LPRPArchivesMeetingoftheMindsII
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4/19/06
ANNOUNCING: A MEETING OF THE MINDS II SYMPOSIUM!
The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), the California Department of Education (CDE) Adult Education Office, and the California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO) of the American Institutes for Research are pleased to announce a Meeting of the Minds II: A National Adult Education Practitioner-Researcher Symposium.
Scheduled for November 30-December 2, 2006, at the Sheraton Grand hotel in Sacramento, California, the symposium is designed to provide opportunities for adult education practitioners and researchers to share and discuss the most current research findings and practitioner wisdom. It will engage practitioners and researchers with questions related to goals, accountability, and efficacy and efficiency in policy, practice, and research. The ultimate goals of the symposium are to highlight systemic changes that can enhance literacy practice and increase student learning gains. The theme of this year's symposium is Systemic Change and Student Success: What Does Research Tell Us?
As in the first Meeting of the Minds Symposium that was held in 2004, each session of the 2006 Symposium will be structured so that the research presentation is followed by a panel of practitioners who will discuss implications for practice or policy. In addition, conference attendees will have opportunities for small group interaction and networking with researcher-presenters to discuss not only how research can inform practice and policy, but also how practice and policy can inform and suggest a research agenda.
More information about the Meeting of the Minds II symposium will be available soon on the symposium Web site, www.researchtopractice.org. (This Web site currently lists presenters' PowerPoints and abstracts of sessions held at the 2004 Meeting of the Minds symposium as well as thoughts generated by attendees regarding implications of the research findings.) We are in the process of updating this Web site to house information about online registration for the 2006 symposium as well as information about hotel registration. We will send out another notice after the Web site has been updated. In the meantime, please save the dates and plan to join us in November in Sacramento!
Thank you.
-Mary Ann Corley, Ph.D. Symposium Coordinator and CALPRO Director, American Institutes for Research
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4/21/06
As part of the planning for the Meeting of the Minds II (November 30 – December 2, 2006: see previous email), are there any specific areas of adult education research that you would like to see covered?
Thanks.
Erik Jacobson
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4/22/06
Erik and all
What about the crossroads/intersections/tensions around experimental and qualitative research? Heide Wrigley and Larry Condelli had an interesting session last time where Heide talked about some of those components. I’m not thinking of a debate (although that might ensue, in the form of rigorous discourse..) but a real look at ‘real’ research utilizing both ends of the spectrum, as well, perhaps, as some of those lying in between. Purposes of research surely determine their methodologies – but how to move away from the Us / Them splits and really look at, on the ground, who benefits/learns from what kinds of research, who supports it and why do we think about it at all.
This may be strikingly evident to many – but if/as we want to engage more practitioners – and learners – into the discussions, we need to consider the multiplicity of perspectives, purposes and approaches.
Janet Isserlis
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4/24/06
I would like to see research on how to address the transition of adults with low to no literacy skills into the traditional adult ed world successfully...we have students who don't make the transition even though they now have the skills...or even the issue of how to best prepare these low literacy students for the adult ed world...
Lynn M. Howard
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4/25/06
Eric, I was thrilled to see the announcements of MoM II. The first MoM was pivotal in my own professional development. I felt much more connected to adult ed research, knew what was being done by whom, knew how to access research, knew how to promote its link to classroom practice, etc.
I'm interested in current research in the following areas: Writing instruction for ABE and ESL learners Professional Development - especially transfer of learning from PD into practice Direct teaching of grammar to ESL learners Vocabulary acquisition for ESL learners See you in Nov-Dec.
Jane Miller
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4/25/06
David makes some very important points about the origin of the ALE Wiki and the connections to the first Meeting of the Minds. I would like to follow up on several things.
(1) The ALE Wiki section "Research to Practice, Practice to Research" has resources from the first Meeting of the Minds, as well as from the study circles CALPRO has been supporting. Here is the url for that section:
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Research_to_Practice%2C_Practice_ to_Research
(2) As we are moving forward with the planning, we will certainly have potential presenters review the material about the first Meeting of the Minds. The site for the first Meeting of the Minds is here http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/SymposiumContinued
This section has abstracts from the presentations, power points (when they were made available), and participant generated implications for practice, research and policy.
(3) One key resource is a list of questions participants generated on the first day. That can be found at this address:
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/SymposiumQuestionResponse
One thing that we would like to do at this year's Meeting of the Minds is to revisit those questions to see what kind of work (either on the part of practitioners or researchers) has been done over the last two years. When you have a chance, review those questions and post responses to this list. Do we have any more information about any of the questions?
(4) I have just created a new page at the wiki that lists the suggestions people have made on this list for topics for this year's symposium.
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/MeetingoftheMinds2PotentialSessio nTopics
As a CALPRO staff member who is helping put the symposium together I will keep an eye on that list, just in case people want to suggest topics outside of this discussion list. You can also comment on the proposed topics.
(5) I think it is a good idea to think about how the wiki can be used DURING the symposium. We have been discussing ways to help people network while they are at the conference, and this list and the wiki are good resources. In particular, if you feel the urge to get a group of people together who want to talk about a specific topic, you could send out a call via the web ("Who wants to meet to talk about low-level ESL assessment?). Of course we will have a physical (pen and paper) message board for this, but electronic media might enable groups to get together quicker.
Erik Jacobson
