 50+ education-related research topics/ideas
• List of 120+ level-specific research topics 
• Examples of actual dissertation topics in education
• Tips to fast-track your topic ideation (video)
• Where to get extra help

Education-Related Research Topics & Ideas

Below you’ll find a list of education-related research topics and idea kickstarters. These are fairly broad and flexible to various contexts, so keep in mind that you will need to refine them a little. Nevertheless, they should inspire some ideas for your project.

• The impact of school funding on student achievement
• The effects of social and emotional learning on student well-being
• The effects of parental involvement on student behaviour
• The impact of teacher training on student learning
• The impact of classroom design on student learning
• The impact of poverty on education
• The use of student data to inform instruction
• The role of parental involvement in education
• The effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom
• The use of technology in the classroom
• The role of critical thinking in education
• The use of formative and summative assessments in the classroom
• The use of differentiated instruction in the classroom
• The use of gamification in education
• The effects of teacher burnout on student learning
• The impact of school leadership on student achievement
• The effects of teacher diversity on student outcomes
• The role of teacher collaboration in improving student outcomes
• The implementation of blended and online learning
• The effects of teacher accountability on student achievement
• The effects of standardized testing on student learning
• The effects of classroom management on student behaviour
• The effects of school culture on student achievement
• The use of student-centred learning in the classroom
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on student outcomes
• The achievement gap in minority and low-income students
• The use of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom
• The impact of teacher professional development on student learning
• The use of project-based learning in the classroom
• The effects of teacher expectations on student achievement
• The use of adaptive learning technology in the classroom
• The impact of teacher turnover on student learning
• The effects of teacher recruitment and retention on student learning
• The impact of early childhood education on later academic success
• The impact of parental involvement on student engagement
• The use of positive reinforcement in education
• The impact of school climate on student engagement
• The role of STEM education in preparing students for the workforce
• The effects of school choice on student achievement
• The use of technology in the form of online tutoring

Level-Specific Research Topics

Looking for research topics for a specific level of education? We’ve got you covered. Below you can find research topic ideas for primary, secondary and tertiary-level education contexts. Click the relevant level to view the respective list.

Research Topics: Pick An Education Level

Primary education.

• Investigating the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of mindfulness practices in primary school classrooms
• Examining the effects of different teaching strategies on primary school students’ problem-solving skills
• The use of storytelling as a teaching strategy in primary school literacy instruction
• The role of cultural diversity in promoting tolerance and understanding in primary schools
• The impact of character education programs on moral development in primary school students
• Investigating the use of technology in enhancing primary school mathematics education
• The impact of inclusive curriculum on promoting equity and diversity in primary schools
• The impact of outdoor education programs on environmental awareness in primary school students
• The influence of school climate on student motivation and engagement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of early literacy interventions on reading comprehension in primary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student achievement in primary schools
• Exploring the benefits of inclusive education for students with special needs in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of teacher-student feedback on academic motivation in primary schools
• The role of technology in developing digital literacy skills in primary school students
• Effective strategies for fostering a growth mindset in primary school students
• Investigating the role of parental support in reducing academic stress in primary school children
• The role of arts education in fostering creativity and self-expression in primary school students
• Examining the effects of early childhood education programs on primary school readiness
• Examining the effects of homework on primary school students’ academic performance
• The role of formative assessment in improving learning outcomes in primary school classrooms
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on academic outcomes in primary school
• Investigating the effects of classroom environment on student behavior and learning outcomes in primary schools
• Investigating the role of creativity and imagination in primary school curriculum
• The impact of nutrition and healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on primary school students’ well-being and academic performance
• The role of parental involvement in academic achievement of primary school children
• Examining the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior in primary school
• The role of school leadership in creating a positive school climate Exploring the benefits of bilingual education in primary schools
• The effectiveness of project-based learning in developing critical thinking skills in primary school students
• The role of inquiry-based learning in fostering curiosity and critical thinking in primary school students
• The effects of class size on student engagement and achievement in primary schools
• Investigating the effects of recess and physical activity breaks on attention and learning in primary school
• Exploring the benefits of outdoor play in developing gross motor skills in primary school children
• The effects of educational field trips on knowledge retention in primary school students
• Examining the effects of inclusive classroom practices on students’ attitudes towards diversity in primary schools
• The impact of parental involvement in homework on primary school students’ academic achievement
• Investigating the effectiveness of different assessment methods in primary school classrooms
• The influence of physical activity and exercise on cognitive development in primary school children
• Exploring the benefits of cooperative learning in promoting social skills in primary school students

Secondary Education

• Investigating the effects of school discipline policies on student behavior and academic success in secondary education
• The role of social media in enhancing communication and collaboration among secondary school students
• The impact of school leadership on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of technology integration on teaching and learning in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of interdisciplinary instruction in promoting critical thinking skills in secondary schools
• The impact of arts education on creativity and self-expression in secondary school students
• The effectiveness of flipped classrooms in promoting student learning in secondary education
• The role of career guidance programs in preparing secondary school students for future employment
• Investigating the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student autonomy and academic success in secondary schools
• The impact of socio-economic factors on educational attainment in secondary education
• Investigating the impact of project-based learning on student engagement and academic achievement in secondary schools
• Investigating the effects of multicultural education on cultural understanding and tolerance in secondary schools
• The influence of standardized testing on teaching practices and student learning in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of classroom management strategies on student behavior and academic engagement in secondary education
• The influence of teacher professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of extracurricular activities in promoting holistic development and well-roundedness in secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models on student engagement and achievement in secondary education
• The role of physical education in promoting physical health and well-being among secondary school students
• Investigating the effects of gender on academic achievement and career aspirations in secondary education
• Exploring the benefits of multicultural literature in promoting cultural awareness and empathy among secondary school students
• The impact of school counseling services on student mental health and well-being in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of vocational education and training in preparing secondary school students for the workforce
• The role of digital literacy in preparing secondary school students for the digital age
• The influence of parental involvement on academic success and well-being of secondary school students
• The impact of social-emotional learning programs on secondary school students’ well-being and academic success
• The role of character education in fostering ethical and responsible behavior in secondary school students
• Examining the effects of digital citizenship education on responsible and ethical technology use among secondary school students
• The impact of parental involvement in school decision-making processes on student outcomes in secondary schools
• The role of educational technology in promoting personalized learning experiences in secondary schools
• The impact of inclusive education on the social and academic outcomes of students with disabilities in secondary schools
• The influence of parental support on academic motivation and achievement in secondary education
• The role of school climate in promoting positive behavior and well-being among secondary school students
• Examining the effects of peer mentoring programs on academic achievement and social-emotional development in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and achievement in secondary schools
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement among secondary school students
• The impact of educational policies on educational equity and access in secondary education
• Examining the effects of homework on academic achievement and student well-being in secondary education
• Investigating the effects of different assessment methods on student performance in secondary schools
• Examining the effects of single-sex education on academic performance and gender stereotypes in secondary schools
• The role of mentoring programs in supporting the transition from secondary to post-secondary education

Tertiary Education

• The role of student support services in promoting academic success and well-being in higher education
• The impact of internationalization initiatives on students’ intercultural competence and global perspectives in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of active learning classrooms and learning spaces on student engagement and learning outcomes in tertiary education
• Exploring the benefits of service-learning experiences in fostering civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education
• The influence of learning communities and collaborative learning environments on student academic and social integration in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of undergraduate research experiences in fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry skills
• Investigating the effects of academic advising and mentoring on student retention and degree completion in higher education
• The role of student engagement and involvement in co-curricular activities on holistic student development in higher education
• The impact of multicultural education on fostering cultural competence and diversity appreciation in higher education
• The role of internships and work-integrated learning experiences in enhancing students’ employability and career outcomes
• Examining the effects of assessment and feedback practices on student learning and academic achievement in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty professional development on instructional practices and student outcomes in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty-student relationships on student success and well-being in tertiary education
• The impact of college transition programs on students’ academic and social adjustment to higher education
• The impact of online learning platforms on student learning outcomes in higher education
• The impact of financial aid and scholarships on access and persistence in higher education
• The influence of student leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities on personal development and campus engagement
• Exploring the benefits of competency-based education in developing job-specific skills in tertiary students
• Examining the effects of flipped classroom models on student learning and retention in higher education
• Exploring the benefits of online collaboration and virtual team projects in developing teamwork skills in tertiary students
• Investigating the effects of diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus climate and student experiences in tertiary education
• The influence of study abroad programs on intercultural competence and global perspectives of college students
• Investigating the effects of peer mentoring and tutoring programs on student retention and academic performance in tertiary education
• Investigating the effectiveness of active learning strategies in promoting student engagement and achievement in tertiary education
• Investigating the effects of blended learning models and hybrid courses on student learning and satisfaction in higher education
• The role of digital literacy and information literacy skills in supporting student success in the digital age
• Investigating the effects of experiential learning opportunities on career readiness and employability of college students
• The impact of e-portfolios on student reflection, self-assessment, and showcasing of learning in higher education
• The role of technology in enhancing collaborative learning experiences in tertiary classrooms
• The impact of research opportunities on undergraduate student engagement and pursuit of advanced degrees
• Examining the effects of competency-based assessment on measuring student learning and achievement in tertiary education
• Examining the effects of interdisciplinary programs and courses on critical thinking and problem-solving skills in college students
• The role of inclusive education and accessibility in promoting equitable learning experiences for diverse student populations
• The role of career counseling and guidance in supporting students’ career decision-making in tertiary education
• The influence of faculty diversity and representation on student success and inclusive learning environments in higher education

Education-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in education, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses in the education space to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of education-related research projects to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• From Rural to Urban: Education Conditions of Migrant Children in China (Wang, 2019)
• Energy Renovation While Learning English: A Guidebook for Elementary ESL Teachers (Yang, 2019)
• A Reanalyses of Intercorrelational Matrices of Visual and Verbal Learners’ Abilities, Cognitive Styles, and Learning Preferences (Fox, 2020)
• A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district (Barabas, 2020)
• Instructor formative assessment practices in virtual learning environments : a posthumanist sociomaterial perspective (Burcks, 2019)
• Higher education students services: a qualitative study of two mid-size universities’ direct exchange programs (Kinde, 2020)
• Exploring editorial leadership : a qualitative study of scholastic journalism advisers teaching leadership in Missouri secondary schools (Lewis, 2020)
• Selling the virtual university: a multimodal discourse analysis of marketing for online learning (Ludwig, 2020)
• Advocacy and accountability in school counselling: assessing the use of data as related to professional self-efficacy (Matthews, 2020)
• The use of an application screening assessment as a predictor of teaching retention at a midwestern, K-12, public school district (Scarbrough, 2020)
• Core values driving sustained elite performance cultures (Beiner, 2020)
• Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum (Dwiggins, 2020)
• How female principals nurture adult learning opportunities in successful high schools with challenging student demographics (Woodward, 2020)
• The disproportionality of Black Males in Special Education: A Case Study Analysis of Educator Perceptions in a Southeastern Urban High School (McCrae, 2021)

As you can see, these research topics are a lot more focused than the generic topic ideas we presented earlier. So, in order for you to develop a high-quality research topic, you’ll need to get specific and laser-focused on a specific context with specific variables of interest.  In the video below, we explore some other important things you’ll need to consider when crafting your research topic.

Get 1-On-1 Help

If you’re still unsure about how to find a quality research topic within education, check out our Research Topic Kickstarter service, which is the perfect starting point for developing a unique, well-justified research topic.

Find The Perfect Research Topic

How To Choose A Research Topic: 5 Key Criteria

How To Choose A Research Topic Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + Free Topic...

Research Topics & Ideas: Automation & Robotics

A comprehensive list of automation and robotics-related research topics. Includes free access to a webinar and research topic evaluator.

Research Topics & Ideas: Sociology

Research Topics & Ideas: Sociology 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

Research Topics & Ideas: Public Health & Epidemiology

A comprehensive list of public health-related research topics. Includes free access to a webinar and research topic evaluator.

Research Topics & Ideas: Neuroscience

Research Topics & Ideas: Neuroscience 50 Topic Ideas To Kickstart Your Research...

📄 FREE TEMPLATES

Research Topic Ideation

Proposal Writing

Literature Review

Methodology & Analysis

Academic Writing

Referencing & Citing

Apps, Tools & Tricks

The Grad Coach Podcast

71 Comments

This is an helpful tool 🙏

Special education

Really appreciated by this . It is the best platform for research related items

Research title related to school of students

How are you

I think this platform is actually good enough.

Research title related to students

My field is research measurement and evaluation. Need dissertation topics in the field

Assalam o Alaikum I’m a student Bs educational Resarch and evaluation I’m confused to choose My thesis title please help me in choose the thesis title

Good idea I’m going to teach my colleagues

You can find our list of nursing-related research topic ideas here: https://gradcoach.com/research-topics-nursing/

Write on action research topic, using guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

Thanks a lot

I learned a lot from this site, thank you so much!

Thank you for the information.. I would like to request a topic based on school major in social studies

parental involvement and students academic performance

Science education topics?

plz tell me if you got some good topics, im here for finding research topic for masters degree

How about School management and supervision pls.?

Hi i am an Deputy Principal in a primary school. My wish is to srudy foe Master’s degree in Education.Please advice me on which topic can be relevant for me. Thanks.

Thank you so much for the information provided. I would like to get an advice on the topic to research for my masters program. My area of concern is on teacher morale versus students achievement.

Every topic proposed above on primary education is a starting point for me. I appreciate immensely the team that has sat down to make a detail of these selected topics just for beginners like us. Be blessed.

Kindly help me with the research questions on the topic” Effects of workplace conflict on the employees’ job performance”. The effects can be applicable in every institution,enterprise or organisation.

Greetings, I am a student majoring in Sociology and minoring in Public Administration. I’m considering any recommended research topic in the field of Sociology.

I’m a student pursuing Mphil in Basic education and I’m considering any recommended research proposal topic in my field of study

Research Defense for students in senior high

Kindly help me with a research topic in educational psychology. Ph.D level. Thank you.

Project-based learning is a teaching/learning type,if well applied in a classroom setting will yield serious positive impact. What can a teacher do to implement this in a disadvantaged zone like “North West Region of Cameroon ( hinterland) where war has brought about prolonged and untold sufferings on the indegins?

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration

I wish to get help on topics of research on educational administration PhD level

I am also looking for such type of title

I am a student of undergraduate, doing research on how to use guidance and counseling to address unwanted teenage pregnancy in school

the topics are very good regarding research & education .

Am an undergraduate student carrying out a research on the impact of nutritional healthy eating programs on academic performance in primary schools

Can i request your suggestion topic for my Thesis about Teachers as an OFW. thanx you

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education,PhD level

Would like to request for suggestions on a topic in Economics of education

Hi 👋 I request that you help me with a written research proposal about education the format

Am offering degree in education senior high School Accounting. I want a topic for my project work

l would like to request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

request suggestions on a topic in managing teaching and learning, PhD level (educational leadership and management)

I would to inquire on research topics on Educational psychology, Masters degree

I am PhD student, I am searching my Research topic, It should be innovative,my area of interest is online education,use of technology in education

request suggestion on topic in masters in medical education .

Look at British Library as they keep a copy of all PhDs in the UK Core.ac.uk to access Open University and 6 other university e-archives, pdf downloads mostly available, all free.

May I also ask for a topic based on mathematics education for college teaching, please?

