Heike Russ is a postdoctoral researcher and habilitation candidate at the Institute of Education, Department of School Education at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. She is part of the scientific working group "School pedagogy" of Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bohl.

In her habilitation project, she focuses on teaching quality, adaptivity, and dealing with heterogeneity in the school system, primarily researching in the context of authentic classroom teaching. She also works on generative learning and retrieval practice. She has a particular focus on quantitative research methods, which she complements with qualitative analyses to enable an in-depth investigation of learning processes. The aim of her research is to contribute to greater equity and participation in the education system through evidence-based approaches.

Since October 2024, she has represented mid-level academic staff in school pedagogy on the advisory board of the Institute of Education.

Heike Russ is a member of the DFG research group “Lasting Learning: Cognitive Mechanisms and Effective Instructional Implementation” (FOR 5254), the Tübingen School of Education (TüSE), the Tübingen Center for Digital Education (TüCeDE), and an associated member of the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network.

Working group
School pedgogy

Current Project
GRAIL: Embedding Generative and Retrieval Activities to Foster Inquiry-Based Learning in Science Classrooms
The project is embedded in the DFG research group "Lasting Learning: Cognitive Mechanisms and Effective Instructional Implementation" (FOR 5254)

Awards
GEBF Early Career Publication Award 2026 awarded by the German Society for Empirical Educational Research in the category of doctoral researchers for the publication "Combining non-interactive teaching and drawing fosters conceptual knowledge but not monitoring accuracy from guided inquiry in science learning" (Journal of Educational Psychology, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000971)