Design-Based Research (DBR) tackles practical educational problems and simultaneously contributes empirically and theoretically to understanding teaching and learning processes within the given context (McKenney & Reeves, 2018). One such educational problem is the implementation of participatory Citizen Science. Citizen Science is considered a promising approach to actively involve laypeople in scientific research processes, thereby fostering participation in science and socially relevant topics. However, integrating participatory research into the classroom remains challenging, for example due to limited perceptions of relevance, insufficient inclusion in research processes, or low self-efficacy among students (Solé et al., 2024).

The project WattsAhead addresses this tension between the intended goals of participatory approaches and the challenges of implementing them in schools. Against the backdrop of the energy transition, it pursues a participatory research approach, actively involving lower-secondary students in key phases of the research process. While two PhD projects deal with students' cognitive hope (desired goals, pathway thinking, agency) (Snyder et al., 1991) as a basis for their intention to participate in the energy transition, the project also explores design frameworks for implementing Citizen Science in regular classroom teaching. From this focus, research questions address which design criteria for Citizen Science workshops on the energy transition can be derived for regular classroom teaching and how the workshop design influences students’ participation in the project and their intention to participate in the energy transition.

Methods

To address these aims, WattsAhead applies an iterative DBR approach. The process is guided by theoretically and empirically grounded design conjectures, focusing on: (I) the idea that perceiving personal, societal, and future-oriented relevance supports students’ participation (Stuckey et al., 2013), and (II) that involving students in multiple phases of the research process fosters engagement (Morales-Doyle & Frausto, 2021). These conjectures are operationalized through design criteria, which guide the development of the workshop design.

The prototypical workshop design consists of three workshops, implemented in the 2024/25 school year with around 300 students (approximately 13 years old) across five Austrian schools: (1) an introductory workshop on energy use and the energy transition; (2) a workshop focused on the co-development of an interview guide and interview training, followed by a research phase including the conduction of interviews and (3) a workshop on collaborative data analysis and the dissemination of results via social media.

For formative evaluation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 students and evaluated using categorical content analysis (Kuckartz, 2018). Deductive main categories for analyzing the students' perceived relevance of the topic (Stuckey et al., 2013), their perceived participation (Arnstein, 1969), their roles (Shirk et al., 2012), and their perceived contribution of the project regarding their intention to participate in the energy transition (Snyder et al., 1991) were implemented.

Results and Discussion

Preliminary interview data indicate that students perceived the energy transition as relevant across three dimensions (Stuckey et al., 2013): personal (e.g., energy saving), societal (e.g., reducing fossil fuel use), and future (e.g., protecting the earth). The results indicate that students largely perceived the workshops as contributory to collaborative in terms of their roles within the project (Shirk et al., 2013), while their level of participation was often experienced as tokenistic (Arnstein, 1969). In terms of the project's contribution to the students' intention to participate in the energy transition, some students stated that the project had clarified the desired goal of the energy transition and made pathways to achieving it visible (Snyder et al., 1991).

The results suggest that in particular the design conjecture regarding participatory involvement needs to be implemented even more strongly in the workshop design. Based on the interview data, the workshop design was refined and reimplemented in the 2025/26 school year.

Educational Significance of the Research

Focusing on the energy transition, this study illustrates how DBR can be leveraged to develop evidence-based, participatory learning arrangements that engage students with socially relevant topics and research participation. The findings provide insights for designing school-based participatory projects that promote intention, while supporting students’ understanding of scientific processes. The implementation of DBR, as carried out in this study, is not context-specific, but can be transferred to other problems in educational practice.

Design-Based Research (DBR) is a methodological approach that seeks to address practice-relevant challenges in educational contexts through the implementation of instructional interventions (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). One such challenge is the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly large language models (LLMs), which is fundamentally transforming teaching and learning practices in school contexts. The main concern is not the increasing prevalence of GenAI-use per se (Feierabend et al., 2025; Saferinternet.at, 2026), but rather the fact, that LLMs provide generated texts that students often adopt without critical reflection (Bodora et al., 2025). Additionally, more than half of young users consider the generated information to be reliable (Saferinternet.at, 2026).

Delegating information retrieval and source evaluation entirely to GenAI is particularly problematic, as “[…] current forms of generative AI may lead to forms of educational delegation that undermine personal and social responsibility” (Perrotta, 2023). To address these challenges, this study presents an instructional design developed for upper secondary education that aims to foster critical source evaluation in the context of AI-supported research practices (Hendler et al., in press). The study is guided by the following research questions:

How must an instructional design for upper secondary education be conceived in order to promote a critical use of generative AI in source research?

Which mediating processes are activated by the specific design elements?

What conclusions can be drawn from the first implementation to further develop the instructional design in a subsequent iteration?