Please I am a masters student of the department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education Please I am in need of proposed project topics to help with my final year thesis

Am a PhD student in Educational Foundations would like a sociological topic. Thank

please i need a proposed thesis project regardging computer science

Greetings and Regards I am a doctoral student in the field of philosophy of education. I am looking for a new topic for my thesis. Because of my work in the elementary school, I am looking for a topic that is from the field of elementary education and is related to the philosophy of education.

Masters student in the field of curriculum, any ideas of a research topic on low achiever students

In the field of curriculum any ideas of a research topic on deconalization in contextualization of digital teaching and learning through in higher education

Amazing guidelines

I am a graduate with two masters. 1) Master of arts in religious studies and 2) Master in education in foundations of education. I intend to do a Ph.D. on my second master’s, however, I need to bring both masters together through my Ph.D. research. can I do something like, ” The contribution of Philosophy of education for a quality religion education in Kenya”? kindly, assist and be free to suggest a similar topic that will bring together the two masters. thanks in advance

Hi, I am an Early childhood trainer as well as a researcher, I need more support on this topic: The impact of early childhood education on later academic success.

I’m a student in upper level secondary school and I need your support in this research topics: “Impact of incorporating project -based learning in teaching English language skills in secondary schools”.

Although research activities and topics should stem from reflection on one’s practice, I found this site valuable as it effectively addressed many issues we have been experiencing as practitioners.

Your style is unique in comparison to other folks I’ve read stuff from. Thanks for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this site.

that is good idea you are sharing for a lot of researchers. I am one of such an information sucker. I am a chemistry teacher in Ethiopia secondary school. I am MSc degree holder in Analytical chemistry. I need to continue my education by this field. How I can get a full scholar ship?

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Submit Comment

• Print Friendly

21 Action Research Examples (In Education)

Dave Cornell (PhD)

Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

Action research is an example of qualitative research . It refers to a wide range of evaluative or investigative methods designed to analyze professional practices and take action for improvement.

Commonly used in education, those practices could be related to instructional methods, classroom practices, or school organizational matters.

The creation of action research is attributed to Kurt Lewin , a German-American psychologist also considered to be the father of social psychology.

Gillis and Jackson (2002) offer a very concise definition of action research: “systematic collection and analysis of data for the purpose of taking action and making change” (p.264).

The methods of action research in education include:

• conducting in-class observations
• taking field notes
• surveying or interviewing teachers, administrators, or parents
• using audio and video recordings.

The goal is to identify problematic issues, test possible solutions, or simply carry-out continuous improvement.

There are several steps in action research : identify a problem, design a plan to resolve, implement the plan, evaluate effectiveness, reflect on results, make necessary adjustment and repeat the process.

Action Research Examples

• Digital literacy assessment and training: The school’s IT department conducts a survey on students’ digital literacy skills. Based on the results, a tailored training program is designed for different age groups.
• Library resources utilization study: The school librarian tracks the frequency and type of books checked out by students. The data is then used to curate a more relevant collection and organize reading programs.
• Extracurricular activities and student well-being: A team of teachers and counselors assess the impact of extracurricular activities on student mental health through surveys and interviews. Adjustments are made based on findings.
• Parent-teacher communication channels: The school evaluates the effectiveness of current communication tools (e.g., newsletters, apps) between teachers and parents. Feedback is used to implement a more streamlined system.
• Homework load evaluation: Teachers across grade levels assess the amount and effectiveness of homework given. Adjustments are made to ensure a balance between academic rigor and student well-being.
• Classroom environment and learning: A group of teachers collaborates to study the impact of classroom layouts and decorations on student engagement and comprehension. Changes are made based on the findings.
• Student feedback on curriculum content: High school students are surveyed about the relevance and applicability of their current curriculum. The feedback is then used to make necessary curriculum adjustments.
• Teacher mentoring and support: New teachers are paired with experienced mentors. Both parties provide feedback on the effectiveness of the mentoring program, leading to continuous improvements.
• Assessment of school transportation: The school board evaluates the efficiency and safety of school buses through surveys with students and parents. Necessary changes are implemented based on the results.
• Cultural sensitivity training: After conducting a survey on students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences, the school organizes workshops for teachers to promote a more inclusive classroom environment.
• Environmental initiatives and student involvement: The school’s eco-club assesses the school’s carbon footprint and waste management. They then collaborate with the administration to implement greener practices and raise environmental awareness.
• Working with parents through research: A school’s admin staff conduct focus group sessions with parents to identify top concerns.Those concerns will then be addressed and another session conducted at the end of the school year.
• Peer teaching observations and improvements: Kindergarten teachers observe other teachers handling class transition techniques to share best practices.
• PTA surveys and resultant action: The PTA of a district conducts a survey of members regarding their satisfaction with remote learning classes.The results will be presented to the school board for further action.
• Recording and reflecting: A school administrator takes video recordings of playground behavior and then plays them for the teachers. The teachers work together to formulate a list of 10 playground safety guidelines.
• Pre/post testing of interventions: A school board conducts a district wide evaluation of a STEM program by conducting a pre/post-test of students’ skills in computer programming.
• Focus groups of practitioners : The professional development needs of teachers are determined from structured focus group sessions with teachers and admin.
• School lunch research and intervention: A nutrition expert is hired to evaluate and improve the quality of school lunches.
• School nurse systematic checklist and improvements: The school nurse implements a bathroom cleaning checklist to monitor cleanliness after the results of a recent teacher survey revealed several issues.
• Wearable technologies for pedagogical improvements; Students wear accelerometers attached to their hips to gain a baseline measure of physical activity.The results will identify if any issues exist.
• School counselor reflective practice : The school counselor conducts a student survey on antisocial behavior and then plans a series of workshops for both teachers and parents.

Detailed Examples

1. cooperation and leadership.

A science teacher has noticed that her 9 th grade students do not cooperate with each other when doing group projects. There is a lot of arguing and battles over whose ideas will be followed.

So, she decides to implement a simple action research project on the matter. First, she conducts a structured observation of the students’ behavior during meetings. She also has the students respond to a short questionnaire regarding their notions of leadership.

She then designs a two-week course on group dynamics and leadership styles. The course involves learning about leadership concepts and practices . In another element of the short course, students randomly select a leadership style and then engage in a role-play with other students.

At the end of the two weeks, she has the students work on a group project and conducts the same structured observation as before. She also gives the students a slightly different questionnaire on leadership as it relates to the group.

She plans to analyze the results and present the findings at a teachers’ meeting at the end of the term.

2. Professional Development Needs

Two high-school teachers have been selected to participate in a 1-year project in a third-world country. The project goal is to improve the classroom effectiveness of local teachers. 

The two teachers arrive in the country and begin to plan their action research. First, they decide to conduct a survey of teachers in the nearby communities of the school they are assigned to.

The survey will assess their professional development needs by directly asking the teachers and administrators. After collecting the surveys, they analyze the results by grouping the teachers based on subject matter.

They discover that history and social science teachers would like professional development on integrating smartboards into classroom instruction. Math teachers would like to attend workshops on project-based learning, while chemistry teachers feel that they need equipment more than training.

The two teachers then get started on finding the necessary training experts for the workshops and applying for equipment grants for the science teachers.

3. Playground Accidents

The school nurse has noticed a lot of students coming in after having mild accidents on the playground. She’s not sure if this is just her perception or if there really is an unusual increase this year.  So, she starts pulling data from the records over the last two years. She chooses the months carefully and only selects data from the first three months of each school year.

She creates a chart to make the data more easily understood. Sure enough, there seems to have been a dramatic increase in accidents this year compared to the same period of time from the previous two years.

She shows the data to the principal and teachers at the next meeting. They all agree that a field observation of the playground is needed.

Those observations reveal that the kids are not having accidents on the playground equipment as originally suspected. It turns out that the kids are tripping on the new sod that was installed over the summer.

They examine the sod and observe small gaps between the slabs. Each gap is approximately 1.5 inches wide and nearly two inches deep. The kids are tripping on this gap as they run.

They then discuss possible solutions.

4. Differentiated Learning

Trying to use the same content, methods, and processes for all students is a recipe for failure. This is why modifying each lesson to be flexible is highly recommended. Differentiated learning allows the teacher to adjust their teaching strategy based on all the different personalities and learning styles they see in their classroom.

Of course, differentiated learning should undergo the same rigorous assessment that all teaching techniques go through. So, a third-grade social science teacher asks his students to take a simple quiz on the industrial revolution. Then, he applies differentiated learning to the lesson.

By creating several different learning stations in his classroom, he gives his students a chance to learn about the industrial revolution in a way that captures their interests. The different stations contain: short videos, fact cards, PowerPoints, mini-chapters, and role-plays.

At the end of the lesson, students get to choose how they demonstrate their knowledge. They can take a test, construct a PPT, give an oral presentation, or conduct a simulated TV interview with different characters.

During this last phase of the lesson, the teacher is able to assess if they demonstrate the necessary knowledge and have achieved the defined learning outcomes. This analysis will allow him to make further adjustments to future lessons.

5. Healthy Habits Program

While looking at obesity rates of students, the school board of a large city is shocked by the dramatic increase in the weight of their students over the last five years. After consulting with three companies that specialize in student physical health, they offer the companies an opportunity to prove their value.

So, the board randomly assigns each company to a group of schools. Starting in the next academic year, each company will implement their healthy habits program in 5 middle schools.

Preliminary data is collected at each school at the beginning of the school year. Each and every student is weighed, their resting heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol are also measured.

After analyzing the data, it is found that the schools assigned to each of the three companies are relatively similar on all of these measures.

At the end of the year, data for students at each school will be collected again. A simple comparison of pre- and post-program measurements will be conducted. The company with the best outcomes will be selected to implement their program city-wide.

Action research is a great way to collect data on a specific issue, implement a change, and then evaluate the effects of that change. It is perhaps the most practical of all types of primary research .

Most likely, the results will be mixed. Some aspects of the change were effective, while other elements were not. That’s okay. This just means that additional modifications to the change plan need to be made, which is usually quite easy to do.

There are many methods that can be utilized, such as surveys, field observations , and program evaluations.

The beauty of action research is based in its utility and flexibility. Just about anyone in a school setting is capable of conducting action research and the information can be incredibly useful.

Aronson, E., & Patnoe, S. (1997). The jigsaw classroom: Building cooperation in the classroom (2nd ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Gillis, A., & Jackson, W. (2002). Research Methods for Nurses: Methods and Interpretation . Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of SocialIssues, 2 (4), 34-46.

Macdonald, C. (2012). Understanding participatory action research: A qualitative research methodology option. Canadian Journal of Action Research, 13 , 34-50. https://doi.org/10.33524/cjar.v13i2.37 Mertler, C. A. (2008). Action Research: Teachers as Researchers in the Classroom . London: Sage.

• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 18 Adaptive Behavior Examples

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 23 Achieved Status Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Ableism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Defense Mechanisms Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Theory of Planned Behavior Examples

2 thoughts on “21 Action Research Examples (In Education)”

Where can I capture this article in a better user-friendly format, since I would like to provide it to my students in a Qualitative Methods course at the University of Prince Edward Island? It is a good article, however, it is visually disjointed in its current format. Thanks, Dr. Frank T. Lavandier

Hi Dr. Lavandier,

I’ve emailed you a word doc copy that you can use and edit with your class.

Best, Chris.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Our Mission

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2020

We reviewed hundreds of educational studies in 2020 and then highlighted 10 of the most significant—covering topics from virtual learning to the reading wars and the decline of standardized tests.

In the month of March of 2020, the year suddenly became a whirlwind. With a pandemic disrupting life across the entire globe, teachers scrambled to transform their physical classrooms into virtual—or even hybrid—ones, and researchers slowly began to collect insights into what works, and what doesn’t, in online learning environments around the world.

Meanwhile, neuroscientists made a convincing case for keeping handwriting in schools, and after the closure of several coal-fired power plants in Chicago, researchers reported a drop in pediatric emergency room visits and fewer absences in schools, reminding us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door.

1. To Teach Vocabulary, Let Kids Be Thespians

When students are learning a new language, ask them to act out vocabulary words. It’s fun to unleash a child’s inner thespian, of course, but a 2020 study concluded that it also nearly doubles their ability to remember the words months later.

Researchers asked 8-year-old students to listen to words in another language and then use their hands and bodies to mimic the words—spreading their arms and pretending to fly, for example, when learning the German word flugzeug , which means “airplane.” After two months, these young actors were a remarkable 73 percent more likely to remember the new words than students who had listened without accompanying gestures. Researchers discovered similar, if slightly less dramatic, results when students looked at pictures while listening to the corresponding vocabulary. 

It’s a simple reminder that if you want students to remember something, encourage them to learn it in a variety of ways—by drawing it , acting it out, or pairing it with relevant images , for example.

2. Neuroscientists Defend the Value of Teaching Handwriting—Again

For most kids, typing just doesn’t cut it. In 2012, brain scans of preliterate children revealed crucial reading circuitry flickering to life when kids hand-printed letters and then tried to read them. The effect largely disappeared when the letters were typed or traced.

More recently, in 2020, a team of researchers studied older children—seventh graders—while they handwrote, drew, and typed words, and concluded that handwriting and drawing produced telltale neural tracings indicative of deeper learning.

“Whenever self-generated movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated,” the researchers explain, before echoing the 2012 study: “It also appears that the movements related to keyboard typing do not activate these networks the same way that drawing and handwriting do.”

It would be a mistake to replace typing with handwriting, though. All kids need to develop digital skills, and there’s evidence that technology helps children with dyslexia to overcome obstacles like note taking or illegible handwriting, ultimately freeing them to “use their time for all the things in which they are gifted,” says the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

3. The ACT Test Just Got a Negative Score (Face Palm)

A 2020 study found that ACT test scores, which are often a key factor in college admissions, showed a weak—or even negative —relationship when it came to predicting how successful students would be in college. “There is little evidence that students will have more college success if they work to improve their ACT score,” the researchers explain, and students with very high ACT scores—but indifferent high school grades—often flamed out in college, overmatched by the rigors of a university’s academic schedule.

Just last year, the SAT—cousin to the ACT—had a similarly dubious public showing. In a major 2019 study of nearly 50,000 students led by researcher Brian Galla, and including Angela Duckworth, researchers found that high school grades were stronger predictors of four-year-college graduation than SAT scores.

The reason? Four-year high school grades, the researchers asserted, are a better indicator of crucial skills like perseverance, time management, and the ability to avoid distractions. It’s most likely those skills, in the end, that keep kids in college.

4. A Rubric Reduces Racial Grading Bias

A simple step might help undercut the pernicious effect of grading bias, a new study found: Articulate your standards clearly before you begin grading, and refer to the standards regularly during the assessment process.

In 2020, more than 1,500 teachers were recruited and asked to grade a writing sample from a fictional second-grade student. All of the sample stories were identical—but in one set, the student mentions a family member named Dashawn, while the other set references a sibling named Connor.

Teachers were 13 percent more likely to give the Connor papers a passing grade, revealing the invisible advantages that many students unknowingly benefit from. When grading criteria are vague, implicit stereotypes can insidiously “fill in the blanks,” explains the study’s author. But when teachers have an explicit set of criteria to evaluate the writing—asking whether the student “provides a well-elaborated recount of an event,” for example—the difference in grades is nearly eliminated.

