Conference Theme: Methods that Matter

Education is a highly complex system of causes, effects, and interactions.  The development of knowledge about how best to educate children depends on research that can elucidate the pattern of causes and effects in this complex system.  No one method is sufficient to develop such knowledge. A variety of rigorous research methods will be needed.  Methods that matter are those that can identify ways to produce demonstrable improvements in educational outcomes.  Consistent with this theme,  the conference for 2009 invites reports of research that address such questions within one (or more) of the following areas:

• Reading, Writing, and Related Language Skills
• Mathematics and Science Achievement
• Preschool Education
• Strategies for Reform

These constitute the primary sections within which papers will be considered. A fifth section, research methodology, will address how a careful consideration of measurement, research design, and data analysis can improve our ability to draw clear conclusions about the effects of educational interventions.

Investigations that provide empirically based connections between critical outcomes and pragmatic decisions in education will offer the best fit for the 2009 conference.  All studies should therefore have results from completed studies in time for the meeting.  The methodology section may, however, accept studies based on either empirical studies or on theoretical explorations related to the study of cause-and-effect relations important for educational effectiveness.

Questions may be sent to 2009conference@sree.org