Introduction to Vol. 9 No. 4 (2021)

Dear reader,

The current issue of Frontline Learning Research presents various ways of exploring the views of students and teachers. Qualitative methods as well as gaze tracking and emotion tracking will provide new and interesting insights. 
 
Gastra and Brabander investigated the motivation for professional development in Dutch primary teachers with a qualitative approach. The relevance of professional development is mainly judged by applicability to the classroom. Older teachers select by experience and younger teachers try it out in the classroom before adaption. 
 
Koutsianou and Emvalotis explored qualitatively, through scenario-based semi-structured interviews, the complex connection between primary school teachers’ epistemic belief patterns and their conceptions of inquiry-based learning. Overall, the more availing the teachers’ epistemic beliefs, the more thoroughly they conceive inquiry-based learning.
 
Li and colleagues examined with the help of facial expressions the frequency and variability of emotions in self-regulated learning predicting diagnostic performance of medical students. Emotion variability negatively predicted performance regardless of which SRL phases it was tied to. This finding highlights the importance of keeping a stable emotional state to guarantee high performance. 
 
Matta and colleagues analysed mathematics teachers’ eye-tracking data, their verbal data, and classroom video recordings to investigate their gaze behaviour during task instruction-giving. They suggest two previously not detected gaze types: contextualizing gaze for task readiness and collaborative gaze for task focus to contribute to the present discussion on teacher gaze.
 
Knoop-van Campen and colleagues explored with open questions how teachers interpret displays of students’ gaze in reading comprehension assignments and provide. With rapid technological developments ahead like eye tracking through webcams this seems to be an increasingly feasible scenario.
 
You can find the complete issue of Frontline Learning Research here. This will be the last issue which I will present as Editor-in-Chief of Frontline Learning Research. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the whole FLR team, all reviewers, and all authors who pushed learning research forward, especially in the face of an ongoing worldwide pandemic. Nina Bonderup Dohn will take over as Editor-in-Chief in the coming year. 



Stay healthy!