Waterbury Summit on the Learning Sciences

The Waterbury Summit on the Learning Sciences is an invitational conference exploring the principle of heterogeneity. Over three days, learning scientists will represent diverse perspectives on multiple heterogeneities across the field in an effort to put ideas into conversation with each other.

Dates: May 14th – May 16th, 2019
Location: Shaver’s Creek & Krause Learning Space

Program Available at: https://innovation.ed.psu.edu/waterbury-summit-program/

Invited Guest Speakers:

Tamara Clegg, University of Maryland
Kevin Crowley, University of Pittsburgh
Dick Grandy, Rice University
Kris Gutierrez, UC-Berkeley
Carol Lee, Northwestern
Victor Lee, Utah State
Eve Manz, Boston University
Bill Sandoval, UCLA
Rafi Santo, CSforALL
David Stroupe, Michigan State
Katie Headrick Taylor, University of Washington
Susan Yoon, University of Pennsylvania

Conference Theme: Heterogeneity in the Learning Sciences

A fundamental tenet of the Learning Sciences is the principle of  heterogeneity. The field was founded as an interdisciplinary effort to address the complexity of real learning environments in situ. This meant taking up issues and considering design elements around the heterogeneous perspectives of the research context itself as well as participants’ engagements in the design and study of learning environments. It implies, too, engaging with issues around heterogeneous approaches to investigating learning. The research has been driven by an understanding that students are heterogeneous across multiple dimensions of identity, culture, and cognition. Learning scientists represent a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, and thus bring with them heterogeneous epistemic disciplinary perspectives on the nature of knowledge and accompanying learning goals. The strength of the Learning Sciences as a field is its researchers’ willingness to embrace this diversity and complexity in an effort to understand learning and to design environments that capitalize on that understanding to create innovative and powerful learning experiences.

Schedule of Events:

Tuesday Evening: Opening Session at Shaver’s Creek
Wednesday Morning: Epistemic Heterogeneity
Wednesday Lunchtime Poster Session
Wednesday Afternoon: Data Heterogeneity
Wednesday Evening: Dinner & Keynote with Bill Sandoval
Thursday Morning: Cultural Heterogeneity
Thursday Afternoon: Heterogeneity of Impact

For more details on each session, visit: https://innovation.ed.psu.edu/waterburysoe. For session abstracts and recommended readings, visit: https://innovation.ed.psu.edu/waterburyabstracts.

Program Available at: https://innovation.ed.psu.edu/waterbury-summit-program/

For questions please contact Joanna Weidler-Lewis at jrw96@psu.edu.