The contributions of participants at both the workshop and the conference are incorporated throughout this report.

Following this introduction, Chapter 2 summarizes some of the key findings from How People Learn and outlines implications of those findings for teaching and for designing classroom environments. How People Learn is a lengthy report that covers a large field of research. Our effort here is not to summarize the entire document, but to focus on those findings and messages that are most directly relevant to classroom practice and to the mediating arenas that influence it.

Chapter 3 summarizes responses from educators and policy makers that were offered at the conference and at the workshop. More specific suggestions made by workshop participant regarding research and development are incorporated into Chapter 4, in which the committee presents its recommendations for a research and development agenda. The agenda is organized around each of the mediating arenas outlined above: educational materials, pre-service and in-service education, public policy, and public opinion and the media. In it the committee considers the research and development that would link each arena with the findings in How People Learn. The committee further recommends research that would extend the knowledge base reviewed in How People Learn in ways that directly support the goal of effective education.