Using Design-Based Research in Gifted Education

Design-based research (DBR) is a new methodological framework that was developed in the context of the learning sciences; however, it has not been used very often in the field of gifted education. Compared with other methodologies, DBR is more process-oriented and context-sensitive. In this methodological brief, the authors introduce DBR and explain why it can be useful to researchers in the field of gifted education. The authors give an overview of the history and the key features of DBR, then discuss the challenges of using DBR. Based on both the literature and the authors' experiences using DBR as a framework in their own empirical studies, suggestions are provided to help gifted education researchers who would like to use DBR.