PKAL 2005 Roundtable on the future - Call for applications

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Announcing the PKAL 2005 Roundtable on the Future: Linking learning theory and institutional transformation.

The 2005 PKAL Roundtable on the future will address how advances in the cognitive and learning sciences inform us about how people learn and how such information and data might guide the work of academic leadership responsible for shaping the undergraduate STEM learning environment. For the purposes of this Roundtable, learning environment is defined as:

• the academic program (formal instruction in classroom and lab)

• the co-curricular/non-formal program, which could include group, project, and discussion activities, that enable 24/7 learning temporally and physically

• the spaces in which undergraduate learning and research, both physical and virtual

• the human infrastructure supportive of deep learning

• the technological infrastructure supportive of deep learning and corresponding research

• the operational infrastructure supportive of deep learning.

The Roundtable Planning Committee invites colleagues with interest in this topic to submit an essay describing their relevant work and research. The essay should be no more than five pages, including a one-page bibliography. The essay should include information about the ideas and insights, based on your work, that could inform the Roundtable discussions. Include:

• a description of your recent work in the undergraduate setting:

  • the context of your work, particularly as it connects with the work of colleagues beyond your institution

  • the focus of your work, specifically in its theoretical and disciplinary/interdisciplinary context

  • the hypotheses your work suggests, together with evidence (data) that you and your colleagues have collected that illuminate the hypotheses examined.

• a brief reflection regarding how, increasingly, interdisciplinarity characterizes creative work in STEM disciplines. What impact do you see this having in your work, or on your thinking about the future of learning in undergraduate STEM environments?

• a brief comment about what you would like to learn at the Roundtable.

• some brief reflections on the "what if?" question: what might be the character of the undergraduate STEM learning environment if academic leaders incorporated advances from cognitive and learning science into their planning for institutional transformation?

Twenty participants will be selected by the Roundtable Planning Committee, with attention given to the breadth of relevant experience. Selected participants will pay for their own travel and hotel; there will be no registration fee.

There are two specific outcomes anticipated from this Roundtable:

• June 2005– PKAL Volume IV postings will present essays and ideas about next steps– for faculty, administrators, architects, researchers, etc.– emerging from the Roundtable conversations

• Fall 2005– PKAL will host a national assembly on the Roundtable topic, planned by Roundtable participants, open to all interested parties. (date tba).