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ResearchED held its first Midwest conference at a public high school near St. Louis, drawing about 160 attendees for a one-day program on learning science and classroom practice. The grassroots event series began in London in 2013 and has spread internationally, but its reach and influence in U.S. schools remain uncertain.
ResearchED held its first Midwest conference at a public high school near St. Louis, bringing about 160 educators together for a one-day program on how research into memory, attention and practice can inform teaching. The event extended a conference series that began in England in 2013, as organizers seek to bring learning science to more U.S. teachers.
The St. Louis-area gathering featured about 40 sessions, including a keynote by British educator Tom Sherrington. Rather than focusing on new classroom technology or a dramatic presentation, Sherrington used a model geography lesson to illustrate techniques involving memorization, discussion and repetition. He urged teachers to consider how to engage every student in class.
ResearchED events are locally organized gatherings held under a shared banner. The series began with a one-day event at Dulwich College in south London in 2013, organized by teachers Tom Bennett and Hélène Galdin-O’Shea. The first event had about 30 presenters, according to Sherrington’s recollection. Subsequent events spread to other cities in England and then internationally.
The report describes the St. Louis event as a small conference and says it was the series’ first in the Midwest. Organizers presented it as an opportunity to introduce regional educators to research on learning. The conference’s program largely centered on teaching practices; the report says only one session discussed artificial intelligence, with attention to evaluating tools against learning-science principles.
A Midwest Entry Point for Learning Science
The conference matters as a local entry point into a wider discussion about how teaching can draw on evidence about memory, attention and practice. Teachers attending a one-day event can hear researchers and practitioners discuss classroom methods without committing to a particular technology or packaged program. The emphasis, as reported, was on applying established findings to everyday lessons.
It also highlights a difference in how the ideas have traveled. The source reports that learning science has gained a stronger foothold in England, supported by policy and teacher-training changes in the early 2010s, while U.S. educators interviewed for the story see fewer comparable structures in American schools. The St. Louis gathering shows interest in the approach, but its 160 attendees do not establish how widely it is being adopted across the region or the country.
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From London Gathering to Global Series
ResearchED grew out of online conversations among British teachers in 2012 about why teacher preparation did not better address how learning works. The following year, Bennett and Galdin-O’Shea organized the first event in London. Sherrington recalled that participants initially expected it to be a one-off gathering; demand for further events led local organizers to stage conferences in other places.
The series now includes events beyond the United Kingdom. The report named Toronto, Doha, Qatar, and Haninge, Sweden, as destinations for upcoming gatherings at the time it was written. Although cognitive science has deep roots in U.S. research, the story says its ideas became more established in England, where education policy and a teacher-training framework helped bring them into professional discussion.
““We don’t need to do new stuff. We need to do the things we know really, really well.””
— Tom Sherrington, keynote speaker and educator
How Far U.S. Adoption Reaches
The report documents the conference and its attendance, but does not establish whether participants changed their teaching or whether students benefited. It also does not provide comparative data showing how widely learning-science methods are used in U.S. schools. Claims that the United States is behind England and Australia, including Mercanti-Anthony’s estimate of a decade, are attributed views rather than measured findings in the article.
The source does not specify the conference’s exact date, whether another Midwest event is planned, or how many U.S. educators participate in ResearchED overall. The future locations it lists describe planned events at the time of publication, not confirmation that they later took place.
Future Events and Classroom Reach
ResearchED’s next steps, as described in the report, were additional international conferences, including planned events in Toronto, Doha and Haninge. The report does not announce a date or venue for a second Midwest gathering. Whether the St. Louis event leads to further regional conferences, or to wider use of the discussed practices in schools, remains to be seen.
Key Questions
What happened at the St. Louis-area ResearchED conference?
ResearchED held a one-day conference at a public high school near St. Louis, with about 160 attendees and roughly 40 sessions focused on learning research and teaching practice.
What does “learning science” mean in this report?
The report uses the term for research into how memory, attention and practice work, and how that evidence can inform teaching.
When and where did ResearchED begin?
Teachers Tom Bennett and Hélène Galdin-O’Shea organized the first ResearchED event in 2013 at Dulwich College in south London. Sherrington recalled that about 30 people presented.
Does the conference show that U.S. schools are adopting these methods?
No. It shows that educators attended a conference on the subject, but the report provides no data on nationwide adoption or on changes in classroom practice after the event.
Source: the74million.org
