Design research from a learning design perspective

In this contribution, we want to elaborate on an approach to design research that has been used and refined in a series of design research projects in which the present authors collaborated over a 10-year period. To locate our contribution in this book, we may categorize our approach as falling within the broader category of design research that aims at creating innovative learning ecologies in order to develop local instruction theories on the one hand, and to study the forms of learning that those learning ecologies are intended to support on the other hand.1 The research projects we focus on involve a research team taking responsibility for a group of students’ learning for a period of time. All projects concern the domain of mathematics education (including statistics education).