Keynote Paul Kirschner at EARLI SIG6/7 conference

On Monday, 30 August 2010, Prof. dr. Paul Kirschner, chair of the Learning & Cognition Programme at CELSTEC, a research institute of the Open Universiteit, will give the opening keynote address at the EARLI SIG6/7 conference. This conference will take place at the University of Ulm, Germany from August 30 through September 1, 2010.

Keynote
Title of Paul’s keynote is: ‘Educational Urban Legends: Busting Persistent Myths in Education, Educational Innovation and ICT in Education’.
Educational reforms that we often see are most often not based on good science and/or good scientific research, but rather upon beliefs, poorly designed research and the strange idea that ‘stagnation means decline’. An extra problem is often that these reforms are propagated by so-called educational gurus who should know better, but who cannot resist the seductiveness of these legends! Paul Kirschner will look at a number of these urban legends from the perspective of what cognitive science and good research in the field has to say about them.

Conference theme
The focus topic and conference theme is: ‘Instructional Design for motivated and competent learning in a digital world’. Recently several studies of educational research do not only address cognitive aspects of learning and instruction. They additionally analyse motivational aspects like interests, self-concepts, attributions etc. This holistic approach seems to be especially fruitful for analyzing computer based learning environments. The digital world often attracts learners first on a motivational level and only afterwards learners focus on knowledge acquisition. Hence, one main issue of the meeting is to learn more about the interdependencies of motivation and cognition in (computer-based) learning.

EARLI
The EARLI SIG6/7 conference is organized by the EARLI Special Interest Groups 6 “Instructional Design" and 7 "Learning and Instruction with Computers". EARLI (European Association for Learning and Instruction) exists to support and promote an active research culture in the field of learning and instruction. EARLI enables about 2000 members from 40 countries to engage in critical dialogue. They systematically exchange and discuss ideas on instructional and educational research, as well as on research on industrial training. For these scholars, drawn from all parts of Europe and many parts of the world, EARLI provides a platform to contribute to current debates. Through its networks, activities and the publication of journals and book series, EARLI promotes both international and interdisciplinary cooperation.