IEA INSIDER 2024
R&D in Action: Tracking Implementation and Impact
BY LAUREN MUSU, RALPH CARSTENS, & RAEGEN VAN BREE
IEA’s Research and Development (R&D) Fund plays a crucial role in the mission to advance research aimed to improve the science and methodology of IEA studies. Since 2021, the field-initiated program, funded by a small overhead on participation fees, has fostered a dynamic ecosystem of research with experts from within and outside the IEA network.
This past year has been remarkably productive for the R&D Fund. Regular calls for field-initiated proposals are well established and receiving strong interest from various groups and scholars. Almost all outcomes for Call 1 and Call 2 projects have been posted on the IEA website. Call 3 projects are all underway (see page 49) and Call 4 was released in early June with submissions due in the middle
the Automated Scoring of Image Responses in TIMSS 2023 provides a research base and relatively clear path for new scoring procedures to be refined and implemented within an existing study using such response formats, whereas To Mix or not to Mix Positively and Negatively Worded Items will require consideration at the questionnaire development stage across our studies.
of September. For this, the R&D team has been working with the IEA Standing Committee, the Technical Executive Group (TEG), and a wide network of expert reviewers to ensure that the R&D outcomes are available in ways that benefit IEA and our studies.
At the TEG meeting in July, we presented the published R&D outcomes and asked study directors to explore the publications further and to think about ways in which the findings and recommendations can inform practices within the study they are responsible for.
“This past year has been remarkably productive for the R&D Fund.”
The R&D funded activities are intended to support IEA’s mission to conduct research and support innovation through continued development and improvement of our studies. In this way, it is important to ensure that the outcomes of the R&D funded projects have a path to implementation. For example, Using Neural Network and Classification for
Adapted procedures and changes will be carefully revisited and discussed at future TEG meetings. Similar discussions will occur within IEA for work areas that are managed by operational units and teams within IEA. In combination, we can more fully evaluate the impact and utility of the research funded so far.
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