Louise Maddens

Prior to obtaining her Masters in Educational Studies at KU Leuven, Louise earned a Bachelor’s teacher’s degree. After graduating, she worked as a teacher before joining  itec and the Centre of Instructional Psychology and Technology, in September 2017, where she is currently pursuing a PhD on designing instruction for complex skills. This research is supervised by Jan Elen, Fien Depaepe and Annelies Raes. As a specific case for complex learning, her PhD focusses on exploring instructional design principles fostering upper secondary school students’ research skills. In a first research phase aiming to identify gaps in research skills literature, she was involved in the test construction and evaluation process of the LRST (Leuven Research Skills Test), and a state of the art study. In a second research phase aiming to identify and implement existing instructional design principles applicable for the specific case under study, she designed a baseline online learning environment (RISSC or Research In Social Sciences), which was piloted in several schools. For the third phase of her doctoral research trajectory, from this point until the anticipated ending of Louise’s PhD in September 2021, she is planning intervention studies aiming to expand existing instructional design principles. In doing so, she aims to address the main research gap regarding the role of motivation in instructional design programs for complex learning. Several iterative cycles of testing and evaluating should result in a first step towards a refined instructional design model for complex learning.