The conference programme will, as usual, include invited plenary sessions, single paper presentation sessions, symposia as well as workshops. Posters will also be made available in an interactive online format. These presentation formats are similar to previous face-to-face ESERA Conferences, but the preparation and the interactive presentations will be different.
Presenters of single papers, symposia and workshops are requested to record their presentation and send them to the conference secretariat before the deadline, which will be informed well in advance. Recorded presentations will be uploaded to the Conference Programme before the conference dates allowing registered participants to consult the presentations online in advance. Conference sessions are organised in Strands in the online Conference Programme. Single paper sessions, symposia and workshops will also include chairpersons/discussants moderating real-time interactive Q&A between the presenters and assisting participants.
As a large number of participants is expected to attend the sessions, they are encouraged to write their questions online. Questions can be directed publicly (visible for all participants, the session chairperson and the author) or privately in a message to the author/presenter. The session chairperson will place a selection of the public questions (submitted in writing before and during the session), in a live interaction with the presenters who will be present online to respond in real-time. The live Q&A session will take place at the end of each session.
The conference will provide technical support for assisting participants during the whole preparation process. Presenters and chairpersons (as well as discussants when applicable) will also have the opportunity to run tests with the technical team before the event.
More specific technical guidelines will be provided to all authors and presenters well in advance.
Before submitting your proposal, we recommend to read the following information carefully:
- General guidelines
- Conference session formats
- Review criteria
- Style guidelines for preparing a proposal
General guidelines
Your submission should adhere to the following guidelines:
All proposals must be submitted online using the ESERA 2021 conference submission platform.
The Organising Committee invites both empirical and theoretical proposals for Single paper presentations, Symposia, Posters and Workshops.
Proposals must be submitted to one of the 18 strands available.
The official conference language is English, and all proposals must be submitted in English.
For each submission, you need to prepare and submit at the same time:
- a short abstract up to 300 words to insert in the platform;
- an extended summary in a PDF Format uploaded to the platform, up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, abstract, 3 keywords, references, tables and figures, using the ESERA 2021 submission template.
In your extended summary, do not insert your name and refrain from revealing your identity in any other way.
The ESERA 2021 Keyword list is available here.
Blind review is used for the evaluation process.
Each registered participant can be co-author as many times as they like.
Each registered participant can be active in a maximum of 5 occasions during the conference programme. However, the following criteria must be attended.
Each participant can, during the conference programme, act as:
- the presenting author of one Single paper
- the presenting author of one Symposium paper
- coordinator of no more than one Symposium
- discussant of one other Symposium
- presenting author of no more than one Poster presentation
In total, the maximum number of roles cannot exceed five (5). Presenters can only partake in each category once, as shown above.
Please note that the coordinator of a Symposium can also be the presenting author for one presentation in the same Symposium. He/she cannot be the discussant of the same Symposium.
Conference Session Formats
There are four types of proposal submissions available for the conference:
- Single paper
- Symposium
- Poster
- Workshops
All proposals must be submitted to one of the 18 Strands available.
Please note that the deadline for submitting a proposal is 15 January 2021.
Single paper
Submission: For each submission, you need to prepare and submit at the same time:
- a short abstract up to 300 words to insert in the platform;
- an extended summary in a PDF format uploaded to the platform, up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, abstract, 3 keywords, references, tables and figures, using the ESERA 2021 submission template.
In your extended summary, do not insert your name and refrain from revealing your identity in any other way.
Presentation: If the paper is accepted for presentation at the conference, the authors will be required to send the pre-recorded oral power-point presentation of 15 minutes maximum. The presentations will be available to view before the session, and there will be a live Q&A slot at the end of the paper session, where the presenters will be available to engage in discussion with the participants by answering orally to participants’ questions submitted in writing before and during the session. This paper Q&A slot will be moderated by a Chairperson. Further instructions will be provided to authors whose papers have been accepted.
Symposium
A symposium provides an opportunity to present research on one topic, often from multiple perspectives, providing a coherent set of papers for discussion. The coherence and quality of the symposium will be evaluated as a whole.
Each symposium is organised by a symposium organiser and contains four (4) presentations concerning a common topic of interest. The symposium also includes one symposium discussant. The symposium contributors must be from Institutions of at least three (3) countries. The symposium organiser may also be one of the presenting authors.