5. What Do Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Do With Learning? Plenty

When three coal-fired plants closed in the Chicago area, student absences in nearby schools dropped by 7 percent, a change largely driven by fewer emergency room visits for asthma-related problems. The stunning finding, published in a 2020 study from Duke and Penn State, underscores the role that often-overlooked environmental factors—like air quality, neighborhood crime, and noise pollution—have in keeping our children healthy and ready to learn.

At scale, the opportunity cost is staggering: About 2.3 million children in the United States still attend a public elementary or middle school located within 10 kilometers of a coal-fired plant.

The study builds on a growing body of research that reminds us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. What we call an achievement gap is often an equity gap, one that “takes root in the earliest years of children’s lives,” according to a 2017 study . We won’t have equal opportunity in our schools, the researchers admonish, until we are diligent about confronting inequality in our cities, our neighborhoods—and ultimately our own backyards.

6. Students Who Generate Good Questions Are Better Learners

Some of the most popular study strategies—highlighting passages, rereading notes, and underlining key sentences—are also among the least effective. A 2020 study highlighted a powerful alternative: Get students to generate questions about their learning, and gradually press them to ask more probing questions.

In the study, students who studied a topic and then generated their own questions scored an average of 14 percentage points higher on a test than students who used passive strategies like studying their notes and rereading classroom material. Creating questions, the researchers found, not only encouraged students to think more deeply about the topic but also strengthened their ability to remember what they were studying.

There are many engaging ways to have students create highly productive questions : When creating a test, you can ask students to submit their own questions, or you can use the Jeopardy! game as a platform for student-created questions.

7. Did a 2020 Study Just End the ‘Reading Wars’?

One of the most widely used reading programs was dealt a severe blow when a panel of reading experts concluded that it “would be unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America’s public schoolchildren.”

In the 2020 study , the experts found that the controversial program—called “Units of Study” and developed over the course of four decades by Lucy Calkins at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project—failed to explicitly and systematically teach young readers how to decode and encode written words, and was thus “in direct opposition to an enormous body of settled research.”

The study sounded the death knell for practices that de-emphasize phonics in favor of having children use multiple sources of information—like story events or illustrations—to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words, an approach often associated with “balanced literacy.” In an internal memo obtained by publisher APM, Calkins seemed to concede the point, writing that “aspects of balanced literacy need some ‘rebalancing.’”

8. A Secret to High-Performing Virtual Classrooms

In 2020, a team at Georgia State University compiled a report on virtual learning best practices. While evidence in the field is "sparse" and "inconsistent," the report noted that logistical issues like accessing materials—and not content-specific problems like failures of comprehension—were often among the most significant obstacles to online learning. It wasn’t that students didn’t understand photosynthesis in a virtual setting, in other words—it was that they didn’t find (or simply didn't access) the lesson on photosynthesis at all.

That basic insight echoed a 2019 study that highlighted the crucial need to organize virtual classrooms even more intentionally than physical ones. Remote teachers should use a single, dedicated hub for important documents like assignments; simplify communications and reminders by using one channel like email or text; and reduce visual clutter like hard-to-read fonts and unnecessary decorations throughout their virtual spaces.

Because the tools are new to everyone, regular feedback on topics like accessibility and ease of use is crucial. Teachers should post simple surveys asking questions like “Have you encountered any technical issues?” and “Can you easily locate your assignments?” to ensure that students experience a smooth-running virtual learning space.

9. Love to Learn Languages? Surprisingly, Coding May Be Right for You

Learning how to code more closely resembles learning a language such as Chinese or Spanish than learning math, a 2020 study found—upending the conventional wisdom about what makes a good programmer.

In the study, young adults with no programming experience were asked to learn Python, a popular programming language; they then took a series of tests assessing their problem-solving, math, and language skills. The researchers discovered that mathematical skill accounted for only 2 percent of a person’s ability to learn how to code, while language skills were almost nine times more predictive, accounting for 17 percent of learning ability.

That’s an important insight because all too often, programming classes require that students pass advanced math courses—a hurdle that needlessly excludes students with untapped promise, the researchers claim.

10. Researchers Cast Doubt on Reading Tasks Like ‘Finding the Main Idea’

“Content is comprehension,” declared a 2020 Fordham Institute study , sounding a note of defiance as it staked out a position in the ongoing debate over the teaching of intrinsic reading skills versus the teaching of content knowledge.

While elementary students spend an enormous amount of time working on skills like “finding the main idea” and “summarizing”—tasks born of the belief that reading is a discrete and trainable ability that transfers seamlessly across content areas—these young readers aren’t experiencing “the additional reading gains that well-intentioned educators hoped for,” the study concluded.

So what works? The researchers looked at data from more than 18,000 K–5 students, focusing on the time spent in subject areas like math, social studies, and ELA, and found that “social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.” In effect, exposing kids to rich content in civics, history, and law appeared to teach reading more effectively than our current methods of teaching reading. Perhaps defiance is no longer needed: Fordham’s conclusions are rapidly becoming conventional wisdom—and they extend beyond the limited claim of reading social studies texts. According to Natalie Wexler, the author of the well-received 2019 book  The Knowledge Gap , content knowledge and reading are intertwined. “Students with more [background] knowledge have a better chance of understanding whatever text they encounter. They’re able to retrieve more information about the topic from long-term memory, leaving more space in working memory for comprehension,” she recently told Edutopia .

• Research guides

Writing an Educational Research Paper

Research paper sections, customary parts of an education research paper.

There is no one right style or manner for writing an education paper. Content aside, the writing style and presentation of papers in different educational fields vary greatly. Nevertheless, certain parts are common to most papers, for example:

Title/Cover Page

Contains the paper's title, the author's name, address, phone number, e-mail, and the day's date.

Not every education paper requires an abstract. However, for longer, more complex papers abstracts are particularly useful. Often only 100 to 300 words, the abstract generally provides a broad overview and is never more than a page. It describes the essence, the main theme of the paper. It includes the research question posed, its significance, the methodology, and the main results or findings. Footnotes or cited works are never listed in an abstract. Remember to take great care in composing the abstract. It's the first part of the paper the instructor reads. It must impress with a strong content, good style, and general aesthetic appeal. Never write it hastily or carelessly.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

A good introduction states the main research problem and thesis argument. What precisely are you studying and why is it important? How original is it? Will it fill a gap in other studies? Never provide a lengthy justification for your topic before it has been explicitly stated.

Limitations of Study

Indicate as soon as possible what you intend to do, and what you are not going to attempt. You may limit the scope of your paper by any number of factors, for example, time, personnel, gender, age, geographic location, nationality, and so on.

Methodology

Discuss your research methodology. Did you employ qualitative or quantitative research methods? Did you administer a questionnaire or interview people? Any field research conducted? How did you collect data? Did you utilize other libraries or archives? And so on.

Literature Review

The research process uncovers what other writers have written about your topic. Your education paper should include a discussion or review of what is known about the subject and how that knowledge was acquired. Once you provide the general and specific context of the existing knowledge, then you yourself can build on others' research. The guide Writing a Literature Review will be helpful here.

Main Body of Paper/Argument

This is generally the longest part of the paper. It's where the author supports the thesis and builds the argument. It contains most of the citations and analysis. This section should focus on a rational development of the thesis with clear reasoning and solid argumentation at all points. A clear focus, avoiding meaningless digressions, provides the essential unity that characterizes a strong education paper.

After spending a great deal of time and energy introducing and arguing the points in the main body of the paper, the conclusion brings everything together and underscores what it all means. A stimulating and informative conclusion leaves the reader informed and well-satisfied. A conclusion that makes sense, when read independently from the rest of the paper, will win praise.

Works Cited/Bibliography

See the Citation guide .

Education research papers often contain one or more appendices. An appendix contains material that is appropriate for enlarging the reader's understanding, but that does not fit very well into the main body of the paper. Such material might include tables, charts, summaries, questionnaires, interview questions, lengthy statistics, maps, pictures, photographs, lists of terms, glossaries, survey instruments, letters, copies of historical documents, and many other types of supplementary material. A paper may have several appendices. They are usually placed after the main body of the paper but before the bibliography or works cited section. They are usually designated by such headings as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on.

• << Previous: Choosing a Topic
• Next: Find Books >>
• Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024 2:35 PM
• Subjects: Education
• Tags: education , education_paper , education_research_paper

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 09 September 2024

Navigating post-pandemic challenges through institutional research networks and talent management

• Muhammad Zada   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0466-4229 1 , 2 ,
• Imran Saeed 3 ,
• Jawad Khan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6673-7617 4 &
• Shagufta Zada 5 , 6  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1164 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Business and management

Institutions actively seek global talent to foster innovation in the contemporary landscape of scientific research, education, and technological progress. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of international collaboration as researchers and academicians faced limitations in accessing labs and conducting research experiments. This study uses a research collaboration system to examine the relationship between organizational intellectual capital (Human and structural Capital) and team scientific and technological performance. Further, this study underscores the moderating role of top management support. Using a time-lagged study design, data were collected from 363 participants in academic and research institutions. The results show a positive relationship between organizational intellectual capital (Human and structural Capital) and team scientific and technological performance using a research collaboration system. Moreover, top management support positively moderates the study’s hypothesized relationships. The study’s findings contribute significantly to existing knowledge in this field, with implications for academia, researchers, and government focused on technology transmission, talent management, research creative collaboration, supporting innovation, scientific research, technological progress, and preparing for future challenges.

Similar content being viewed by others

Towards understanding the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful collaborations: a case-based team science study

Remote collaboration fuses fewer breakthrough ideas

Interpersonal relationships drive successful team science: an exemplary case-based study

Introduction.

Global talent management and the talent hunt within research and educational institutions have become extensively discussed topics in international human resource management (HRM) (Al et al., 2022 ). Global talent management is intricately connected to the notion of finding, managing, and facilitating the fetch of research, skills, techniques, and knowledge among team members and progress in education and technology (Kwok, 2022 ; Sommer et al., 2017 ). This topic assumes a greater position when it is looked at through the lens of research, academicians, and educational institutions serving as a means of achieving scientific and technological advancement and performance (Kaliannan et al., 2023 ; Patnaik et al., 2022 ). Effective knowledge management and transfer occur between teams engaged in cross-border research collaborations (Davenport et al., 2002 ; Fasi, 2022 ). Effective team management, global talent recruitment, and the exchange of scientific knowledge across national boundaries face different challenges due to the swift growth of economic and political fanaticism. This is particularly evident in advanced economies that rely heavily on knowledge-based industries (Vaiman et al., 2018 ). Research and educational sectors are encountering significant challenges in effectively hunting and managing international talent, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which approximately half of the global workforce faced the possibility of job loss (Almeida et al., 2020 ; Radhamani et al., 2021 ). Due to the implementation of lockdown measures by governments, many research intuitions are facing significant issues, and the pandemic has changed the situation; work was stuck, and scientists around the globe are thinking to be prepared for this kind of situation, which is possible through the use scientific research collaboration platforms. These platforms serve as a means to exchange research and knowledge, which is crucial in the talent hunt and management (Haak-Saheem, 2020 ). In the situation above, wherein limitations exist regarding the exchange of research and knowledge within the institutions, it becomes imperative for the top management of institutions to incentivize employees to engage the team in knowledge sharing actively and achieve team-level scientific and technological advancement. It can be achieved by implementing a research collaboration system that facilitates knowledge exchange and contributes to effective talent hunt and management (Haider et al., 2022 ; Xu et al., 2024 ).

A research collaboration network is a tool for scientific and technological advancement and talent management encompassing various processes and practices to facilitate the sharing, integration, translation, and transformation of scientific knowledge (Biondi & Russo, 2022 ). During and after the COVID-19 era characterized by travel restrictions, research networking platforms serve as valuable tools for students and researchers located in variance regions to engage in the exchange of research knowledge and achieve team-level scientific and technological advancement (Yang et al., 2024 ). Enhancing intellectual capital (IC) within the organizations is imperative within this framework (Pellegrini et al., 2022 ; Vătămănescu et al., 2023 ). Intellectual capital (IC) is the intangible assets owned by an organization that has the potential to generate value (Stewart, 1991 ). An organization’s intellectual capital (IC) includes human and structural capital (Marinelli et al., 2022 ). According to Vătămănescu et al. ( 2023 ), the organization can effectively manage the skills and abilities of its team members across different countries by properly utilizing both human and structural capital and establishing a strong research collaboration system with the help of top management support. This capability remains intact even during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study emphasizes the importance of talent hunt and management within research and educational institutions in the post-COVID-19 pandemic because of every country’s following implementation of lockdown measures. Our study focuses on the implication of facilitating the exchange of research, knowledge, and techniques among team members during and after this period. The effective way to share research expertise and techniques in such a scenario is through a research collaboration network (O’Dwyer et al., 2023 ).

While previous research has extensively explored talent management in various industries (Al Ariss, Cascio, & Paauwe, 2014 ; Susanto, Sawitri, Ali, & Rony, 2023 ), a noticeable gap exists in the body of knowledge regarding the discussion of global talent acquisition and management within research and academic institutions, particularly within volatile environments and about scientific and technological advancements (Harsch & Festing, 2020 ). The objective of this research is to fill this research gap.1) To investigate the strategies of how research and educational institutions hunt and manage gobble talent. 2)To analyze the impact of human and structural capital and team scientific and technological performance using a research collaboration system. 3) To examine the moderating effect of top management support on the IC to use the research collation network among institution research teams and scientific and technological performance.

In addition, current research contributes significantly to the literature by elucidating the pivotal role of organizational intellectual capital in strengthening scientific and technological performance through research collaborative networks. This study advances our grip on how internal resources drive innovation and research outcomes by empirically demonstrating the positive association between human and structural capital and team-level scientific and technological performance. Furthermore, the current study highlights the moderating effect of top management support, suggesting that management commitment can amplify the benefits of intellectual capital (human and structural capital). These results show a subtle perspective on how organizations can influence their intellectual assets to foster higher levels of productivity and innovation. The study’s theoretical contributions lie in integrating resource-based views and organizational theory with performance metrics, while its practical implications provide actionable insights for institutions aiming to optimize their intellectual resources and management practices. This research also sets the stage for future inquiries into the dynamics of intellectual capital and management support in various collaborative contexts.

Research theories, literature review, and hypotheses development

Research theories.

The focus of the current study pertains to the challenges surrounding talent management within institutions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic(Fernandes et al., 2023 ). Global talent management is intently linked to the objective of enhancing the intellectual capital of the organization (Zada et al., 2023 ). Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised much more attention toward scientific and technological advancement, the academic sector has noticed an observable shift towards utilizing research collaboration platforms to share scientific knowledge effectively and achieve scientific and technological performance. Intellectual capital encompasses five distinct resource categories, as identified by Roos and Roos ( 1997 ), comprising three immaterial and two touchable resources. Intangible resources such as human capital, structural capital, and customer capital are complemented by tangible resources, encompassing monetary and physical assets. Global talent management encompasses human and structural capital management (Felin & Hesterly, 2007 ). The enhancement of talent management capabilities within the institution can be achieved by cultivating institution-specific competencies in both human and structural capital (Al Ariss et al., 2014 ). This concept lines up with the theoretical background of the resource-based view (RBV) theory presented by Barney ( 1991 ). According to this theory, organizations should prioritize examining their core resources to recognize valuable assets, competencies, and capabilities that can contribute to attaining a sustainable competitive advantage (Barney, 1991 ).

