The Earli SIG 15 conference will hold several exciting workshops, please see descriptions below.
The workshop gives an overview of how AI can support the research process in special education from early idea formation to publication and outreach. Building on evidence syntheses that map AI use across key domains (e.g., study design, literature work, data management and analysis, reporting and dissemination, and ethical compliance), we translate these opportunities into concrete, transparent workflows.
Participants will identify opportunities to use AI in diagnostics (e.g., generating and refining item pools, designing parallel forms, adapting language and representations, supporting rubric development, and assisting the qualitative coding of solution strategies) and differentiation (e.g., prototyping differentiated learning environments, generating task variations and feedback prompts, and planning evaluations of usability, learning processes, and outcomes).
We discuss AI both as methodological support for measurement, design, and analysis (e.g., assisted content analysis; development of diagnostic tasks and item variations; evaluation designs) and as a workflow tool for efficiency (e.g., generating and debugging R syntax, academic writing). Short inputs are combined with structured discussion and peer exchange.
Susanne Schnepel is Professor of Mathematics Education with a focus on Special Needs Education at the University of Münster. Her research examines inclusive teaching and inclusive mathematics learning for students with intellectual and learning disabilities, using qualitative and quantitative methods. She also explores the use of AI in the research process.
Moritz Börnert-Ringleb is Professor of Special Education with a focus on Learning Disabilities at the University of Hannover, Germany. His research focuses on research on assessment practices, particularly in relation to teachers’ decision-making processes. Moreover, he is conducting research related to the overlap of learning processes and social-emotional development of students.
In this workshop, we will pause to reflect on science communication. Societal impact and the accessible communication of scientific knowledge to wider audiences are central components of academic work.
The workshop presents two case examples of successful science communication. Participants will be guided to collaboratively explore how the key messages of their own research can be communicated effectively and accessibly to different target groups.
The workshop is facilitated by PhD, Docent Jenni Vartiainen, who has extensive experience in disseminating research to broad audiences as well as to practitioners.
PhD Jenni Vartiainen works as a university lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. She holds the title of Docent in Early Science Education.
Jenni’s research interests focus on early science, mathematics, and STEAM education, with particular emphasis on play-based learning and cultural-historical approaches. She has developed strong expertise in science communication and societal impact.
As examples of successful societal impact, she has scripted a children’s science television programme for the Finnish national broadcasting company and also appeared in the programme herself. In addition, she founded Kide Science, a startup company that emerged as a spin-off from her doctoral research. Kide Science became the first Finnish startup in its field to achieve an exit to the United States.
In both practice and research in special education, engaging with children’s perspective is widely acknowledged as essential, yet far from straightforward. As adult teachers and researchers, we cannot assume that we fully understand how children experience and interpret their world. Standard tools, such as questionnaires and interviews, may be interpreted differently by children or may not be suitable for them at all.
In this interactive workshop, researchers from different projects will share, explore, and critically reflect on innovative approaches to engaging with children. Drawing on our experiences with children aged 3–7 with intellectual disabilities and children aged 9–12 in mainstream education, we will discuss approaches such as observations, (online) focus groups, audiovisual data collection, and child-led interviews that can be used in special education contexts.
Participants will actively engage in hands-on exercises, experiencing both the methodological and ethical challenges and the added value of these approaches. Together, we will reflect on how novel data collection strategies can more meaningfully capture children’s perspectives and inform special education practice and research
Dr. Anja van der Voort is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University and chair of the program group Research Methods and Statistics. She advises and collaborates on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies across diverse topics. Her work focuses on optimizing methodologies for studying young people and their (professional) caregivers, with particular attention to idiographic methods. For example, she investigated the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting online focus groups with children. Currently, she is involved in projects comparing different qualitative data collection methods, applying single-case experimental designs to evaluate interventions, and using peer interviews in which children interview other children. Anja is a board member of the Context Network, a network for qualitative methodology in the Netherlands and Belgium, and an editor of Kwalon, the Dutch blog page on qualitative methodology.
Lisa E. M. Tessensohn, Msc, is lecturer in Research Methods and Statistics and a PhD candidate at the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University. Her doctoral research compares qualitative data collection methods, particularly focus groups and interviews, across online and offline modes. She examines how these methods differ in terms of data richness, trustworthiness, and participant experience, including synchronous and asynchronous formats. Lisa teaches methodology and statistics in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs and has a professional background in child welfare and forensic family pedagogy.
Roosa Segersvärd is a third-year doctoral researcher in Educational Sciences and a university teacher in early childhood and special needs education at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation explores perspectives within disability studies, with a particular focus on inclusive pedagogy and its connection to the development of existential resilience and well-being among children with intellectual disabilities. She combines interviews, observations, and digital autobiographical narratives within a multi-method research approach.
Satu Peltomäki (PhD., affiliated researcher, University of Helsinki). Satu’s expertise focuses on the participation of children with intellectual disabilities and the activity area-based curriculum model, which is a way to organise teaching in Finland for pupils with intensive support needs. The aim of her dissertation, published in 2025, was to describe methods that enable pupils with intellectual disabilities to participate, and to explore how different parties participate in the pupils’ goal-setting processes. In addition, Satu has conducted research on themes such as differentiation, sense of belonging, and participation of adults with intellectual disabilities.
In this workshop, we will look into how one can model interindividual differences in intraindividual development with cross-lagged panel and latent growth curve models. Participants will get access to the example data so that they can do the analyses themselves while we go through the content. I will use Mplus in the analyses.
Professor Johan Korhonen is affiliated with Åbo Akademi University. His research focuses mainly on (1) mathematical learning difficulties and (2) cognitive and affective factors related to mathematics performance. He also has a keen interest in quantitative research methods.