Editors' Notes

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, no. 89, Spring 2002 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1

EDITORS’ NOTES

It is sadly true that most of the way we teach and learn is uninformed by lab-oratory findings in human cognition. Although researchers have made con-siderable progress in understanding the cognitive and social variables thatmediate in the learning process, very little of this basic knowledge has beentranslated into practice, many research questions that are critically importantfor directing educational reform remain unanswered, and few in the scientificcommunity have been actively involved in the efforts to reform higher educa-tion. This volume is among many recent attempts to build on empirically val-idated learning activities to enhance what and how much is learned and howwell and how long it is remembered. Thus, the movement for a real science oflearning—the application of scientific principles to the study of learning—hastaken hold, both under the controlled conditions of the laboratory and in themessy real-world settings where most of us go about the business of learning.

In May 1998, representatives of approximately fifty psychological sci-ence associations, educational associations, and related government agen-cies (such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Education,and National Institutes of Health) met in Santa Barbara, California, to charta course for psychological research in the coming decade. Attendees unan-imously endorsed the following resolution: “The Summit recognizes thecrucial importance of education in psychology to meeting the goals of ourfield and endorses efforts to enhance the scientific base of that education.”The chapters in this volume, along with other efforts, grew from that reso-lution as several academic scientists began to work toward the ultimate goalof redesigning postsecondary education based on what is known abouthuman cognition, motivation, and social factors.

As cochairs of the American Psychological Society’s Taskforce on Edu-cation, we coordinated a meeting of thirty-five outstanding academic sci-entists at Kellogg West Conference Center in Pomona, California, in March2001. We thank the generosity of the Spencer Foundation and the Marshall-Reynolds Trust for their support of that meeting, and we invite interestedreaders to join with us in supporting evidence-based teaching and learning.This volume can serve as a first step toward that goal.

Diane F. Halpern Milton D. Hakel Editors

DIANE F. HALPERN is director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Chil-dren at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. She is the authorof several books on teaching and learning and is the recipient of numerousawards for her contributions to the field.

2 APPLYING THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING TO UNIVERSITY TEACHING AND BEYOND

MILTON D. HAKEL is the Ohio Board of Regents Eminent Scholar in Industrialand Organizational Psychology at Bowling Green State University. His mostrecent book is Beyond Multiple Choice: Evaluating Alternatives to TraditionalTesting for Selection (1998). He chairs the U.S. National Committee on Assess-ment and Teacher Quality and the Board on Testing and Assessment of theNational Academy of Sciences.