During and after the COVID-19 scenario, virtual platforms are utilized by institutions to engage students and staff abroad in research and knowledge exchange, which is part of global talent management. Staff possessing adequate knowledge repositories will likely participate in knowledge exchange activities. Therefore, organizations must improve their internal resources to enhance talent management, as per the fundamental principle of the RBV theory (Barney, 1991 ). Enhancing internal resources entails strengthening an organization’s human capital, which refers to its staff’s scientific research and technical skills and knowledge and structural capital. Strengthening these two resources can facilitate the institution in effectively sharing knowledge through a research collaboration platform, consequently enhancing their global talent management endeavors and contributing to the team’s scientific and technological performance.

In this research, we also utilize institutional theory (Oliver, 1997 ) and Scott ( 2008 ) as a framework to examine the utilization of research collaboration social platforms by faculty of institutions. Our focus is on exchanging research and technical knowledge within the climate of global talent management during and after the COVID-19 epidemic. According to Scott ( 2008 ), “Institutional theory is a widely recognized theoretical framework emphasizing rational myths, isomorphism, and legitimacy (p. 78)”. For electronic data interchange, the theory has been utilized in technology adoption research (Damsgaard, Lyytinen ( 2001 )) and educational institutes (J. et al., 2007 ). In the pandemic situation, institutional theory provides researchers with a framework to analyze the motivations of employees within institutions to engage in teams to achieve team-level scientific and technological performance through a research collaboration system. According to institutional theory, organizations should utilize a research collaboration network to ensure that their staff do not need to compromise their established norms, values, and expectations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous countries implemented limitations on international movement as a preventive measure. Consequently, there has been a growing identification of the potential importance of utilizing an institutional research collaboration platform for facilitating the online exchange of knowledge, skills, research techniques, and global talent management among employees of institutions operating across various countries. The active support of staff by the top management of an institution can play a key role in expediting the implementation of social networks for research collaboration within the institution (Zada et al., 2023 ).

Literature review

An institution’s scientific and technological advancement is contingent upon optimal resource utilization (Muñoz et al., 2022 ). Global talent hunt and management encompasses utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) to provide a way for the exchange of research knowledge and techniques, thereby enabling the implementation of knowledge-based strategies (Muñoz et al., 2022 ). In a high research-level turbulent environment, it becomes imperative to effectively manage human capital (HUC) to facilitate the appropriate exchange of research knowledge and techniques (Salamzadeh, Tajpour, Hosseini, & Brahmi, 2023 ). Research shows that transferring research knowledge and techniques across national boundaries, exchanging best practices, and cultivating faculty skills are crucial factors in maintaining competitiveness (Farahian, Parhamnia, & Maleki, 2022 ; Shao & Ariss, 2020 ).

It is widely acknowledged in scholarly literature that there is a prevailing belief among individuals that talent possesses movability and that research knowledge and techniques can be readily transferred (Bakhsh et al., 2022 ; Council, 2012 ). However, it is essential to note that the matter is more complex than it may initially appear (Biondi & Russo, 2022 ). The proliferation of political and economic nationalism in developed knowledge-based economies poses a significant risk to exchanging research knowledge and techniques among faculty members in research and educational institutions worldwide (Arocena & Sutz, 2021 ). During and after COVID-19, knowledge transfer can be effectively facilitated by utilizing a research collaboration network platform (Duan & Li, 2023 ; Sulaiman et al., 2022 ). This circumstance is noticeable within the domain of international research and development, wherein academic professionals have the opportunity to utilize research collaboration platforms as a means of disseminating valuable research knowledge and techniques to their counterparts in various nations (Jain et al., 2022 ).

The scientific and technological advancement of institutions linked by intuition research and development level and research and development depend on the intuition’s quality of research, knowledge, and management (Anshari & Hamdan, 2022 ). However, there is a need to enhance the research team’s capacity to learn and transfer research knowledge and techniques effectively. Research suggests that institutional human capital (HUC) is critical in managing existing resources and hunting international talent, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic (Sigala, Ren, Li, & Dioko, 2023 ). Human capital refers to the combined implicit and crystal clear knowledge of employees within an institution and their techniques and capabilities to effectively apply this knowledge to achieve scientific and technological advancements (Al-Tit et al., 2022 ). According to Baron and Armstrong ( 2007 ) Human capital refers to the abilities, knowledge, techniques, skills, and expertise of individuals, particularly research team members, that are relevant to the current task.

Furthermore, HUC encompasses the scope of individuals who can contribute to this reservoir of research knowledge, techniques, and expertise through individual learning. As the literature shows, the concept of IC encompasses the inclusion of structural capital (STC), which requires fortification through the implementation of a proper global talent acquisition and management system (Pak et al., 2023 ; Phan et al., 2020 ). STC encompasses various mechanisms to enhance an institution’s performance and productivity (Barpanda, 2021 ). STC is extensively acknowledged as an expedited framework for HUC, as discussed by Bontis ( 1998 ) and further explored by Gogan, Duran, and Draghici ( 2015 ). During and after the COVID-19 epidemic, a practical approach to global talent management involves leveraging research collaboration network platforms to facilitate knowledge exchange among research teams (Arslan et al., 2021 ). However, the crucial involvement of top management support is imperative to effectively manage talent by utilizing research collaboration network platforms for knowledge transfer (Zada et al., 2023 ). Nevertheless, the existing body of knowledge needs to adequately explore the topic of talent management about knowledge transfer on research collaboration platforms, particularly in the context of institution-active management support (Tan & Md. Noor, 2013 ).

Conceptual model and research hypothesis

By analyzing pertinent literature and theoretical frameworks, we have identified the factors influencing staff intention in research and academic institutions to utilize research collaboration networks after the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve scientific and technical performance. This study aims to explain the determinants. Additionally, this study has considered the potential influence of top management support as a moderator on the associations between education and research institution staff intention on IC to utilize research collaboration platforms in the post-COVID-19 era and predictors. Through this discourse, we shall generate several hypotheses to serve as the basis for constructing a conceptual model (see Fig. 1 ).

Relationships between study variables: human capital, structural capital, top management support, and team scientific and technological performance. Source: authors’ development.

Human capital and team scientific and technological performance

According to Dess and Picken ( 2000 ), HUC encompasses individuals’ capabilities, knowledge, skills, research techniques, and experience, including staff and supervisors, relevant to the specific task. Human capital also refers to the ability to pay to this reservoir of knowledge, techniques, and expertize through individual learning (Dess & Picken, 2000 ). HUC refers to the combinations of characteristics staff possess, including but not limited to research proficiency, technical aptitude, business acumen, process comprehension, and other similar competencies (Kallmuenzer et al., 2021 ). The HUC is considered an institutional repository of knowledge, as Bontis and Fitz‐enz ( 2002 ) indicated, with its employees serving as representatives. The concept of HUC refers to the combined abilities, research proficiency, and competencies that individuals possess to address and resolve operational challenges within an institutional setting (Barpanda, 2021 ; Yang & Xiangming, 2024 ). The human capital possessed by institutions includes crucial attributes that allow organizations to acquire significant internal resources that are valuable, difficult to replicate, scarce, and cannot be substituted. It aligns with the theoretical framework of the RBV theory, as suggested by Barney ( 1991 ). IC is extensively recognized as a main factor in revitalizing organizational strategy and promoting creativity and innovation. It is crucial to enable organizations to acquire and effectively disseminate knowledge among their employees, contribute to talent management endeavors, and achieve scientific and technological performance (Alrowwad et al., 2020 ; He et al., 2023 ). Human capital is linked to intrinsic aptitude, cognitive capabilities, creative problem-solving, exceptional talent, and the capacity for originality (Bontis & Fitz‐enz, 2002 ). In talent management, there is a focus on enhancing scientific and technological performance and development. According to Shao and Ariss ( 2020 ), HUC is expected to strengthen employee motivation to utilize research collaboration networks for scientific knowledge-sharing endeavors. Based on these arguments, we proposed that.

Hypothesis 1 Human capital (HUC) positively impacts team scientific and technological performance using a research collaboration system.

Structural capital and team scientific and technological Performance

According to Mehralian, Nazari, and Ghasemzadeh ( 2018 ) structural capital (STC) encompasses an organization’s formalized knowledge assets. It consists of the structures and mechanisms employed by the institution to enhance its talent management endeavors. The concept of STC is integrated within the framework of institutions’ programs, laboratory settings, and databases (Cavicchi & Vagnoni, 2017 ). The significance of an organization’s structural capital as an internal tangible asset that bolsters its human capital has been recognized by scholars such as Secundo, Massaro, Dumay, and Bagnoli ( 2018 ), and This concept also lines up with the RBV theory (J. Barney, 1991 ). The strategic assets of an organization encompass its capabilities, organizational culture, patents, and trademarks (Gogan et al., 2015 ).

Furthermore, Birasnav, Mittal, and Dalpati ( 2019 ) Suggested that these strategic assets promote high-level organizational performance, commonly called STC. Literature shows that STC encompasses an organization’s collective expertise and essential knowledge that remains intact even when employees depart (Alrowwad et al., 2020 ; Mehralian et al., 2018 ; Sarwar & Mustafa, 2023 ). The institution’s socialization, training, and development process facilitates the transfer of scientific research knowledge, skills, and expertise to its team (Arocena & Sutz, 2021 ; Marchiori et al., 2022 ). The STC is broadly recognized as having important potential and is a highly productive resource for generating great value. STC motivates its team member to share expertise with their counterparts at subordinate organizations by utilizing an institution’s research collaboration network and achieving team-level scientific and technological performance. This method remains effective even in challenging environments where traditional means of data collection, face-to-face meetings, and travel are not feasible (Secundo et al., 2016 ). In light of the above literature and theory, we propose the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2: Structural capital (STC) positively impacts team scientific and technological performance using a research collaboration system.

Top management support as a moderator

If the relationship between two constructs is not constant, the existence of a third construct can potentially affect this relationship by enhancing or diminishing its strength. In certain cases, the impact of a third construct can adjust the trajectory of the relationship between two variables. The variable in question is commonly called the “moderating variable.” According to Zada et al. ( 2023 ), top management support to leaders efficiently encourages team members within institutions to share research scientific knowledge with their counterparts in different countries through international research collaboration systems. Similarly, another study shows that the active endorsement of the top management significantly affects the development of direct associations, thereby influencing the team and organization’s overall performance (Biondi & Russo, 2022 ; Phuong et al., 2024 ). Different studies have confirmed that top management support is crucial in fostering a conducive knowledge-sharing environment by offering necessary resources (Ali et al., 2021 ; Lee et al., 2016 ; Zada et al., 2023 ). During and after the COVID-19 epidemic, numerous nations implemented nonessential travel restrictions and lockdown measures. In the given context, utilizing a research collaboration system would effectively facilitate the exchange of research, skills, and knowledge among staff belonging to various subsidiaries of an institution (Rådberg & Löfsten, 2024 ; Rasheed et al., 2024 ). However, it is common for researchers to exhibit resistance to adopting a novel research technique, often citing various justifications for their reluctance. To address the initial hesitance of employees at subsidiary institutes towards utilizing research collaborative networking within the institute, top management must employ strategies that foster motivation, encouragement, and incentives. These measures help create an atmosphere where team members feel empowered to engage with the new system freely. Institutional theory asserts that top management support is crucial for aligning talent management with institutional norms. Human and structural capital, pivotal within the institutional framework, contributes to an institution’s capacity to attract and retain talent, enhancing legitimacy. Adaptation to scientific and technological advancements is imperative for international institutional competitiveness, as institutional theory dictates (Oliver, 1997 ). Grounded on the above discussion, we have hypothesized.

Hypothesis 3a : Top management support moderates the relationship between human capital (HUC) and team scientific and technological performance. Specifically, this relationship will be stronger for those with higher top management support and weaker for those with lower top management support.

Hypothesis 3b : Top management support moderates the relationship between structural capital (STC) and team scientific and technological performance through the use of research collaboration network platforms. Specifically, this relationship will be stronger for those with higher top management support and weaker for those with lower top management support.

Methods data and sample

Sample and procedures.

To test the proposed model, we collected data from respondents in China’s research and academic sector in three phases to mitigate standard method variance (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003 ). In the first phase (T1-phase), respondents rated human capital, structural capital, and demographic information. After one month, respondents rated the team’s scientific and technological performance in the second phase (T2-phase). Following another one-month interval, respondents were asked to rate top management support in the third phase (T3-phase). In the first phase, after contacting 450 respondents, we received 417 usable questionnaires (92.66%). In the second phase, we received 403 usable questionnaires. In the third phase, we received 363 usable questionnaires (90.07%), constituting our final sample for interpreting the results. The sample comprises 63.4% male and 36.6% female respondents. The age distribution of the final sample was as follows: 25–30 years old (6.6%), 31–35 years old (57%), 36–40 years old (19.8%), and above 40 years old (16.5%). Regarding respondents’ experience, 45.7% had 1–5 years, 39.4% had 6–10 years, 11.3% had 11–15 years, and 3.6% had over 16 years. According to the respondents’ levels of education, 4.1% had completed bachelor’s degrees, 11.6% had earned master’s degrees, 78.8% were doctorate (PhD) scholars, and 5.5% were postdoctoral and above.

Measurement

To measure the variables, the current study adopted a questionnaire from previous literature, and age, gender, education, and experience were used as control variables. A five-point Likert scale was used (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Human capital (HUC) was measured through an eight-item scale adopted by Kim, Atwater, Patel, and Smither ( 2016 ). The sample item is “The extent to which human capital of research and development department is competitive regarding team performance”. The self-reported scale developed by Nezam, Ataffar, Isfahani, and Shahin ( 2013 ) was adopted to measure structural capital. The scale consists of seven items. The sample scale item is “My organization emphasizes IT investment.” In order to measure top management support, a six-item scale was developed by Singh, Gupta, Busso, and Kamboj ( 2021 ), was adopted, and sample item includes “Sufficient incentives were provided by top management (TM) for achieving scientific and technological performance.” Finlay, the self-reported scale developed by Gonzalez-Mulé, Courtright, DeGeest, Seong, and Hong ( 2016 ) was adopted to gauge team scientific and technological performance and scales items are four. The sample item is “This team achieves its goals.”

Assessment of measurement model

In the process of employing AMOS for analysis, the initial step encompasses an assessment of the model to determine the strength and validity of the study variables. The evaluation of variable reliability conventionally revolves around two key aspects, which are indicator scale reliability and internal reliability. More precisely, indicator reliability is deemed to be recognized when factor loadings exceed the threshold of 0.60. In parallel, internal consistency reliability is substantiated by the attainment of values exceeding 0.70 for both Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability, aligning with well-established and recognized guidelines (Ringle et al., 2020 ).

To gauge the reliability of construct indicators, we utilized two key metrics which are composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE). The CR values for all variables were notably high, exceeding 0.70 and falling within the range of 0.882 to 0.955. This signifies a robust level of reliability for the indicators within each construct. Furthermore, the AVE values, which indicate convergent validity, exceeded the minimum threshold of 0.50, with each construct value varying from 0.608 to 0.653, thus affirming the presence of adequate convergent validity.

In addition to assessing convergent validity, we also examined discriminant validity by scrutinizing the cross-loadings of indicators on the corresponding variables and the squared correlations between constructs and AVE values. Our findings indicated that all measures exhibited notably stronger loadings on their intended constructs, thereby underscoring the measurement model’s discriminant validity.

