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Potential Research Topics

As part of the application process, prospective students must develop an original research proposal. Below is an overview of current CRADLE areas of focus, potential supervisors, and recent CRADLE publication(s) on those topics to illustrate our typical interests. We would expect a prospective candidate to first develop their proposal taking one of these topics as a starting point and then share it with prospective supervisors for review and refinement, prior to the application submission.

Please note all these topics are for studies in higher education, not other sectors of education. 

Effective feedback for learning – including student and teacher feedback literacy

Potential supervisors: David Boud, Juuso Nieminen

Feedback can have a positive impact on learning, but what makes for effective feedback? Beyond participating in well-designed feedback processes, students may need to develop particular strategies in how they approach feedback so that it has an impact on their learning, now and into the future. A project could focus on feedback literacy interventions, or feedback designs, including digitally mediated feedback and peer feedback.

  • Dawson, P., Yan, Z., Lipnevich, A., Tai, J., Boud, D., & Mahoney, P. (2024). Measuring what learners do in feedback: the feedback literacy behaviour scale. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(3), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2240983
  • Istencioglu, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P. and Yang, L. (2026). Teacher feedback literacy as an emerging field: A scoping review. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2026.2631533 

Developing evaluative judgement

Potential supervisor: David Boud

The capability to judge the quality of work of self and others is an important part of becoming a capable professional practitioner and should be intentionally developed during university studies rather than being left up to chance. How can learners be better supported to develop the ability to make judgements about their own learning? How can it be fostered in different contexts? How does it develop over time? This project might take a particular disciplinary or contextual focus to address these questions.

  • Bearman, M., Tai, J., Dawson, P., Boud, D. and Ajjawi, R. (2024). Developing evaluative judgement for a time of generative Artificial Intelligence. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(6), 893–905. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2335321 
  • Fischer, J., Bearman, M., Boud, D., & Tai, J. (2024). How does assessment drive learning? A focus on students’ development of evaluative judgement, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(2), 233–245.  https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2206986
  • Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., Boud, D., Dawson, P., & Panadero, E. (2018). Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work. Higher Education, 76, 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0220-3

Assessment and feedback in a social world (e.g. culture, relationships, emotions, and power)

Potential supervisors: Margaret Bearman, Juuso Nieminen

Beyond the cognitive, there are significant emotional, social, and material influences on the way that feedback and assessment unfolds in the world, and shapes who learners might become. How might this change what learners, teachers or institutions do? This project offers the opportunity to research assessment or feedback as a cultural, social or sociomaterial practice.

  • Bearman, M., Ajjawi, R., Castanelli, D., et al. (2023). Meaning making about performance: A comparison of two specialty feedback cultures. Medical Education, 57(11), 1010–1019. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15118

New knowledge practices in a digital world

Potential supervisor: Margaret Bearman

Workplaces are increasingly mediated by big data, analytics, and artificial intelligence. This has implications for universities and for learning-on-the-job. How do we learn to work in a world with new kinds of knowledge practices? Taking a practice theory or science technology studies (STS) or similar approach, this project could investigate learning practices across the continuum of higher and professional education. 

Due to a heavy supervisory load, Margaret will only consider exceptional candidates for this project.

  • Bearman, M., & Ajjawi, R. (2025). Artificial intelligence and gender equity: An integrated approach for health professional education. Medical Education, 59(10), 1049–1057. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15657

Diversity and inclusion in assessment and feedback design and practice

Potential supervisor: Juuso Nieminen

Students with diverse backgrounds and capabilities are choosing to enrol at university. While participation rates are improving, success and retention lag behind. Assessment and feedback are implicated as key practices that influence whether student success, but how do these significant parts of university study contribute to their inclusion? This project could explore diverse student experiences relating to assessment and feedback, and/or the affordances and limitations of current and emerging assessment designs.

  • Ajjawi, R., Crawford, N., Bearman, M., Brett, M., Dollinger, M., & Tai, J. (2025). The house of cards: Equity-group students’ experiences of structural inequity in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 44(4), 793–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2456819
  • Nieminen, J. H. (2025). Inclusive assessment design: students with disabilities speak out. Higher Education Research & Development. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2564995 
  • Tai, J., Mahoney, P., Ajjawi, R., Bearman, M., Dargusch, J., Dracup, M., & Harris, L. (2023). How are examinations inclusive for students with disabilities in higher education? A sociomaterial analysis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 48(3), 390–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2022.2077910

The longer-term effects of assessment and feedback: student identities, being and becoming

Potential supervisor: Juuso Nieminen

Assessment and feedback are commonly portrayed as influential factors for student learning, but they also have longer-term effects beyond immediate learning outcomes: assessment shapes students’ identities over time. How could we better understand how student identities are influenced by assessment? How could we design assessment that better considers the long-term processes of professional identity development? This project could explore these questions empirically, particularly through longitudinal approaches. Such a project might also explore transitions to and from higher education.

Alternative representations of achievement

Potential supervisors: Juuso Nieminen, David Boud

The use of traditional course/unit grades in higher education has been criticised in scholarly work for at least a century. Grades have been claimed to drive student learning; they have been called inaccurate and ineffective; and they have been connected to neoliberal and performative values. More recently, there has been criticism that they don’t portray the achievement of learning outcomes and that they are inappropriately aggregated into Grade Point Averages. So far, the criticism of grading has not led to change in the representation of student achievement on a wide scale. This project could consider the empirical effects of alternative forms of reporting outcomes of learning, or new theoretical approaches for thinking about portrayal of performance.

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