Research Designs of Subject-Matter Teaching and Learning

Research on domain-specific teaching and learning has experienced an enormous upswing in the last twenty years. For a further development of this research it would be beneficial if certain clusters or research designs would be elaborated, which are typical for research on domain-specific teaching and learning and which stimulate and orient new research projects. This article addresses this question on the basis of a study in Religious Didactics. First, it discusses the use of the concept of research design to establish a cluster of relevant research procedures (1.). Then the results of the study will be described, namely that such designs are characterized by a) the theories, they refer to, b) the subject area they address, and c) the methodologies they conduct (2.) It will be generalized beyond the field of Religious Didactics and seven potential designs of research on domain-specific teaching and learning will be sketched (3.) An invitation to reflect this question further on ends this article (4.)