Discriminant validity was recognized by observing average variance extracted (AVE) values that exceeded the squared correlations between constructs, as indicated in Table 1 . In conjunction with the Composite Reliability (CR) and AVE values, an additional discriminant validity assessment was conducted through a Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) analysis. This analysis entailed a comparison of inter-construct correlations against a predefined upper threshold of 0.85. The results demonstrated that all HTMT values remained significantly below this threshold, affirming satisfactory discriminant validity for each variable (Henseler et al., 2015 ). Every HTMT value recorded was situated beneath the specified threshold, thereby supplying supplementary confirmation regarding the constructs’ discriminant validity. In summary, the results of the outer model assessment indicate that the variables showcased commendable levels of reliability and validity, with the discriminant validity being suitably and convincingly established.

Moreover, correlation Table 2 shows that human capital is significantly and positively correlated with structural capital ( r  = 0.594**), TMS ( r  = 0.456 **), and STP ( r  = 0.517**). Structural capital is also significantly and positively correlated with TMS ( r  = 0.893**) and STP ( r  = 0.853**). Furthermore, TMS is significantly and positively correlated with STP (0.859**).

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

A comprehensive confirmatory factor analysis was estimated by employing the software AMOS version 24 to validate the distinctiveness of the variables. CFA shows the fitness of the hypothesized four factors model, including human capital, structural capital, top management support, and team scientific and technological performance, as delineated in Table 3 ; the results show that the hypothesized four-factor model shows fit and excellent alternative models. Consequently, The study variables demonstrate validity and reliability, which makes the dimension model appropriate for conducting a structural path analysis, as advocated by Hair, Page, and Brunsveld ( 2019 ).

Hypotheses testing

This study used the bootstrapping approach, which involves 5,000 bootstrap samples to test the proposed study model and assess the significance and strength of the structural correlations. Using this approach, bias-corrected confidence intervals and p-values were generated in accordance with Streukens and Leroi-Werelds ( 2016 ) guidelines. First, we did an analysis that entailed checking the path coefficients and their connected significance. The findings, as shown in Table 4 , validate Hypothesis 1, revealing a positive correlation between HUC and STP ( β  = 0.476, p  < 0.001). Additionally, the finding validates Hypothesis 2, highlighting a positive association between structural capital and STP ( β  = 0.877, p  < 0.001). For the moderation analysis, we utilized confidence intervals that do not encompass zero, per the guidelines that Preacher and Hayes ( 2008 ) recommended.

In our analysis, we found support for Hypothesis 3a, which posited that top management support (TMS) moderates the relationship between human capital (HUC) and team scientific and technological performance (STP). The results in Table 4 showed that the moderating role, more precisely, the interaction between HUC and TMS, was substantial and positive ( β  = −0.131, p  = 0.001). These results suggest that TMS enhances the positive association between HUC and STP, as shown in Fig. 2 . Consequently, we draw the conclusion that our data substantiates hypothesis 3a. Furthermore, Hypothesis 3b posited that TMS moderates the relationship between STC and STP. The results indicate that TMS moderates the association between STC and STP ( β  = −0.141, p  = 0.001, as presented in Table 4 and Fig. 3 ).

The moderating effect of top management support (TMS) on the relationship between human capital (HUC) and team scientific and technological performance (STP). Source: authors’ development.

The moderating effect of top management support (TMS) on the relationship between structural capital (SUC) and team scientific and technological performance (STP). Source: authors’ development.

The current study highlights the importance of research and academic institutions effectively enhancing their scientific and technological capabilities to manage their global talent within an international research collaboration framework and meet future challenges. Additionally, it underscores the need for these institutions to facilitate scientific knowledge exchange among their employees and counterparts in different countries. The enhancement of talent management through the exchange of scientific research knowledge can be most effectively accomplished by utilizing a collaborative research system between educational and research institutions (Shofiyyah et al., 2023 ), particularly in the context of the COVID-19 landscape. This study has confirmed that enhancing the higher education and research institutions’ human capital (HUC) and structural capital (STC) could attract and maintain global talent management and lead to more effective scientific and technological progress. The findings indicate that the utilization of human capital (HUC) has a significant and positive effect on scientific and technological term performance (STP) (Hypothesis 1), which is consistent with previous research (Habert & Huc, 2010 ). This study has additionally demonstrated that the implementation of s tructural capital (STC) has a significant and positive effect on team scientific and technological performance (STP), as indicated by hypothesis 2, which is also supported by the previous studies finding in different ways (Sobaih et al., 2022 ). This study has also shown that top management support moderates the association between human capital (HUC) and team scientific and technological performance hypothesis 3a and the association between structural capital (STC) and team scientific and technological performance hypothesis 3b. These hypotheses have garnered support from previous studies’ findings in different domains (Chatterjee et al., 2022 ). The study’s empirical findings also confirm the substantial moderating influence exerted by top management support on the relationships between HUC and STP described in hypothesis 3a and STC and STP described in hypothesis 3b, as evidenced by the results presented in Table 4 . Additionally, graphical representations are conducted to investigate the impacts on hypotheses 3a and 3b resulting from the application of high-top management support (TMS) and weak TMS.

The effect of high-top management support (TMS) and weak TMS on Hypothesis 3a is depicted in Fig. 2 . The solid line illustrates the effects of robust TMS on Hypothesis 3a, while the dashed line shows the effects of weak TMS on Hypothesis 3a. The graphic description validates that, as human capital (HUC) increases, team scientific and technological performance (STP) is more pronounced when influenced by robust TMS than weak TMS. This is evidenced by the steeper slope of the solid line in comparison to the dashed line. This finding suggests that employees within the research and academic sectors are more likely to utilize research collaboration networks when influenced by HUC and receive strong support from the organization’s top management.

The graph in Fig. 3 shows the impact of solid top management support (TMS) and weak TMS on Hypothesis 3b. The dotted lines continuous on the graph correspond to the effects of robust TMS and weak TMS, respectively. Figure 3 illustrates that, with increasing top management support (TMS), scientific and technological performance (STP) increase is more significant for robust TMS than weak TMS. This is evident from the steeper slope of the continuous line compared to the slope of the dotted line. This finding suggests that employees within universities and institutes are more likely to engage in research collaboration systems when they receive strong support from top management despite enhanced structural support.

Theoretical contribution

The current study makes significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge by exploring the intricate dynamics between organizational intellectual capital and team performance within scientific and technological research, especially during the unprecedented times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its detailed examination of human and structural capital, alongside the moderating impact of top management support, the study provides a multi-faceted understanding of how these factors interact to enhance team outcomes.

This research enriches the literature on intellectual capital by providing empirical evidence on the positive association between HUC and STC and team performance. HUC, which includes employees’ skills, knowledge, and expertise, is a critical driver of innovation and productivity (Lenihan et al., 2019 ). The study highlights how a team’s collective intelligence and capabilities can lead to superior scientific and technological outputs. This finding aligns with and extends previous research that underscores the importance of skilled HR in achieving organizational success (Luo et al., 2023 ; Salamzadeh et al., 2023 ). Structural capital, encompassing organizational processes, databases, and intellectual property, contributes significantly to team performance(Ling, 2013 ). The study illustrates how well-established structures and systems facilitate knowledge sharing, streamline research processes, and ultimately boost the efficiency and effectiveness of research teams. This aspect of the findings adds depth to the existing literature by demonstrating the tangible benefits of investing in robust organizational infrastructure to support research activities.

Another essential contribution of this study is integrating a research collaboration network as a facilitating factor. This network, including digital platforms and tools that enable seamless communication and collaboration among researchers, has become increasingly vital in remote work and global collaboration (Mitchell, 2023 ). By examining how these systems leverage HUC and STC to enhance team performance, the study provides a practical understanding of the mechanisms through which technology can facilitate team scientific and technological performance.

One of the most novel contributions of this study is its emphasis on the moderating role of top management support. The findings suggest that when top management actively supports research initiatives, provides required resources, and fosters innovation, the positive effects of human and structural capital on team performance are amplified (Zada et al., 2023 ). This aspect of the study addresses a gap in the literature by highlighting the critical influence of top management on the success of intellectual capital investments. It underscores the importance of managerial involvement and strategic vision in driving research excellence and team scientific and technological performance.

Practical implications

The practical implications of the current study are weightage for organizations aiming to enhance their research and innovation capabilities and boost their scientific and technical progress. Organizations should prioritize recruiting, training, and retaining highly skilled and trained researchers and professionals globally. This can be achieved through targeted hiring practices, offering competitive compensation and retention, providing continuous professional development opportunities, and developing proper research collaboration networks. Organizations can leverage their expertize to drive innovative research and technological advancements by nurturing a global, talented workforce. Investing in robust organizational structures, processes, and systems is critical (Joseph & Gaba, 2020 ). This includes developing comprehensive databases, implementing efficient research processes, securing intellectual property, and strengthening collaborations. These factors support efficient knowledge sharing and streamline research activities, leading to higher productivity and quality research outcomes (Azeem et al., 2021 ). Organizations should ensure that their infrastructure is adaptable and can support remote and collaborative work environments.

The current study emphasizes the importance of digital platforms and tools facilitating research collaboration. Organizations should adopt advanced research collaboration networks that enable seamless communication, data sharing, and talent management. These systems are particularly crucial in a globalized research environment where team members may be geographically dispersed. Investing in such technology can significantly enhance research projects’ productivity in a sustainable way (Susanto et al., 2023 ). Top Management plays a vital role in the success of research initiatives and contributes to scientific and technological performance. Top management should actively support research teams by providing required resources, setting clear strategic directions, and fostering a culture of innovation. This includes allocating budgets for organizational research and development, encouraging cross-border collaboration, recognizing and rewarding research achievements, and enhancing overall performance. Effective Management ensures that the intellectual capital within the organization is fully utilized and aligned with organizational developmental goals (Paoloni et al., 2020 ). Organizations should create a working atmosphere that encourages research, creativity, and innovation. This can be done by establishing innovation labs, promoting interdisciplinary research, recruiting international talents, sharing research scholars, and encouraging the sharing of ideas across different departments globally. A research-oriented culture that supports innovation can inspire researchers to pursue groundbreaking work and contribute to the organization’s competitive edge.

Limitations and future research direction

The research presents numerous theoretical and practical implications; however, it has. The potential limitation of common method bias could impact the findings of this study. This concern arises because the data for the study variables were obtained from a single source and relied on self-report measures (Podsakoff, 2003 ). Therefore, it is recommended that future studies be conducted longitudinally to gain additional insights into organizations’ potential to enhance efficiency. Furthermore, it is essential to note that the sample size for this study was limited to 363 respondents who were deemed usable. These respondents were drawn from only ten research and academic institutions explicitly targeting the education and research sector.

Consequently, this restricted sample size may hinder the generalizability of the findings. Future researchers may employ a larger sample size and implement a more systematic approach to the organization to enhance the comprehensiveness and generalizability of findings in the context of global talent management and scientific and technological advancement. Furthermore, in future investigations, researchers may explore alternative boundary conditions to ascertain whether additional factors could enhance the model’s efficacy.

Numerous academic studies have emphasized the significance of examining talent management outcomes in global human resource management (HRM). The continuous international movement of highly qualified individuals is viewed as a driving force behind the development of new technologies, the dissemination of scientific findings, and the collaboration between institutions worldwide. Every organization strives to build a qualified and well-trained team, and the personnel department of the organization focuses on finding ways to transfer knowledge from experienced workers to new hires. This study uses a research collaboration system to examine the relationship between organizational intellectual capital (Human and structural Capital) and team scientific and technological performance. Further, this study underscores the moderating role of top management support. These findings offer a nuanced perspective on how organizations can leverage their intellectual assets to foster higher productivity and innovation, especially in emergencies.

Data availability

Due to respondents’ privacy concerns, data will not be publicly available. However, it can be made available by contacting the corresponding author at a reasonable request.

Al-Tit AA, Al-Ayed S, Alhammadi A, Hunitie M, Alsarayreh A, Albassam W (2022) The impact of employee development practices on human capital and social capital: the mediating contribution of knowledge management. J Open Innov 8(4):218

Article   Google Scholar  

Al Ariss A, Cascio WF, Paauwe J (2014) Talent management: current theories and future research directions. J World Bus 49(2):173–179

Al Jawali H, Darwish TK, Scullion H, Haak-Saheem W (2022) Talent management in the public sector: empirical evidence from the Emerging Economy of Dubai. Int J Hum Resour Manag 33(11):2256–2284

Ali M, Li Z, Khan S, Shah SJ, Ullah R (2021) Linking humble leadership and project success: the moderating role of top management support with mediation of team-building. Int J Manag Proj Bus 14(3):545–562

Almeida F, Santos JD, Monteiro JA (2020) The challenges and opportunities in the digitalization of companies in a post-COVID-19 World. IEEE Eng Manag Rev 48(3):97–103

Alrowwad AA, Abualoush SH, Masa’deh RE (2020) Innovation and intellectual capital as intermediary variables among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and organizational performance. J Manag Dev 39(2):196–222

Anshari M, Hamdan M (2022) Understanding knowledge management and upskilling in Fourth Industrial Revolution: transformational shift and SECI model. VINE J Inf Knowl Manag Syst 52(3):373–393

Google Scholar  

Arocena R, Sutz J (2021) Universities and social innovation for global sustainable development as seen from the south. Technol Forecast Soc change 162:120399

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Arslan A, Golgeci I, Khan Z, Al-Tabbaa O, Hurmelinna-Laukkanen P (2021) Adaptive learning in cross-sector collaboration during global emergency: conceptual insights in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Multinatl Bus Rev 29(1):21–42

Azeem M, Ahmed M, Haider S, Sajjad M (2021) Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture, knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. Technol Soc 66:101635

Bakhsh K, Hafeez M, Shahzad S, Naureen B, Faisal Farid M (2022) Effectiveness of digital game based learning strategy in higher educational perspectives. J Educ e-Learn Res 9(4):258–268

Barney J (1991) Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. J Manag 17(1):99–120

Barney JB, Clark DN (2007) Resource-based theory: Creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Oup Oxford

Baron A, Armstrong M (2007) Human capital management: achieving added value through people. Kogan Page Publishers

Barpanda S (2021) Role of human and structural capital on performance through human resource practices in Indian microfinance institutions: a mediated moderation approach. Knowl Process Manag 28(2):165–180

Biondi L, Russo S (2022) Integrating strategic planning and performance management in universities: a multiple case-study analysis. J Manag Gov 26(2):417–448

Birasnav M, Mittal R, Dalpati A (2019) Integrating theories of strategic leadership, social exchange, and structural capital in the context of buyer–supplier relationship: an empirical study. Glob J Flex Syst Manag 20:219–236

Bontis N (1998) Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Manag Decis 36(2):63–76

Bontis N, Fitz‐enz J (2002) Intellectual capital ROI: a causal map of human capital antecedents and consequents. J Intellect Cap 3(3):223–247

Cavicchi C, Vagnoni E (2017) Does intellectual capital promote the shift of healthcare organizations towards sustainable development? Evidence from Italy. J Clean Prod 153:275–286

Chatterjee S, Chaudhuri R, Vrontis D (2022) Does remote work flexibility enhance organization performance? Moderating role of organization policy and top management support. J Bus Res 139:1501–1512

Council NR (2012) Education for life and work: developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. National Academies Press

