PPD/SP-Conference: Invitational Conference on Learning Disabilities and the Teaching of Science and Mathematics

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will convene a conference to set an agenda for research and future activities for teaching science and mathematics to K-12 students with learning disabilities (LD). Conference participants will be invited from three groups of experts: teachers who have successfully taught science and mathematics to precollege and post-secondary students with LD; neuroscientists; and cognitive scientists. Neuroscientists will explain the physical workings of the human brain in the context of learning and conscious knowing, how the brain bypasses dysfunctional pathways, and new technologies that help us understand the brain. Cognitive scientists will explain how people generally learn and how people with LD learn differently. Teachers will discuss the tests that measure various learning limitations and the successful strategies they use in teaching science and mathematics to K-12 students with those limitations. Participants will be directed to develop the agenda for the future. The primary goals of the conference are: 1) identification of barriers that prevent K-12 students with learning disabilities from fully participating in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) educational opportunities; 2) the development of an agenda for research and future activities to remove the barriers; 3) the dissemination of the collective expertise of conference participants to interested staff at NSF and AAAS, to each other, and to other leaders in the LD education community. Secondary goals include: 1) a contribution to efforts to assure equal access to science and mathematics learning for students with learning disabilities by fostering a cross-disciplinary approach to the underlying problems; 2) creation of a core group of experts to address the educational needs of students with LD over a long period of time in the future.