Salzburg Learning Symposium, Untapped Talent: Can Better Testing and Data Accelerate Creativity in Learning and Societies? (December 12 -19, 2015)

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This proposal requests funding for eight American scientists to attend a meeting at the SalzburgGlobal Symposium entitled, "Untapped Talent: Can Better Testing and Data AccelerateCreativity in Learning and Societies" The five day conference focuses on the current need todevelop assessments that measure skills critical for success in the 21st century workplace. Currently available assessments are not adequate to tap these important skills, and have not been sufficiently connected to instructional plans about how to build on areas of strength and bolster areas of weakness. The goal of the symposium is to develop new pathways for people to develop important skills and attitudes about learning, with particular attention to identifying and developing these skills in marginalized groups at risk of exclusion across generations. This session will specifically address the growing demand for assessments that inform educational practice, helping educators individualize instruction and improve learning. Participation at this meeting will allow the sharing of insights from a decade of cognitive and neuroscience research funded by NSF?s Science of Learning Centers. This will facilitate the use of cutting edge research on learning and assessment in action plans for the development of innovative assessments. The scientists attending the conference will share information about domains of knowledge that are both malleable and important for STEM success, notably spatial learning, and the importance of assessing attitudes about learning in addition to assessing knowledge and cognitive skills. They will present recent advances in integrating assessments with instruction, and the use of Big Data to make assessments efficient and informative.These interactions between scientists and assessment professionals will also stimulate new research questions about how people learn and the ways that assessment design and use can optimally be used to identify and foster talent. The Salzburg Global Forum has a well-established record of convening international meetings to tackle a wide-range of global challenges through engagement of diverse constituencies and expertise from scientists, education practitioners, and policy makers, government institutions, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. Participation of the US scientists at this meeting will enable the dissemination of research about learning to a diverse audience, not generally represented in conventional scientific/professional meetings