Science-Driven Transformation of Educational Quality: From Systemic Inequality to Evidence-Based Practice

The central aim of this symposium is to advance the quality of education at both macro and micro levels, grounded in the well-established understanding that both educational inequalities and the “one-size-fits-all” approach hinder student achievement and system effectiveness. At the macro level, the MapIE project brings together countries with diverse educational system structures and traditions—including Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Hungary—to conduct longitudinal, cross-national analyses. This comparative design enables the identification of structural, institutional, and societal factors that generate and sustain educational inequalities, as well as the examination of evidence-based interventions that can effectively mitigate them. In parallel, at the micro level, the MTA–SZTE Digital Learning Technologies Research Group develops and validates, through empirical and data-driven research, instructional tools that support teachers in implementing more adaptive and personalized pedagogical practices. These tools are grounded in empirical evidence on the key determinants of learning success and are designed to translate research findings into classroom practice, enabling targeted student support and directly contributing to the improvement of educational quality. The integration of these complementary perspectives provides a comprehensive, evidence-based framework for fostering more equitable and effective educational systems.

The MTA-SZTE Digital Learning Technologies Research Group is supported by the Research Programme for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for four years, which supports projects with the goals of laying the foundations for the development of education and training by providing new scientific findings, and carrying out research on how to renew the pedagogical perspectives and methods for knowledge transfer and the transmission of values. Through this Research Programme the MTA wishes to support internationally outstanding research projects which are relevant for the solutions of the present problems of Hungarian public education, which include expanding the research capacity of the field, accelerating the process of disseminating and applying the latest international research results in Hungary, facilitating young researchers’ training and aiding them in embarking on their career, strengthening the international embeddedness of Hungarian research sites, and contributing to the establishment of a social network between educational and research sites.

Presenters and titles of their presentations:

Prof. Dr. Mari-Pauliina Vainikainen (Tampere University, Finland)

Understanding and Reducing Educational Inequalities: International Evidence from MapIE

Prof. Dr. Gyöngyvér Molnár (University of Szeged)

Turning Educational Evidence into Action: Digital Tools for Adaptive and Personalized Learning

The event is free of charge, registration is recommended by clicking this link.