Davenport S, Carr A, Bibby D (2002) Leveraging talent: spin–off strategy at industrial research. RD Manag 32(3):241–254

Dess GG, Picken JC (2000) Changing roles: Leadership in the 21st century. Organ Dyn 28(3):18–34

Duan W, Li C (2023) Be alert to dangers: collapse and avoidance strategies of platform ecosystems. J Bus Res 162:113869

Farahian M, Parhamnia F, Maleki N (2022) The mediating effect of knowledge sharing in the relationship between factors affecting knowledge sharing and reflective thinking: the case of English literature students during the COVID-19 crisis. Res Pract Technol Enhanc Learn 17(1):1–25

Fasi MA (2022) An overview on patenting trends and technology commercialization practices in the university Technology Transfer Offices in USA and China. World Pat Inf 68:102097

Felin T, Hesterly WS (2007) The knowledge-based view, nested heterogeneity, and new value creation: philosophical considerations on the locus of knowledge. Acad Manag Rev 32(1):195–218

Fernandes C, Veiga PM, Lobo CA, Raposo M (2023) Global talent management during the COVID‐19 pandemic? The Gods must be crazy! Thunderbird Int Bus Rev 65(1):9–19

Gogan LM, Duran DC, Draghici A (2015) Structural capital—a proposed measurement model. Procedia Econ Financ 23:1139–1146

Gonzalez-Mulé E, Courtright SH, DeGeest D, Seong J-Y, Hong D-S (2016) Channeled autonomy: the joint effects of autonomy and feedback on team performance through organizational goal clarity. J Manag 42(7):2018–2033

Haak-Saheem W (2020) Talent management in Covid-19 crisis: how Dubai manages and sustains its global talent pool. Asian Bus Manag 19:298–301

Habert B, Huc C (2010) Building together digital archives for research in social sciences and humanities. Soc Sci Inf 49(3):415–443

Haider SA, Akbar A, Tehseen S, Poulova P, Jaleel F (2022) The impact of responsible leadership on knowledge sharing behavior through the mediating role of person–organization fit and moderating role of higher educational institute culture. J Innov Knowl 7(4):100265

Hair JF, Page M, Brunsveld N (2019) Essentials of business research methods. Routledge

Harsch K, Festing M (2020) Dynamic talent management capabilities and organizational agility—a qualitative exploration. Hum Resour Manag 59(1):43–61

He S, Chen W, Wang K, Luo H, Wang F, Jiang W, Ding H (2023) Region generation and assessment network for occluded person re-identification. IEEE Trans Inf Forensic Secur 19:120–132

Henseler J, Ringle CM, Sarstedt M (2015) A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. J Acad Mark Sci 43:115–135

Jain N, Thomas A, Gupta V, Ossorio M, Porcheddu D (2022) Stimulating CSR learning collaboration by the mentor universities with digital tools and technologies—an empirical study during the COVID-19 pandemic. Manag Decis 60(10):2824–2848

Joseph J, Gaba V (2020) Organizational structure, information processing, and decision-making: a retrospective and road map for research. Acad Manag Ann 14(1):267–302

Kaliannan M, Darmalinggam D, Dorasamy M, Abraham M (2023) Inclusive talent development as a key talent management approach: a systematic literature review. Hum Resour Manag Rev 33(1):100926

Kallmuenzer A, Baptista R, Kraus S, Ribeiro AS, Cheng C-F, Westhead P (2021) Entrepreneurs’ human capital resources and tourism firm sales growth: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Tour Manag Perspect 38:100801

Kim KY, Atwater L, Patel PC, Smither JW (2016) Multisource feedback, human capital, and the financial performance of organizations. J Appl Psychol 101(11):1569

Kwok L (2022) Labor shortage: a critical reflection and a call for industry-academia collaboration. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 34(11):3929–3943

Lee J-C, Shiue Y-C, Chen C-Y (2016) Examining the impacts of organizational culture and top management support of knowledge sharing on the success of software process improvement. Comput Hum Behav 54:462–474

Lenihan H, McGuirk H, Murphy KR (2019) Driving innovation: public policy and human capital. Res policy 48(9):103791

Ling Y-H (2013) The influence of intellectual capital on organizational performance—knowledge management as moderator. Asia Pac J Manag 30(3):937–964

Luo J, Zhuo W, Xu B (2023) The bigger, the better? Optimal NGO size of human resources and governance quality of entrepreneurship in circular economy. Manag Decis (ahead-of-print) https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-03-2023-0325

Damsgaard J, Lyytinen K (2001) The role of intermediating institutions in the diffusion of electronic data interchange (EDI): how industry associations intervened in Denmark, Finland, and Hong Kong. Inf Soc 17(3):195–210

Marchiori DM, Rodrigues RG, Popadiuk S, Mainardes EW (2022) The relationship between human capital, information technology capability, innovativeness and organizational performance: an integrated approach. Technol Forecast Soc Change 177:121526

Marinelli L, Bartoloni S, Pascucci F, Gregori GL, Briamonte MF (2022) Genesis of an innovation-based entrepreneurial ecosystem: exploring the role of intellectual capital. J Intellect Cap 24(1):10–34

Mehralian G, Nazari JA, Ghasemzadeh P (2018) The effects of knowledge creation process on organizational performance using the BSC approach: the mediating role of intellectual capital. J Knowl Manag 22(4):802–823

Mitchell A (2023) Collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration in the time of COVID-19 and post-pandemic strategies. Inf Technol People 36(5):1982–2008

Muñoz JLR, Ojeda FM, Jurado DLA, Peña PFP, Carranza CPM, Berríos HQ, Vasquez-Pauca MJ (2022) Systematic review of adaptive learning technology for learning in higher education. Eurasia J Educ Res 98(98):221–233

Nezam MHK, Ataffar A, Isfahani AN, Shahin A (2013) The impact of structural capital on new product development performance effectiveness—-the mediating role of new product vision and competitive advantage. Int J Hum Resour Stud 3(4):281

O’Dwyer M, Filieri R, O’Malley L (2023) Establishing successful university–industry collaborations: barriers and enablers deconstructed. J Technol Transf 48(3):900–931

Oliver C (1997) Sustainable competitive advantage: combining institutional and resource‐based views. Strateg Manag J 18(9):697–713

Pak J, Heidarian Ghaleh H, Mehralian G (2023) How does human resource management balance exploration and exploitation? The differential effects of intellectual capital‐enhancing HR practices on ambidexterity and firm innovation. Human Resource Manag https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22180

Paoloni M, Coluccia D, Fontana S, Solimene S (2020) Knowledge management, intellectual capital and entrepreneurship: a structured literature review. J Knowl Manag 24(8):1797–1818

Patnaik S, Munjal S, Varma A, Sinha S (2022) Extending the resource-based view through the lens of the institution-based view: a longitudinal case study of an Indian higher educational institution. J Bus Res 147:124–141

Pellegrini L, Aloini D, Latronico L (2022) Open innovation and intellectual capital during emergency: evidence from a case study in telemedicine. Knowl Manag Res Pract 21(4), 765–776

Phan LT, Nguyen TV, Luong QC, Nguyen TV, Nguyen HT, Le HQ, Pham QD (2020) Importation and human-to-human transmission of a novel coronavirus in Vietnam. N Engl J Med 382(9):872–874

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Phuong QN, Le Ngoc M, Dong HT, Thao TLT, Tran T, Cac T (2024) Enhancing employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Vietnam: the role of vocational training and job placement centers. J Chin Hum Resour Manag 15(3):64–75

Podsakoff N (2003) Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol 885(879):10.1037

Podsakoff PM, MacKenzie SB, Lee J-Y, Podsakoff NP (2003) Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol 88(5):879

Preacher KJ, Hayes AF (2008) Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects inmultiple mediator models. Behav Res Methods 40(3):879–891

Rådberg KK, Löfsten H (2024) The entrepreneurial university and development of large-scale research infrastructure: Exploring the emerging university function of collaboration and leadership. J Technol Transf 49(1):334–366

Radhamani R, Kumar D, Nizar N, Achuthan K, Nair B, Diwakar S (2021) What virtual laboratory usage tells us about laboratory skill education pre-and post-COVID-19: Focus on usage, behavior, intention and adoption. Educ Inf Technol 26(6):7477–7495

Rasheed MH, Khalid J, Ali A, Rasheed MS, Ali K (2024) Human resource analytics in the era of artificial intelligence: Leveraging knowledge towards organizational success in Pakistan. J Chin Hum Resour Manag 15:3–20

Ringle CM, Sarstedt M, Mitchell R, Gudergan SP (2020) Partial least squares structural equation modeling in HRM research. Int J Hum Resour Manag 31(12):1617–1643

Roos G, Roos J (1997) Measuring your company’s intellectual performance. Long Range Plan 30(3):413–426

Salamzadeh A, Tajpour M, Hosseini E, Brahmi MS (2023) Human capital and the performance of Iranian Digital Startups: the moderating role of knowledge sharing behaviour. Int J Public Sect Perform Manag 12(1-2):171–186

Sarwar A, Mustafa A (2023) Analysing the impact of green intellectual capital on environmental performance: the mediating role of green training and development. Technol Anal Strateg Manag 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2023.2209205

Scott WR (2008) Institutions and organizations: ideas and interests. Sage

Secundo G, Dumay J, Schiuma G, Passiante G (2016) Managing intellectual capital through a collective intelligence approach: an integrated framework for universities. J Intellect Cap 17(2):298–319

Secundo G, Massaro M, Dumay J, Bagnoli C (2018) Intellectual capital management in the fourth stage of IC research: a critical case study in university settings. J Intellect Cap 19(1):157–177

Shao JJ, Ariss AA (2020) Knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates and their organizations: research propositions for managing SIEs. Int Bus Rev 29(1):101634

Shofiyyah NA, Komarudin TS, Hasan MSR (2023) Innovations in Islamic Education Management within the University Context: addressing challenges and exploring future prospects. Nidhomul Haq 8(2):193–209

Sigala M, Ren L, Li Z, Dioko LA (2023) Talent management in hospitality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Macao: a contingency approach. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 35(8):2773–2792

Singh SK, Gupta S, Busso D, Kamboj S (2021) Top management knowledge value, knowledge sharing practices, open innovation and organizational performance. J Bus Res 128:788–798

Sobaih AEE, Hasanein A, Elshaer IA (2022) Higher education in and after COVID-19: the impact of using social network applications for e-learning on students’ academic performance. Sustainability 14(9):5195

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Sommer LP, Heidenreich S, Handrich M (2017) War for talents—how perceived organizational innovativeness affects employer attractiveness. RD Manag 47(2):299–310

Stewart T (1991) Brainpower: how intellectual capital is becoming America’s most valuable. Fortune

Streukens S, Leroi-Werelds S (2016) Bootstrapping and PLS-SEM: A step-by-step guide to get more out of your bootstrap results. Eur Manage J 34(6):618–632

Sulaiman F, Uden L, Eldy EF (2022) Online Learning in Higher Education Institution During COVID-19: A Review and the Way Forward. Paper presented at the International Workshop on Learning Technology for Education Challenges

Susanto P, Sawitri NN, Ali H, Rony ZT (2023) Employee performance and talent management impact increasing construction company productivity. Int J Psychol Health Sci 1(4):144–152

Tan CN-L, Md. Noor S (2013) Knowledge management enablers, knowledge sharing and research collaboration: a study of knowledge management at research universities in Malaysia. Asian J Technol Innov 21(2):251–276

Vaiman V, Sparrow P, Schuler R, Collings DG (2018) Macro talent management: a global perspective on managing talent in developed markets. Routledge

Vătămănescu E-M, Cegarra-Navarro J-G, Martínez-Martínez A, Dincă V-M, Dabija D-C (2023) Revisiting online academic networks within the COVID-19 pandemic–From the intellectual capital of knowledge networks towards institutional knowledge capitalization. J Intellect Cap 24(4):948–973

Wang Y, Lee L-H, Braud T, Hui P (2022) Re-shaping Post-COVID-19 teaching and learning: A blueprint of virtual-physical blended classrooms in the metaverse era. Paper presented at the 2022 IEEE 42nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (ICDCSW)

Wang Z, Wang N, Liang H (2014) Knowledge sharing, intellectual capital and firm performance. Manag Decis 52(2):230–258

Xu A, Li Y, Donta PK (2024) Marketing decision model and consumer behavior prediction with deep learning. J Organ End Use Comput (JOEUC) 36(1):1–25

Yang G, Xiangming L (2024) Graduate socialization and anxiety: insights via hierarchical regression analysis and beyond. Stud High Educ 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2375563

Zada M, Khan J, Saeed I, Zada S, Jun ZY (2023) Linking public leadership with project management effectiveness: mediating role of goal clarity and moderating role of top management support. Heliyon 9(5)

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Economics and Management, Hanjiang Normal University, Shiyan, 442000, China

Muhammad Zada

Facultad de Administración y Negocios, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, 8320000, Chile

School of Law, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubie, China

Imran Saeed

College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, Ilma University, Karachi, Pakistan

Shagufta Zada

Business School Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, China

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: Muhammad Zada and Imran Saeed. Methodology: Jawad Khan. Software: Shagufta Zada. Data collection: Muhammad Zada, Shagufta Zada and Jawad Khan. Formal analysis: Imran Saeed and Jawad Khan. Resources: Muhammad Zada. Writing original draft preparation: Muhammad Zada and Imran Saeed. Writing review and editing: Jawad Khan, Shagufta Zada. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Zada .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The author sought and received ethical approval from the Research Ethical Committee School of Economics and Management at Hanjiang Normal University, China, with approval number 2023REC001, and the study complied with ethical standards.

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. All the participants were accessed with the support of the HR Department employed in China’s research and academia sector. Response Participants were provided with comprehensive information regarding the study’s purpose and procedures. Confidentiality and privacy were strictly implemented throughout the research process. Using the time lag data collection approach, we collected from 393 employees employed in China’s research and academic sector.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Zada, M., Saeed, I., Khan, J. et al. Navigating post-pandemic challenges through institutional research networks and talent management. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1164 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03697-9

Download citation

Received : 28 February 2024

Accepted : 30 August 2024

Published : 09 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03697-9

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Social Studies Education Research Paper

This sample education research paper on social studies education features: 6200 words (approx. 20 pages) and a bibliography with 32 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

Social studies education encompasses a diverse formal curriculum in addition to a powerful set of school-based learning experiences. The formal curriculum is composed of content taken predominately from the social sciences and certain humanities. But content from many other subjects can be a legitimate part of social studies as it might either serve as a tool supporting social thinking and learning (e.g., using mathematical concepts to illuminate housing prices) or become a target of social studies instruction (e.g., examining issues related to stem cells to better understand the nature of public policy debates).

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code.

The subjects that most educators group under the label of social sciences are geography, political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The humanities featured in social studies are history, philosophy, religion, and aspects of art history and literature. History, geography, economics, and political science, typically called the core four, usually get the lion’s share of time and attention in the social studies curriculum at all levels of education. Research and writing by scholars in these disciplines provides the content that is taught to students at all grade levels.

The formal curriculum is the purposefully taught social studies lessons that students encounter in schools. National, state, and local curriculum guides often specify the learning goals students are expected to achieve from this officially endorsed, prescribed social studies instruction. Textbooks and other instructional resources are used to help students learn the formal curriculum. This curriculum is open to public review and it is often tested to provide evidence of students’ learning. The intellectual foundation of the formal curriculum comes almost exclusively from the social sciences and the humanities.

