NAS Hoping To Bridge Divide on Learning Methods

By David J. Hoff

Washington

The nation's most respected scientific organization is in the middle of a two-stage campaign to define how research on children's learning can be used to reshape what happens in classrooms.

The National Academy of Sciences will soon publish a report summarizing existing research on how people learn. Later this year, the Washington-based professional society that advises federal policymakers will issue a follow-up study detailing how that research should inform educational practice.

Both reports, the researchers hope, will help enlighten the current debate between advocates of traditional methods and those who emphasize hands-on learning. The debate, the scholars say, should not focus on which method is best, but on how...