1st International Research Conference (IFFE)

‘’Obstacles to and drivers of learning in schools and higher education’’ 

POSTPONED (original dates 7-8 July 2022)

Gamlitz, Austria

Description: The  International Forum for the Future of Education (IFFE) will host its 1st International Research Conference over two days in July in Gamlitz, Styria (Austria). The conference aims to bring together researchers, academics and practitioners who are experts in education and other areas in social sciences and humanities that might be related to education theory and practice in its various aspects.

The conference’s main objective is to describe, analyse and discuss structural and process limitations and drivers of learning in various educational contexts.   

At its current stage,  education offers a large variety of approaches, teaching methodologies, methods, and learning environments – teacher-centred education, frontal teaching, cooperative learning, learner-centred learning, action research, inquiry-based teaching, social transformative and problem-solving education, etc. All these are united by the same goal, intended to enhance the learning experience, educational outcomes, and prepare learners for an adult life and active participation in society. Despite a lot of progress that has been made, there is a need to search further in this direction. Considering the recent widespread of social transformations (e.g. climate change, economy and sustainable development, migration and diversity matters, importance of ethnicity and identity issues) that have an impact on schools and institutions of higher education, it is important to understand what role these societal issues play in the effectiveness of learning, how they transform education practises, and how these matters shall be addressed in the teaching process.

We are specifically interested (but not limited) in bridging social and education matters, and to explore the drivers and obstacles of learning on three levels:  intraindividual level (for ex. critical thinking, curiosity and motivation, identity matters, responsibility and agency), interindividual (for ex. acting, decision making, communication), and extraindividual (for ex. societies, sustainability, diversity, socio-economic situation, as well as pedagogy and the learning environment).

This conference invites  experts in the field of education as well as  social sciences and humanities, who can provide insights into the cutting edge research in the field and contribute to the discussion of the enhancement of learning experience and of the effectiveness of learning  today.   

We welcome:

  • Original research 
  • Literature review 
  • Case studies 
  • Opinion pieces
  • etc

Call for papers

We invite you to submit an abstract of your conference contribution including a short biography to the following address: conference@forum4education.com. Please use ‘’abstract submission 2022’’ in the email subject. The submission deadline is 15 April 2022. Notification on the acceptance of submissions for the conference will be communicated before 10 May 2022.

Accepted authors will receive an email with the link to the conference registration. In the course of registration you will also be asked to pay the conference fee. The fee is 50 euro and covers all coffee breaks, a wine tasting with food on the first evening and a formal reception with food and drinks on the last day. PhD students benefit from a reduction and will only pay 35 euro.

Submission details:

Please include the following information. 

  1. A short descriptive title 
  2. Description of your presentation/abstracts (max 350 words)
  3. Oral or poster presentation
  4. Name and contact details of author/authors. 
  5. Keywords. 
  6. Short bio of the presenter. 

Once the abstract has been accepted you will receive a link to register for the conference.

The language of the conference and of the submitted papers is English.

In case of poster presentations, you will be invited to prepare and record a 5 min presentation and send it in advance of the conference to be subsequently published on the IFFE YouTube channel. Pre-recorded presentations will be shown during the conference sessions, and authors will have an opportunity to discuss their contributions with the audience.

We encourage a wide range of submissions that address a wide range of potential drivers of and obstacles to learning. This includes but is not limited to: curiosity and motivation in learning; teaching methodologies and learning methods as obstacles/drivers of learning; school/university environment structure and learning processes; cutting edge social issues (fake news, climate concerns, migration, gender and identity, culture) in learning environment; critical thinking. 

Publication of the conference proceedings are planned to be done after the conference.