معرفی
Machteld Vandecandelaere serves as a tenure track lecturer in the Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven. She holds dual membership in the LC&Y - KU Leuven Institute for Child and Youth and the LIVO – KU Leuven Institute for Educational Research, while chairing the educational committee for the Educational Master of Behavioral Sciences and participating in multiple Programme Oversight Committees across psychology and educational science programs.
Her research concentrates on educational psychology with emphasis on instructional design for diverse classrooms, flexible learning pathways, grade retention policies, and educational effectiveness. She investigates teacher epistemological beliefs in scientific reasoning instruction, develops frameworks for powerful learning environments in secondary education's B-stream (vocational track), and examines policy impacts on educational equity, particularly through longitudinal studies of Chile's grade retention reforms.
Analysis of her 2024-2025 publications reveals dominant trends in three interconnected domains: (1) grade retention policy evaluation in Chilean educational reforms, (2) pedagogical approaches to scientific reasoning and controversial issues in psychology education, and (3) design principles for inclusive learning environments targeting struggling students. These works consistently integrate teacher cognition studies with classroom implementation challenges.
No scientific awards or honors are documented in the available records. As promotor on six active research projects funded by the Flemish government and KU Leuven, she directs investigations into learning environments for secondary education's B-stream (2021-2025), grade retention in Chile (2022-2025), and scientific reasoning pedagogy (2020-2026), securing sustained research support through 2026. Her supervision extends to master's theses in psychology and educational sciences through courses P0V10A and P0V11A.
Embedded within KU Leuven's LC&Y and LIVO research ecosystems, she contributes to interdisciplinary teams developing evidence-based educational interventions, with current focus on teacher professionalization in vocational tracks and integrated learning environments for at-risk students as evidenced by her multi-case study on B-stream teacher working conditions.
