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ResearchED held its first Midwest conference at a public high school near St. Louis, drawing about 160 attendees for a day of sessions on learning science. The grassroots event promotes applying research on memory, attention and practice to classroom teaching; its reach and effect in U.S. schools remain unclear.
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 applying research about memory, attention and practice to teaching. The gathering extends the grassroots conference series into a region where organizers say research-based approaches to learning are not yet widely embedded in U.S. classrooms.
The St. Louis event included about 40 sessions and a keynote by British teacher, author and consultant Tom Sherrington. Rather than relying on a large multimedia presentation, Sherrington used a model geography lesson to show how memorization, discussion and repetition can support learning. He then asked teachers to consider whether their classroom routines give every student a chance to participate.
Sherrington told attendees, “We don’t need to do new stuff. We need to do the things we know really, really well.” The report describes the sessions as focused on research-based teaching practices and largely outside political and culture-war disputes. One session addressed artificial intelligence, with speakers discussing how educators might evaluate tools for their use of learning-science principles.
ResearchED began in 2013, when teachers Tom Bennett and Hélène Galdin-O’Shea organized a one-day gathering at Dulwich College in south London. The first event had roughly 30 presenters, according to Sherrington’s recollection. Local organizers later began holding conferences under the ResearchED name in other cities; the series has since expanded internationally.
A U.S. foothold for learning science
The conference brings a discussion about how students learn directly to teachers, rather than limiting it to academic research or specialist training. Its emphasis is on classroom practice: how educators can use evidence on memory, attention and practice when planning lessons and involving students.
The St. Louis gathering was modest in size, and a single event cannot establish how far its ideas will spread. Still, its arrival in the Midwest matters to educators seeking professional learning focused on research rather than short-lived teaching trends. The report also highlights a contrast: many foundations of cognitive science were developed in the United States, while its organizers and speakers say implementation has advanced further in England and Australia.
That comparison is an assessment by people involved in the movement, not a measured ranking of every school system. The conference’s practical value will depend on whether attendees can apply the ideas in their own classrooms and whether schools provide support for doing so.
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From London gathering to global series
ResearchED grew out of online conversations among British teachers around 2012 about why teacher preparation often did not cover how learning works. Bennett, a London teacher critical of untested educational trends, and fellow teacher Galdin-O’Shea organized the first event the following year. Sherrington said organizers initially thought it would happen only once, but another gathering followed in 2014 as educators requested events in their own cities.
The model relies on local organizers putting on one-day conferences under the ResearchED banner. The report says events have become common in England and have also been held internationally. At the time of the report, upcoming conferences were scheduled for Toronto, Doha in Qatar, and Haninge in Sweden. The St. Louis conference was identified as the series’ first in the Midwest, not its first event in the United States.
ResearchED centers on learning science, the study of processes such as memory and attention and how evidence about them might inform instruction. The source report says English policy changes in the early 2010s and a teacher-training framework helped bring these ideas into the mainstream there. It does not offer comparative data measuring adoption across U.S. and English schools.
““We don’t need to do new stuff. We need to do the things we know really, really well.””
— Tom Sherrington, keynote speaker and former teacher
How far the ideas will spread
The report gives the St. Louis conference’s attendance and program but does not track what participants did afterward or measure changes in teaching or student outcomes. It is also unclear how many U.S. educators have attended ResearchED events overall, how many schools use the practices discussed, or whether the conference series will hold more Midwest events.
Claims that U.S. schools lag England and Australia are attributed to conference participants; the report does not provide comparative statistics to verify the size of that gap. The source also identifies cognitive science as a broad field but does not evaluate the evidence for each practice presented at the conference.
Upcoming conferences and local follow-through
According to the report, the next three ResearchED events were scheduled for Toronto, Doha and Haninge, Sweden. The source does not provide dates for those gatherings or announce another Midwest conference.
The immediate next step for the St. Louis attendees is local: whether teachers and schools take the conference’s ideas into lesson planning, staff training and classroom routines. No formal follow-up program, evaluation plan or student-outcome study is described in the report.
Key Questions
What happened at the St. Louis ResearchED conference?
ResearchED held a one-day conference at a public high school near St. Louis. About 160 attendees took part in roughly 40 sessions on learning science and teaching practice.
What does ResearchED focus on?
ResearchED events focus on research about memory, attention and practice, and how educators might apply those findings in classrooms. The St. Louis program included a model lesson and sessions on teacher practice.
Is this the first ResearchED event in the United States?
No. The report describes the St. Louis gathering as ResearchED’s first conference in the Midwest. It also says organizers had previously held events in New York City.
Did the conference show that learning science improves student outcomes?
The report describes the conference and its teaching ideas, but it does not present an evaluation of student outcomes or evidence that this event changed classroom results.
What happens after the St. Louis conference?
The report listed upcoming ResearchED conferences in Toronto, Doha and Haninge, Sweden. It does not state whether another Midwest event is planned or describe a formal follow-up for St. Louis attendees.
Source: the74million.org
