Psychology & Education: Toward New Research/Policy Syntheses

American Psychological Assoc, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

As a result of the persistent attempt to find out why American education is failing to fulfill many children's potential and many societal needs, many of the elements needed to answer the question have been identified and some of those have been successfully implemented. However, work must continue on identifying remaining pieces of the puzzle and, especially, on how to assemble the pieces into a coherent whole. Succeeding will require the construction of conceptual and structual bridges between scholars working at different distances from educational applications. NSF's draft stategic plan includes the following long term outcomes, under the heading of "Ideas": * Partnerships connecting discovery to innovation, learning, and societal advancement. * Research and education processes that are synergistically coupled. The WPA and APA symposia proposed herein should contribute meaningfully to achieving those ends buy bringing together distinguished scholars with expertise in diverse areas of psychology (evolutionary, social, cognitive, cross-cutural) and education research and policy, to stimulate discussion about how to improve education research and policy, to stimulate discussion about how to improve education by effectively integrating research and policy.