Since November 2015, Barbara Flunger has been working as an assistant professor at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on the question how students’ motivation and learning behavior can be improved, considering the impact of students' individual differences. To this end, she is also interested in advanced statistical modeling techniques that effectively identify and model the impact of student heterogeneity on academic outcomes, e.g., concerning the significance of students' family background.
Barbara Flunger was awarded a grant by the DFG on configurations of learning types in students’ homework behavior. Barbara Flunger is leading a research project since 2022 on the role of autonomy regulation in self-directed learning in collaboration with Tamara van Gog, funded by the PhD fund of Utrecht University. Moreover, Barbara Flunger, together with Vincent Hoogerheide, leads the project “Making homework work: Generating vlogs as learning strategy”, funded by the Stimuleringsbeurs Rijksoverheid, as of September 2024.