Implementation site staff will meet at noon February 1.  Overall conference registration will begin at 5:00 PM Thursday February 1 followed by a reception at 6:00 PM. Representatives from curriculum projects should plan to arrive by 5 PM February 1st. The conference will adjourn by noon February 4. 

Conference Theme and Goals

Two recent publications by the National Research Council provide the context for examining central issues in the reform of math and science education at this year’s conference. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (National Academy Press, 1999) edited by Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, provides a broad overview of the science of learning and how our understanding of learning constrains the design of effective learning environments. The work concludes with suggestions for furthering the research agenda, a theme that is expanded in the publication How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (National Academy Press, 1999), edited by Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino. The Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice that produced Bridging Research and Practice set out to answer the following question: What research and development could help incorporate the insights from How People Learn into classroom practice? A thesis of this work is that the message from learning research is filtered on its way to classrooms through the development of educational materials, pre-service and in-service teacher education, public policy, and public opinion. 

This year’s conference asks participants to consider the extent to which the materials and programs they have developed reflect the major lessons gleaned from research on learning, as well as how what they have learned informs and/or contributes to the research base. Questions that it is expected that presenters and participants will explore at this year’s conference include:

1. What is being learned about the implementation of comprehensive NSF funded math and science curricula? (Mike Feuer, Mike Klentschy, Anders Hedberg, Julie Riordan, and Zalman Usiskin)
2. What is being learned about how developers can best support professional development? (Linda Rosen, Iris Weiss, Cary Sneider) 
3. What is being learned about the role that electronic technology plays in learning mathematics, science, and technology? (Jeremy Roschelle, Andrew Zucker, Lisa Bievenue, Richard Braatz, Paul Horwitz, Daniel Edelson, Lawrence Cannon, Clifford Konold, Daniel Barstow)

• What did you do?
• What have you learned?
• What are the implications of your work for this audience?