2009 SCIPIE Conference:

How does culture influence teaching and learning?

The third SCIPIE conference will bring together researchers to examine diverse responses to the question: “How

does culture influence teaching and learning?” At the macro level, culture encompasses diversity in language,

traditions, and identities. At a micro level, culture refers to specific educational contexts such as those found in urban

schools, rural schools, and in individual classrooms. We are particularly interested in conversations about the

challenges and opportunities represented at the intersection between the macro and micro levels.

Participant Roles

We are plannin another active and innovative “working” conference. We have retained the format from our last two

conferences. Once again, we have structured the conference differently from more familiar national conferences.

First, we are not asking presenters to give a traditional presentation of their research. Instead, we have defined

several roles for the participants: 1) Moderator; 2) Featured Participant; 3) Session Facilitators; 4) Poster Discussant,

and 5) Poster Presenter.

The goal for each session is to create opportunities for interaction and lively discussion of topics that the participants

indicated were of interest to them in their submitted abstracts. We found at our first conference that this interaction

will push the thinking of faculty and students alike.

Let us describe each of the participant roles. The role of the Moderator is to organize the creative chaos. The

Moderators should look over the session content, be sure they are aware of the research programs of the

participants, and develop discussion questions that will spark conversation. Moderators may want to contact the

others in their session prior to the meeting. During the session, the Moderator will keep the session moving and

keep us on schedule.

The role of the Session Facilitator is to provide the content basis for the conversation. The Session Facilitators will be

asked to provide specific examples of the research problems of interest. These examples may be drawn from current

on-going research projects, or completed research programs. Session Facilitators will be contacted directly by the

Program Committee to clarify the content we are asking them to share. Session Facilitators may send any material

they would like to the participants and Moderators to our website: scipie.net.

The role of the Featured Participants is to play an active role as a participant in the discussion. The Featured

Participants should look over the session content, read whatever content the Facilitators have made available on the

website, and come prepared with questions that will spark conversation.

The role of the Poster Discussant is to attend the poster session and be responsible for discussing a set of posters

with interested session attendees. Poster Discussants will want to read the abstracts of their assigned posters

posted at on our website before the conference.

Poster Presenter is the only role that will be familiar to our participants. You are to come prepared to display a visual

representation of your work and give an overview of that work to your Poster Discussant.