Methods

Following the theoretical stance, DBR-guided instructional designs are tested and refined in authentic classroom settings while generating and extending theoretical insights within the respective problem context (McKenney & Reeves 2019). The instructional design presented in this contribution was implemented in Grade 11 at an upper secondary vocational school. The focus was on source research within the context of school-based information retrieval. Conjecture maps served as the central analytical and theory-building instrument, modelling hypothetical relationships between design elements, the learning processes they elicit, and the resulting learning outcomes (Boelens et al., 2020).

Data collection included a pre-post online survey, classroom observations, student artefacts, an audio recording of a focus group discussion, and a retrospective interview with a participating teacher. Qualitative data were analyzed using structuring qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2022), while quantitative data were analyzed descriptively.

Results and Discussion

The evaluation of the collected data revealed that the mediating process of “critical-comparative analysis”, in which students examine and compare multiple AI-generated sources, was insufficiently differentiated in its initial modelling. The two originally interconnected focal points (i.e. understanding the functioning of LLMs and developing awareness of their reliability in comparison to search engines) need to be modelled separately in a subsequent iteration.

With regard to the mediating process of “knowledge transfer”, the findings indicate that the associated tasks require clearer specification. Overall, the first iteration provides concrete guidance for further optimization of the instructional design. Corresponding design revisions are illustrated through iteratively refined conjecture maps. Following the DBR approach, the conjecture maps also demonstrate that fostering a critical engagement with AI-generated information can only be achieved through a carefully designed and iteratively optimized learning environment.

Educational Significance of the Research

The proposed contribution presents a DBR-guided study that makes several important contributions to educational research. On the one hand, it introduces an empirically grounded instructional design that addresses a challenge in current educational contexts: the increasing and largely unguided use of LLMs in school contexts. The design places particular emphasis on the critical and analytical evaluation of sources in AI-generated texts. On the other hand, the study highlights the analytical potential of conjecture maps as a tool for systematically linking design decisions with learning processes and learning outcomes.

Design-Based Research (DBR) has been widely adopted as a framework for the systematic development and evaluation of instructional innovations in authentic learning contexts. In the field of German as a Foreign Language (GFL), DBR is particularly relevant for addressing challenges related to the design of digital learning environments, where pedagogical decisions and technological affordances are closely intertwined. Against this background, the design of task-based materials using online whiteboards (OWBs) emerges as a particularly demanding area of instructional development. While OWBs offer rich multimodal affordances, these do not automatically translate into pedagogically meaningful learning tasks, but require systematic design decisions including both didactic and technological considerations (Cutrim Schmid & van Hazebrouck, 2012). Addressing this gap, the present research project addresses methodological-didactic, media-specific, and technical aspects of task design on the online whiteboard Miro. The goal is to develop, implement, and evaluate theoretically grounded task-based learning materials to foster oral interactional competence and to synthesise the findings into design principles contributing to theory building (Prediger, 2024).

Methods

The study employed a formative and a summative iterative cycle of classroom implementation (November 2024–March 2025), and evaluation. Initial task design drew on three theoretical perspectives: interactional research on L2 learning (Huth & Betz, 2023), Task-Based Language Teaching (Jackson, 2022), and principles from multimedia learning and media didactics (Mayer, 2021). These frameworks shaped a set of theoretically grounded design principles guiding both the linguistic-didactic structure of tasks and their multimodal implementation on the OWB. Data were collected through screen-recorded online sessions (n=14 h), learner-generated products on OWB (tasks and recorded TalkTracks), and post-task interviews with learners and instructors (n=7). Interview data were analysed using qualitative content analysis with a deductive category system and iterative refinement (Mayring, 2022). Interactional and interview data were examined in relation to the design principles to assess their applicability and validity.

Results and Discussion

The analysis resulted in a set of design principles organised into two interrelated dimensions: language-learning-related principles focusing on didactic task design, and tool-specific principles addressing the visual design of OWBs. Empirical testing showed that the visual organisation of task sequences on the OWBs plays a central role for learner comprehension and task engagement. Recurring layouts, consistent alignment, and systematic shape coding supported the delineation of task phases and helped reduce cognitive load.

The findings further demonstrate a strong interdependence between language-learning and tool-specific design principles, as pedagogical intentions could only be realised when supported by appropriate visual and technological design. The design principles were operationalised across multiple levels, including task structuring, graphic presentation, and OWB usability, enabling systematic analysis and iterative refinement of task-based learning materials within a DBR framework.

Educational Significance of the Research

The study provides evidence-based design principles for developing and implementing task-based materials on OWB, supporting learner engagement and reducing cognitive load. More broadly, it highlights the interdependence of didactic intentions and tool-specific design, offering a framework for implementing complex tasks in synchronous online language learning. The consolidated principles contribute to theory-based guidelines for digitally supported language instruction, demonstrating how multi-level operationalisation can inform both instructional design and research.