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".