P4. Institute for Educational Research, Belgrade, Serbia

Institute for Educational Research (IPI) is a public scientific institution dealing with theoretical and empirical studies in the field of education. Activities of the Institute include studying theoretical and methodological problems of education; organization of professional development seminars for all levels school teachers; doing consultancy and supporting evidence-based policy making in the education system; organization of scientific meetings; publication of monographs, journals, policy briefs and publications for school practitioners; establishment of international cooperation with similar institutions and universities. Institute staff has long and rich experience in organization of seminars for advanced training of educational staff. In recent years the institute has organized several hundreds of training sessions for more than 10.000 teachers.

The institute has 33 employees overall, out of which 28 are part of research staff. Half of them are senior researchers, and the other half are PhD students. Researchers mainly have pedagogical or psychological background, but there are also language experts, sociologists, experts in science education etc.

Institute was a carrier of number of research projects, such as “Trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS)”, “Images of educational change in Serbia: reflecting on the past, envisioning the future (RRPP)”, etc.

The Institute is the main national organizer of the international TIMSS study for the last twelve years. This project led to furthering the methodological competencies and capacities of the Institute for coordinating large-scale studies (quantitative research on large representative samples). This includes refined communication strategies with schools, elaborated dissemination practices, standardized data management, provision of trainings and manuals, multistage quality control, data analysis etc.