Beyond the formal social studies curriculum is an informal, hidden, or natural curriculum. For example, elementary schools typically recognize popular holidays with a variety of decorations, events, and programs that help to set a seasonal tone and rhythm to the school year. In addition to this typical set of seasonal events, all schools also foster a civic culture through such things as their code of conduct, their various administrative interactions with students and their parents, and the provision of extracurricular activities and clubs. These phenomena arguably join with the formal social studies curriculum as agents of intentional sociocultural learning that are designed to prepare young people for their future roles as engaged, active citizens within our representative democracy.

General Historical Overview of Development in the United States

In the early colonial days of our nation, social studies as a distinct school subject did not exist. Before the establishment of public education, only the wealthy would have their children tutored or attend private schools to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Because instruction about world religions is now considered part of social studies, it could be argued that this was the first appearance of social studies.

With the overthrow of British rule in 1776, opinion in our nation began to shift toward the provision of universal education for all children as a necessity for a self-governing nation. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Noah Webster, among others, argued for adding civic education—composed primarily of lessons on our history and government—to the common school curriculum. Of particular importance was Jefferson’s belief that citizenship education was a necessity in a democracy.

Further public sentiment in favor of tax-supported common schools gained momentum in the early decades of the 1800s. Horace Mann, a Massachusetts legislator, did much to sway opinion in favor of this new and uniquely American approach to education. Concerning the common school, Ornstein and Levine (1989) state:

Through a common or a shared program of civic education, it was to cultivate a sense of American identity and loyalty. Its major social purpose was to integrate children of various social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds into the broad American community. . . . It was to educate the future citizens of a country with self-governing political institutions. (p. 170)

The common school curriculum grew and changed throughout the 1800s. By the last quarter of that century, history and government were taught in many urban elementary schools to prepare students for the demands of citizenship in a diverse immigrant-based and rapidly industrializing society. At the turn of the 20th century, only a little over 6% of teenage Americans graduated from high school (Bohan, 2005). This fact helps us understand the crucial importance of elementary social studies as most Americans’ only significant opportunity to learn the history, geography, economics, and government content needed for democratic citizenship. The growth of sociology, anthropology, and psychology as legitimate academic disciplines in their own right during the late 1800s and early 1900s laid the foundation for a diversification of social studies education in American high schools.

Bohan (2005) traced the roots of social studies in the United States to the Committee of Eight, a group formed in 1905 that recommended a highly nationalistic approach to American history at every grade level, with an oral approach in the early grades where reading skills were still being formed and reliance on textbook-based instruction in the later elementary grades. The focus for Grades 1 and 2 was Native Americans and public holidays; for Grade 3, biographical study of heroes and American independence; for Grades 4 and 5, historical scenes and persons of American history and the growth and development of the American nation; for Grade 6, a study of the European origins of American citizens (Bohan, 2005, p. 288). Much of this same content can be found in contemporary elementary schools.

In the early 1900s, communities began to extend education beyond elementary school, forming junior and senior high schools that sought to expand and strengthen the history and government lessons students had learned in elementary education. Lybarger (1991) notes that the 1916 Committee on Social Studies of the National Education Association’s Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education popularized the term social studies.

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) in 1921 vowed to bring together teachers and others interested in citizenship education through social studies. In response to the turmoil in high school social studies, the American Historical Association published a 16-volume commission report that secured a role for history as a unifying subject at the core of the social studies curriculum.

In the late 1950s, a social studies curriculum revision movement that came to be known as the new social studies (NSS) attempted to move instruction away from traditional methods that focused on the mastery of content and skills deemed important to citizenship transmission and acculturation, to emerging concepts and theories of the social sciences and teaching practices that engaged students in issues-oriented inquiries. The NSS curriculum revision era spanned more than two decades but was only minimally successful in altering the predominate patterns of social studies teaching (Rice, 1992). Of course, this period of great turmoil and discord in America was associated with the rise of the baby boom generation, the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, the stresses of the Cold War, and the disastrous Vietnam War. Toward the end of the 1960s, educators began reexamining the role of junior high schools, arguing, among other things, that the developmental needs of adolescents needed more attention and that instruction needed to be more child-centered and provided through closely knit instructional teams. The middle school movement was born, and the National Middle School Association was formed in 1973 to encourage a continuing focus on the unique needs of youth.

With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, a turn toward conservatism took place in America that had many consequences for public education, such as changes in the role of the U.S. Department of Education and the way federal funds were distributed to states. Subsequent developments such as the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, the development of voluntary national standards in virtually all subject areas, and a number of other school reforms driven by America 2000, the first of President Bush’s signature school improvement plans, had a substantial effect on education in general and social studies in particular. Within social studies this meant a return to a dominant focus on history, geography, economics, and government/civics/political science; a retreat from issues-oriented inquiry instruction; and attempts to bolster the presence of Western cultures’ humanities content in the curriculum.

Relationship to Other Subjects and School Culture

Social studies has many interconnections with other school subjects. The English, language arts, and literature curriculums, for example, typically include cultural literacy and communication goals that match similar aims within social studies instruction. For example, various forms of literature such as biography are often read in social studies classes to provide a more engaging or more detailed account of real life events. Science properly includes a historical perspective on its content and similarly often includes a much needed focus on public policy debates that surround leading-edge developments in scientific research and technology such as cloning, AIDS, and stem cell use. Foreign language instruction routinely engages students in the study of other nations’ cultures, since this focus is the driving force behind the proper meaning and use of any language. Sex and drug education, to be effective, must reasonably go beyond diagrams and charts to consider elements of peer pressure and popular culture that influence young people’s behavior. Career education, another and more obvious form of social studies, is often tied to the economic education strand of the curriculum.

It is crucial to reemphasize the importance of the total school environment as a complex and multifaceted setting for the learning of important lessons about what it means to be an American. School sports were not mentioned in the previous section, but they, too, are a powerful component of school culture and hold incredibly strong potential for good and harm within the lives of students and their families. Perhaps this realization partially explains why social studies teachers are often sports coaches or otherwise actively involved in the extracurricular life of their schools.

Professional Organizations

The preeminent professional organization for the social studies, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), was formed in 1921 and currently has 26,000 members. The NCSS produced the voluntary national standards for social studies instruction, Expectations of Excellence (1994), and voluntary national standards for the preparation of social studies teachers. It publishes three journals: Social Education, Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies and the Young Learner. The NCSS is the parent organization for many affiliated regional and state social studies councils in addition to professional groups such as the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA), which publishes the leading academic journal Theory and Research in Social Education; the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4); and the National Social Studies Supervisors Association (NSSSA), whose members are school district level social studies curriculum supervisors.

Although the NCSS is the leading organization that promotes social studies, it is important to note that each of the core four discipline areas also has a professional organization that promotes instruction within that particular subject. For example, history has the National Council for History Education (NCHE), geography has the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), and economics has the National Council for Economic Education (NCEE). Political science, whose professional organization is the American Political Science Association (APSA), has a subgroup that is concerned with precollegiate education, but much of the effort to improve government and civics classes has come from organizations such as the Center for Civic Education (CCE), the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF), the Close Up Foundation, and a variety of others.

National and State Standards

Expectations of Excellence (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 1994), the voluntary national standards for K-12 social studies instruction, specified 10 themes, representing the social science and humanities disciplines but also incorporating some additional content themes such as global connections, science, technology, and society. Content learning outcomes for each theme were specified for upper elementary, middle, and high school social studies learning. A comprehensive skills matrix was provided in addition to a vision statement on “powerful social studies learning” (NCSS, 1994). Although the NCSS standards served as a comprehensive guide to social studies instruction, they lacked the subject matter specificity needed to direct discipline-centered instruction, drive curriculum development, or guide test development. The core four disciplines all produced their own comprehensive voluntary national standards during the mid-1990s. These curriculum guides were much more detailed than the NCSS’s 10 themes for excellence in social studies. The voluntary national history standards ran into a hailstorm of conservative criticism, and the geography standards received a mixed review from geography teachers. Education is, of course, a state function, so states vary a great deal in their standards for the different content areas of social studies such as history (Brown, 2003).

Testing, Accountability, and No Child Left Behind

Testing and accountability take on several forms in social studies. Many high school social studies courses, for example, culminate with a required district or state level end-of-course test that determines whether students pass or must retake required courses. In addition, students at many grade levels often have to take standardized, commercial achievement tests such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the California Achievement Test, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, or the Stanford Achievement Test, all of which include assessments of social studies content learning. Teacher accountability may extend beyond scrutiny of test scores, to include ways of checking adherence to pacing guides that specify what must be taught at a particular time of the school year.

Social studies educators have understandably tended to be strong advocates of academic freedom and local control of the curriculum; however, the exclusion of social studies from testing under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has left many believing that the social studies are being seriously neglected in favor of subjects that will be tested. Many believe that students are graduating without the understanding they need to function as effective citizens. Consequently, the NCSS has passed an official resolution urging that social studies be included in states’ NCLB testing programs.

Staffing And Instructional Leadership

Staffing and instructional leadership varies widely in elementary, middle, and high schools. High schools, of course, must staff the required history, economics, geography, government, or civics classes. Highly qualified teachers are hired to meet these instructional needs. Other things being equal, high school social studies departments tend to prefer teachers who can also coach a sport or be otherwise involved in the extended extracurricular life of the school. High school teachers often work at several grade levels and are assigned up to four daily classes. Middle school social studies teachers are typically assigned to multisubject instructional teams, and they may or may not teach more than one grade level during the day. Middle school administrators also look for highly qualified teachers to cover the number of required classes that they must offer. Like their high school counterparts, middle school social studies teachers’ job prospects are strengthened if they are able to coach a sport or sponsor a club, have earned a graduate degree, or hold special education or English as a second language certification. Elementary schools typically have no formal leadership in social studies. Teachers may collaborate on grade-level specific planning for social studies instruction for a grading period or the entire school year. At all school levels teachers may also have some input into the social studies textbook adoption for their school.

Instructional leadership within school systems for social studies varies considerably. In many cases, school and even district-level instructional support personnel may be overworked and forced to cover more than one content or subject area (e.g., English and social studies). Ideally, teachers should have some well-qualified person whom they can call upon for advice and resources. But this is rarely the case and, as a result, teachers turn most often to colleagues, professional associations’ conferences, and the Internet for help and ideas to improve their social studies teaching.

Elementary Social Studies

Contemporary practice.

The widening horizons scope and sequence became the dominant approach to the elementary social studies curriculum during the 1950s, and remnants of this scope and sequence remain today in most school systems. Topics or themes are typically used to structure the elementary social studies curriculum. For example, a fifth-grade unit on a specific Native American culture in the early 1800s might integrate content from history, anthropology, and geography. Alternatively, a first-grade unit on contemporary families would integrate content of sociology, economics, psychology, and perhaps religion.

Occasionally, teachers in elementary schools will devote some specific instructional time to a single discipline, but such discipline-focused studies are the exception rather than the rule in most elementary classrooms. The predominant approach to teaching elementary social studies is an integrated disciplines approach, and this approach is likely to remain popular in the future (Haas & Laughlin, 2001).

Controversies, Difficulties, and Issues

Several clear results of efforts to change elementary social studies are apparent, particularly in altering the outdated expanding environments scope and sequence, and improving textbooks and other curriculum materials. Half a dozen alternative scope and sequence arrangements have been promoted, but no one proposal has assumed a dominant position and vestiges remain of the early curriculums. Improved textbooks now include significant content on women and minorities, and they assiduously resist stereotypes in these depictions. Material on other nations is routinely included in elementary social studies, and it is not unusual to find some content that focuses on issues such as poverty and pollution as these phenomena exist both abroad and in the United States. Newer textbooks also typically address some of the most troubling and dubious actions of our government such as the removal of the Cherokees from the lower Appalachians, the internment of Japanese Americans, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

In addition to the controversies over what should be taught, elementary social studies has suffered from widespread general neglect in the curriculum, largely as a result of increasing attention being given to reading and math (VanFossen, 2005). This attention to reading and math is, of course, driven largely by high-stakes testing that is now associated with NCLB. Efforts to achieve high test scores are most apparent in schools that service low socioeconomic status (SES) families. Since these financially challenged families typically cannot afford summer camps or vacation trips, and the home environment itself may lack good books, computers, and newspapers, low SES schools that neglect social studies are eliminating the only chance these children may have for gaining early and potentially significant insights into history, geography, economics, or government, politics, and citizenship. The research of Brophy and Alleman (2006; 2007) demonstrated young students’ severely limited knowledge about cultural universals (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, transportation) that has resulted from this lack of social studies education and the consequent need to refocus the elementary social studies curriculum.

The professional preparation of most elementary teachers is also implicated in the weakness of social studies as a school subject. College students who prepare to become elementary teachers often have very limited exposure to the social sciences and humanities with the noted exception of history. It would be a rare exception to encounter a preservice teacher with significant coursework in political science, economics, or geography. Further, most elementary teacher preparation programs have two or three times the curriculum and methods coursework in reading, math, and language arts as they do in social studies, where the norm is one course, the maximum is two, and the minimum is often no significant coursework at all—the teaching of social studies being addressed only in a combined methods course that encompasses a host of topics such as lesson planning and classroom management. Thus many elementary teachers enter their classrooms without a clue as to what to do and certainly no love of the subjects that comprise elementary social studies.

Future Challenges

First, we must do a better job of preparing elementary teachers to teach this subject, and we must persuade administrators that they are making a grave error if they omit this subject from a young person’s formal education. Second, we must adopt an intellectually defensible and politically palatable scope and sequence for elementary social studies that can inspire creative, child-centered teaching while addressing the real-world learning needs of the students we serve in our classrooms (Katz, 1999). Brophy and Alleman’s (2006) proposal for an elementary social studies curriculum centered on cultural universals meets these goals and it could also provide a basis for improved testing practices. Third, once social studies is fully reestablished in the curriculum with meaningful daily instruction, we need to have an ongoing program of curriculum development assistance that is driven by a strong sense of professionalism and pride-of-purpose, recalling that each child we reach may play a crucial role in creating peace, spreading liberty, and promoting human dignity.

Middle School Social Studies

Social studies in the middle grades builds on the integrated, thematic approach most often used in the elementary grades and prepares students for the discipline-focused courses of high school. Middle grade teachers combine national and state social studies standards into a curriculum that addresses a variety of age-specific needs and local school district requirements. Middle grade teachers routinely use a variety of instructional strategies to actively engage their students, often drawing from information on wise social studies practice that was developed largely for elementary and high school students. Requirements for high-stakes exams also influence social studies instruction in the middle grades, tying teachers more closely to local curriculum guides and state standards.

The middle grade social studies curriculum includes history, geography, government and civics, and economics. States determine the order in which social studies topics will be taught and how they will be combined into a cohesive curriculum. Thus, curriculums vary significantly among the states. For example, Georgia’s middle grade social studies students take 2 years of world history and 1 year of Georgia history. By contrast, California’s middle grade social studies students study United States history, followed by world history, and then a return to United States history. Social studies units are usually based on the standards for history but integrate other social science disciplines into the history instruction. National and state standards also include requirements for instruction in a variety of skills such as spatial thinking and map use, historical thinking and reasoning, analysis of historical artifacts, and other critical thinking skills.

Preparing students for high-stakes testing is an important consideration for middle grade teachers. Fear that their students will fail to perform adequately on these tests causes some teachers to plan instruction that covers a wide range of materials. When this approach to instruction is combined with practice in test-taking skills, some teachers have found that test scores do improve in the short term. But many educators doubt whether students receiving this type of instruction are gaining the in-depth knowledge and understanding that will enable them to succeed in more advanced courses in high school and college or be effective citizens.

Middle grade social studies teachers often find that the most effective instructional strategies are those that require students’ active participation, especially if students complete tasks that are similar to the tasks adults would undertake with the same types of information. Middle grade students are engaged when activities require them to gather and synthesize information, work with others to use this information to solve or analyze a problem, and then present their work to others. This is especially true when students are working on a complicated problem for which there is no right or wrong answer and when their conclusions must be defended publicly. For example, groups might research a list of early North American explorers, determine which four they believe are the most important and therefore worthy of full coverage in a social studies textbook, and make a group presentation arguing for the four they chose.

Use of technology in social studies classes has become an important issue in education. The most common use of technology in the middle grades is for guided research and creative projects. Some teachers have organized effective collaborations between students in different cities, states, or nations using e-mail, discussion boards, and chat technologies. Technology also provides social studies teachers access to a wealth of digital resources for enriching their lessons and allows students to use resources they would have been unable to access in the past. Assignments that require students to state and defend opinions, write from specific historical perspectives, or other nontraditional assignments help prevent plagiarism and other problems teachers sometimes fear when using technology.

Although middle grade teachers typically rely on national, state, and local standards to determine what they will teach, controversial content often intrudes into what would otherwise seem to be safe topics. For example, when learning about the civil rights movement, middle grade students may fixate on the most violent and atrocious acts and use their expanding skills and awareness of contemporary acts of racism to raise questions that demand the teacher’s attention. Many educators suggest that teachers should make dealing with such controversial topics a regular part of their instruction. They contend that consideration of controversy, when coupled with effective tools and strategies, can help create a classroom environment where students are able to understand the importance of social studies skills and knowledge. Some teachers, however, are not comfortable including controversial topics in the classroom. They may fear that middle grade students would be unable to adequately comprehend and consider complex topics. These fears, as well as concerns that parents, administration, or community members may disapprove, can result in teachers giving inadequate attention to complex topics, attempting to provide fact-based instruction for issues on which the facts are not agreed, or simply skipping topics that might be controversial.

Other social studies educators suggest that fact-based, direct instruction should be the primary instructional strategy in the middle grades (Rochester, 2003; Schug, 2003). Inadequate knowledge about the subject that they are teaching, lack of familiarity with effective strategies for teaching more complex lessons, and a belief that middle grade students should focus on facts and deal with concepts and other complex subjects only after they have a firm foundation in the basics are reasons some teachers adopt this strategy. Use of problem-based instruction and controversial issues involves passionate beliefs on both sides, and although the NCSS and many other organizations have taken a stand supporting active, student-centered instruction, the controversy remains strongest at the middle grade levels.

Middle grade social studies faces several challenges. The focus on high-stakes testing means that teachers will continue to struggle with how best to prepare their students. Teachers are challenged to routinely use instructional strategies that actively engage students while ensuring that their students gain the knowledge needed to perform well on these tests. The ability to do this is vital if high-stakes exams are going to be a positive influence on social studies instruction instead of influencing teachers to limit their instructional strategies as well as the topics they teach.

The majority of research on social studies instruction is at either the elementary or high school level, leaving middle grade teachers to adapt strategies that were designed for younger or older students. More research needs to be done to produce a body of wise practice to guide middle grade social studies instruction.

High School Social Studies

High school social studies is typically an amalgam of distinct history, government, geography, and economics courses with history receiving the lion’s share of course-work. Larger and wealthier high schools are often able to provide electives in the other social sciences and humanities and might also offer one or two issues-focused courses that cut across several disciplines. Classes are often tracked, with college-bound students often receiving Advanced Placement (AP) coursework while other stu-dents are taught either a general course or one covering much of the same AP course content but paced more slowly and demanding less homework.

Over the past two decades there has been considerable effort to reinvigorate high school history, geography, economics, and government and civics courses. Each core discipline has developed finely articulated voluntary national standards, and each has also engaged in a variety of teacher training and public outreach efforts to help achieve instructional excellence and increased public awareness of the disciplines’ importance. Social studies teachers have been greatly aided by advances in computer technology and the immense growth of the Internet, where it is estimated that almost 80% of all Web sites contain information that fits within the social sciences and humanities disciplines (Braun & Risinger, 1999). Dramatically improved access to local, state, national, and international news, news archives, and other research tools has greatly simplified the acquisition of information needed for the study of historical or contemporary events.

Technology has also dramatically improved access to digital facsimiles of primary source documents. Additionally, television programming (e.g., The History Channel) has no doubt greatly enhanced the aura of history as a school subject. Geography teaching has benefited similarly from advances in computer technologies, especially the proliferation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and GIS-like electronic atlases based on the pinpoint accuracy of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data and often enhanced with satellite imagery that can be overlaid on map-like images. These modern mapping systems allow for a wide array of geographic inquiry and research, ranging from mapping social data such as income, education, health, and religion to physical data such as rainfall, soil characteristics, vegetation, crops, and minerals. An obvious consequence of this is that high school geography teachers are now much more able to blend together a study of a geographic theme, such as the connections among places, with the simultaneous exploration of a specific place. Such technology use allows students to function at a much higher and more engaging level of geographic learning. Technology has also enhanced the teaching of economics, with a variety of powerful simulations and greatly improved, often instantaneous, access to economic data. Popular government and civics materials now make frequent use of hands-on simulations such as mock trials, simulated congressional hearings, and close-up encounters with government officials and agencies. Service learning has also been a prominent addition to economics and civics instruction (Wade, 2000).

A prominent and continuing problem of high school social studies is related to the original creation of social studies as an area of learning that ideally sought to provide students with issues-focused, interdisciplinary instruction that addressed real-world problems. Most of the discipline-specific promotion and development of the past 20 years has discouraged and displaced this type of learning for students. Note, too, that the social studies philosophy favored empowering teachers and students to determine some of the issues or problems that they were going to examine, whereas detailed curriculum standards and related high-stakes testing discourages such classroom decision making.

Related to what some call an ideologically conservative retrenchment to single-discipline social studies instruction, are the continuing reports of student boredom and disaffection engendered by overreliance on lectures, notetaking, textbook reading, and multiple-choice testing. Students seldom see connections among their largely separate courses, and they may be discouraged from asking questions that depart from some predetermined instructional sequence tied to high-stakes testing. Teachers may discourage small-group work because they fear having to reign in excessive amounts of socialization and the potential threat of conflicts and eventual loss of class control. These fears may be exacerbated in classrooms that have clashing subcultures whether these are based on ethnic heritage, socioeconomic status, religious differences, cliques, or gangs.

Another difficulty is that teachers must be certified in one of the core disciplines to be considered highly qualified. This has defeated the concept of a broad-field certified teacher who is best capable of creating issues-oriented cross-curricular understanding of content that arguably might help create a new generation of citizens better prepared to deal with the cultural complexities we now face.

Our increasingly diverse society creates the inescapable relevance of multicultural education to citizenship preparation as an issue of paramount importance. If social studies teachers are to be successful in any setting, their preparation must include multicultural education, both in theory and practice.

Pragmatically, the biggest challenge facing high school social studies teachers may be how to get their students to pass mandatory tests that serve as gateways to graduation. Methods of instruction are doubtlessly tied to students’ motivation to learn (VanSickle, 1990) and to their successful mastery of course content, so teachers are well advised to use different strategies to increase learning within their classrooms.

A second challenge is for teachers to effectively use technology as a part of their instruction. Staying up-to-date takes time, but effective use of a wide variety of software, Web sites, and related digital technologies is essential to success in today’s classrooms. Putting students into creative leadership roles in the use of technology is one way to help ensure higher levels of learning and greater task engagement.

A third challenge is the increasing diversity in our society and the very real social need we have to help every individual achieve a life of personal satisfaction while respecting and contributing to their community and our wider society. End-of-course test scores may open doors, but they say little about this broader and more significant realm to which we must devote substantial effort. Attention to this challenge demands that high school social studies teachers view their work as extending beyond delivering high-value instruction in their individual classes to also include contributions to the extracurricular life of the school.

Perhaps most troubling is, however, the millions of high school graduates who are never reached by the instruction they are offered and, as a consequence, end their formal education experience lacking a fundamental grounding in our culture and may therefore be destined to fail as responsible citizens. Approximately 50% of all Americans will never extend their formal education beyond high school, except perhaps to job-specific or career-oriented training. This being the case, high school social studies is effectively our last chance to reach millions of future citizens, to attune their minds conscientiously to the good that can come from becoming economically independent and financially literate, to inspire them with the many incredible people and events that have formed our history, to give them a grasp of the great geographic wealth of our nation, or to inure them to the sometimes unpleasant roles they must play as citizens fit to govern our nation. If history is any guide to the future, we can expect that these vitally important Americans—and their college-educated counterparts—will encounter economic turmoil, environmental challenges, healthcare problems, difficult wars, political corruption, and corporate misconduct. These and many other personal and public problems will predictably challenge their lives, and they strongly call for significantly improved high school social studies.

Social studies has been an integral part of the school curriculum in America since colonial times. The curriculum first existed at the elementary level and later became an important component of high school learning as communities extended access to tax-supported public education and as the social sciences and humanities grew to maturity. Recent research has documented a decrease in time devoted to elementary social studies instruction, a result often attributed to the advent of high-stakes testing connected to NCLB (VanFossen, 2005; Leming, Ellington, & Schug, 2006). Middle and high school social studies instruction does not appear to have suffered a reduction of instructional time, but often has been forced to narrow the instructional focus so that it aligns more precisely with end-of-course achievement testing. These trends, the diminution of elementary social studies often sending students into middle schools with poor preparation in the subject, and the narrowing of middle and high school social studies to content that can easily be assessed with multiple-choice tests doubtlessly have potentially negative consequences for our society’s future.

Social studies is a complex and important school subject that focuses the powerful insights of the social sciences and certain humanities on our individual and collective lives. The cultures we navigate and negotiate become more complex, not less. Trends toward open cultural conflict as well as other forms of social discord and disaffection may overrun our schools’ meager capacities to provide meaningful social education that can build well-reasoned allegiance to our society that logically derives from empowering future citizens with important social studies knowledge and skills. The social studies education we offer must at all times eschew any form of indoctrination. Social studies must continue to teach the important content and skills that provide an essential cohesiveness for our society, but this content must not be offered without a serious examination of alternative viewpoints. Gaining multiple perspectives on history, having one’s eyes opened to powerful forms of geography that allow us to critically examine our cultural landscape, gaining key economic insights into the operation of our economy and attaining personal financial literacy, and becoming aware of how our local, state, and national governments respond to special interest group pressures are all examples of how social studies can be meaningfully related to our lives. It is doubtful that powerful social studies learning can ever be achieved in classrooms that fail to engage students’ thinking or provide opportunities for students to apply what they have learned and take responsible actions based on their learning. After all, these are the qualities that a self-governing representative democracy needs most from its citizens.

Bibliography:

• Adler, S. (Ed.). (2004). Critical issues in social studies teacher education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
• Akenson, J. E. (1987). Historical factors in the development of elementary social studies: Focus on the expanding environ-ments. Theory and Research in Social Education, 5, 155-171.
• Barr, R., Barth, J. L., & Shermis, S. S. (1978). The nature of the social studies. Palm Springs, CA: ETC.
• Bohan, C. H. (2005). Digging trenches: Nationalism and the first national report on the elementary history curriculum. Theory and Research in Social Education, 33, 266-291.
• Braun, J. A. Jr., & Risinger, C. F. (Eds.). (1999). Surfing social studies. Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
• Brophy, J., & Alleman, J. (2006). A reconceptualized rationale for elementary social studies. Theory and Research in Social Education, 34, 428-454.
• Brophy, J., & Alleman, J. (2007). Powerful social studies for elementary students (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
• Brown, S. D. (2003). History standards in the 50 states. (ERIC Digest). Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for the Social Studies/Social Science Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482209)
• Davis, O. L., Jr. (Ed.). (1996). NCSS in retrospect (Bulletin No. 92). Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
• Evans, R. W. (2004). The social studies wars: What should we teach the children?New York: Teachers College Press.
• Hass, M. E., & Laughlin, M. A. (2001). A profile of elementary social studies teachers and their classrooms. Social Education, 65, 122-126.
• Henry, N. B. (Ed.). (1957). Social studies in the elementary school. (Part II: The fifty-sixth yearbook). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press and National Society for the Study of Education.
• Hertzberg, H. W. (1981). Social studies reform 1880-1980. Boulder, CO: SSEC.
• Jenness, D. (1990). Making sense of social studies. New York: Macmillan.
• Katz, L. G. (1999). Curriculum disputes in early childhood education. (ERIC Digest). Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED436298)
• Leming, J. S., Ellington, L., & Schug, M. (2006). The state of social studies: A national random survey of elementary and middle school social studies teachers. Social Education, 70, 322-327.
• LeRiche, L. W. (1987). The expanding environments sequence in elementary social studies: The origins. Theory and Research in Social Education, 5, 137-155.
• Lybarger, M. B. (1991). The historiography of social studies: Retrospect, circumspect, and prospect. In J. P. Shaver (Ed.), Handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning (pp. 3-15). New York: Macmillan.
• Mehlinger, H. D. (1992). The national commission on social studies in the schools: An example of the politics of curriculum reform in the United States. Social Education, 56, 149-153.
• National Council for the Social Studies. (1994). Expectations of excellence: Curriculum standards for social studies (Bulletin No. 89). Washington, DC: Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED378131)
• Ornstein, A. C., & Levine, D. U. (1989). Foundations of education (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Parker, W. C. (2001). Educating democratic citizens: A broad view. Theory into Practice, 40(1), 6-13.
• Rice, M. J. (1992). Reflections on the new social studies. Social Studies, 83, 224-231.
• Rochester, J. M. (2003). The training of idiots. Civics education in America’s schools. In J. Leming, L. Ellington, & K. Porter (Eds.), Where did social studies go wrong? (pp. 6-39). Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.
• Schneider, D. (1993). Teaching social studies: The standards movement. Clearing House, 67(1), 5-7.
• Schug, M. C. (2003). Teacher-centered instruction: The Rodney Dangerfield of social studies. In J. Leming, L. Ellington & K. Porter (Eds.), Where did social studies go wrong? (pp. 94110). Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.
• Stanley, W. B. (Ed.). (2001). Critical issues in social studies research for the 21st century. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
• VanFossen, P. J. (2005). “Reading and math take so much time . . .”: An overview of social studies instruction in elementary classrooms in Indiana. Theory and Research in Social Education, 33, 376-403.
• VanSickle, R. L. (1990). Personal relevance in social studies. Social Education, 54, 23-27.
• Wade, R. C. (Ed.) (2000). Building bridges: Connecting classroom and community through service-learning in social studies (Bulletin No. 97). Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
• Wronski, S. P., & Bragaw, D. H. (Eds.). (1986). Social studies and social sciences: A fifty-year perspective (Bulletin No. 78). Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies.
• Yeager, E. A., & Davis, O. L (Eds.). (2005). Wise social studies in an age of high-stakes testing: Essays on classroom practices and possibilities. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER