Supporting planning and conducting experiments

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The National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, is hosting the 12thInternational Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), 2016, from 20 to 24 June, 2016. The international andinterdisciplinary field of the Learning Sciences brings together researchers from the fields of cognitive science,educational research, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, information sciences, anthropology,sociology, neurosciences, and other fields to study learning in a wide variety of formal and informal contexts (seewww.isls.org). The field emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the first ICLS held in 1991 atNorthwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Subsequent meetings of ICLS were held again in Evanston,USA (1996), Atlanta, GA, USA (1998), Ann Arbor, MI, USA (2000), Seattle, WA, USA (2002), Santa Monica,CA, USA (2004), Bloomington, IN, USA (2006), Utrecht, the Netherlands (2008), Chicago, IL, USA (2010),Sydney, NSW, Australia (2012), and Boulder, CO, USA (2014). ICLS 2016 is the first time that the conferenceis being held in Asia.Submissions for ICLS 2016 were received in November 2015, and then went through a process of peer review.An impressive number of submissions were received (571). The paper review process was very competitive.The overall acceptance rate for submissions was 37%. We accepted 65% of symposium submissions, 31%of full papers, 34% of short papers, and 43% of posters. The program reflects broad geographicrepresentation, with contributions from 31 countries and regions. We are especially grateful to those whoperformed reviews. 342 experts completed over 1,600 reviews of the submissions. As in recent years, foreach symposium, full paper and short paper, we assigned a senior reviewer who examined all reviews andmade a recommendation regarding acceptance in the category submitted, acceptance in an alternatecategory, or rejection. These senior reviewers greatly helped us make the decisions for each submission.The conference theme of ICLS 2016 is “Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners.” It directs our attentionto a key commitment of the Learning Sciences: providing an insightful understanding of how people learn. Aswe trace the genesis of the Learning Sciences, we are reminded of the main goal of this field of research, that is,to gain a deep understanding of the conditions and processes that lead to effective learning, and to use theresearch findings to redesign learning environments to bring about deep learning. Learning Sciences isconcerned with transforming learning and empowering learners.This long-standing commitment extends our research focus to the design of pedagogical interventions and learningenvironments to foster among participants a kind of learning that is transformative and empowering. This requireschallenging established beliefs about learning, teaching, and the design of learning environments. The theme“Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners” aims at reaffirming the key thrust of Learning Sciencesresearch, discussing advances in the field, and strategizing future directions to enhance our impact oneducational practice. ICLS 2016 aims to bring together learning scientists to adjudicate various academicrenditions of how people learn, and to institute further inquiry that encourages deep and probing examination ofthe nexus of instruction and learning, as well as the roles of technology. To address the conference theme, wearticulated the following strands.