Conference: Conversations Across Boundaries: Bringing PreK-2 Mathematics Experts Together

Leaders in mathematics and elementary education are organizing and hosting a conference that brings together researchers from mathematics education, cognitive science, and special education. The work is grounded in a common goal via constructive conversations and is purposefully framed to bring forth areas of agreement and disagreement when it comes to early mathematics teaching and learning. Organized over three face-to-face meetings with follow-up virtual meetings, the conference is designed to generate a set of teaching and learning principles as well as a collaborative research agenda among the fields, reflecting existing agreements regarding early mathematics and uncovering areas of disagreement where further exchange and generation of knowledge is needed. The conference will foster opportunities for new insights and collaborations across fields, and new avenues for research and practice. Expected outcomes include: (a) Collaborative research proposals, discussion groups, symposia, and working groups at professional conferences across the different fields, (b) A virtual event to enable all researchers who are interested in learning more about the products of the work, (c) Preparation of a Research Coordination Network proposal to expand and continue collaborative research, and (d) A project website that will share all products created from the conference that is hosted and maintained by NC State University. This project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research (ECR) program and Discovery Research preK-12 (DRK-12) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The DRK-12 seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.