The review of TLRP's research that is presented in this volume offers manifold aspects that are worth reflecting on. In my contribution, I concentrate on two aspects that are especially interesting from an international perspective or, more precisely, from a German point of view. The first is a general reflection on the education and science policies that frame educational research in the United Kingdom and Germany. The second is related to the concept of `effective pedagogy' that is presented in James and Pollard's contribution to this volume. I offer some considerations on research traditions and epistemological frameworks with respect to this concept and illustrate my remarks by looking for commonalities and possible differences between `effective pedagogy' and the German concepts of `Bildung' and `Didaktik'.