Submission: For each submission, the symposium organiser needs to prepare and submit at the same time:
- a short abstract up to 600 words for the whole symposium to insert in the platform, as well as providing the name and contact details of a discussant;
- an extended summary in a PDF format uploaded to the platform, with the extended summaries of the four individual presentations making up the symposium. The extended summary of each presentation has to follow the same rules as the Single paper (see above): a maximum of 3 pages including a title, abstract, 3 keywords, references, tables and figures, using the ESERA 2021 submission template.
In your extended summary, do not insert your name and refrain from revealing your identity in any other way.
Presentation: If the symposium is accepted for presentation at the conference, the authors will be required to pre-record the oral power-point presentation of 15 minutes maximum and the symposium organiser will compile the individual presentations of all authors and send to the organisation. The presentations will be available to view before the session, and there will be a live Q&A slot for the symposium where the presenters will be available to engage in discussion with the participants by answering orally to participants’ questions submitted in writing before and during the session. This Q&A slot will be moderated by the symposium Discussant. Further instructions will be provided to symposium organisers whose proposals have been accepted.
Poster
Posters offer researchers the opportunity to present their work in a visual format.
Submission:
For each submission, you need to prepare and submit at the same time:
- a short abstract up to 300 words to insert in the platform;
- an extended summary in a PDF Format uploaded to the platform, up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, abstract, 3 keywords, references, tables and figures, using the ESERA 2021 submission template.
In your extended summary, do not insert your name and refrain from revealing your identity in any other way.
Presentation: If the poster is accepted for presentation at the conference, the authors will be required to send a 1-page poster in PDF. The posters will be available for participants to view them in an online poster gallery. Poster discussion is encouraged via written messages from the participants in public or private comment fields to the authors before and during the conference days. Further instructions will be provided to authors whose posters have been accepted.
Workshops
Workshops enable presenters to display, explain and familiarise users with an innovative approach, a teaching or research tool, a teaching-learning sequence or some other aspect of research or teaching practice. Workshops may include a brief presentation of completed research, especially case studies or evaluations, but the emphasis is on demonstrating innovation or a tool, not to present the research.
Submission:
For each submission, you need to prepare and submit at the same time:
- a short abstract up to 300 words to insert in the platform;
- an extended summary in a PDF Format uploaded to the platform, up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, abstract, 3 keywords, references, tables and figures, using the ESERA 2021 submission template.
In your extended summary, do not insert your name and refrain from revealing your identity in any other way.
Presentation: If the workshop is accepted for presentation at the conference, the workshop leaders will be required to send the pre-recorded presentation of 30-minute maximum. The workshop will be available to view before the session, and there will be a live Q&A slot, for the workshop where the presenters will be available to engage in discussion with the participants by answering orally to participants’ questions submitted in writing before and during the session. This Q&A slot will be moderated by the workshop leaders. Further instructions will be provided to workshop organisers whose proposals have been accepted.
Review Criteria
Each proposal will be reviewed using the following criteria:
- Context and relevance to science education (importance of the study for research and/or practice)
- Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale, or pragmatic grounding
- Aim(s) and/or Research question(s) (do they make sense? can they be answered?)
- Research method and design (Empirical proposals) / Use of relevant research literature (Theoretical proposals)
- Findings and coherence of argument (is the aim met? are the RQs answered?)
- Discussion of findings and implications
- Clarity of expression in English
Style guidelines for preparing a proposal
The proposals should be written in English and should follow the APA (American Psychological Association) Publication Manual format.
You must not alter the template, and it must be saved as a PDF file – other formats will be rejected.
The required font and size for general text are Times New Roman, 12 points with left-justified text.
In the template, all margins are set as 1.27cm.
Headings are helpful as a guide for readers. Two levels of headings are sufficient.
Use the first-level heading for the title which appears at the beginning of your introduction and for the section titles Method, Results, Discussion and References.
First-level headings should be Times New Roman 14 pts (CAPS BOLD), left on its own line.
Use the second-level heading for each subsection.
Second-level headings should be Times New Roman 12 pts (bold) left on its own line.
It is recommended that digitalised photographs have 256 level greyscale.
For text within figures and tables use Times New Roman 10 or 12 pts.
Captions for figures and tables should be in Times New Roman 10 pts.
For empirical research proposals, it is expected that the structure presents four primary sections: Introduction; Method; Results; and Discussion and Conclusions.
You can also give other appropriate names to the sections. In particular, it must be clear what the findings of the study are and how these emerge from the analysis. Tables and figures must be easy to read.
For theoretical research proposals, the argumentation must be clear and easy to follow, and conclusions must follow clearly from the arguments that are presented.
