Strategies to support children’s active participation in research about them or the conditions of childhood are investigated in this article. Some participatory-research approaches used with children in a kindergarten setting are included.

What is research, what does it involve, and how can you plan research so that it is effective? This article, written for educational practitioners who are (or would like to be) involved in planning and undertaking research, gives an overview of the research process, guidance on planning a research project effectively, and case-study examples and ideas for effective planning.

The second of three articles on research as a student learning activity.  Rosemary Hipkins explores the idea of "information literacy" and argues that different school subjects provide differences of context that students need to experience and learn to critique.

This article was incorporated into the NZCER Press book Learning to do research: Challenges for students and teachers.

The last few years have seen a burgeoning of official interest in educational research as the Ministry of Education espouses evidence-based policy making and teaching. A number of best evidence syntheses have been commissioned and published. These are encouraging trends even if the definition of best evidence is sometimes narrower than some of us would wish. At the same time the research imperative for academics across the country has sharpened following the Tertiary Education Commission’s research assessment exercise the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF).