2008 Summer Institute

During a week-long summer institute, participants and teams developed research projects addressing “problems of practice,” to be carried out during the coming academic year. 

The institute was geared toward practicing and emerging researchers who want to be supported as they conduct research in this community.

The institute’s structure sought to build bridges between secondary and post-secondary classrooms, encouraging participants to explore questions about learning and teaching that will inform teaching practice in both high schools and colleges. 

Workshops to Explore Teaching for Understanding

The 2008 summer institute’s theme was “Teaching for Understanding.”

The summer institute’s discussions and explorations were interdisciplinary, addressing both assessment and practice.

Each participant selected her or his own research topic, working with other participants who are pursuing similar inquiries or who are using related research methodologies.  

 
Together, participants considered discipline-specific answers to these questions:

• What does it mean to understand something?
• How do I know that the student understands?
• What do I do to make it more likely that
  students will understand?

The summer institute’s work drewson sources including Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design (1998), Bransford et al.’s How People Learn (2000), and Indiana University’s Freshman Learning Project.