THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

The working language of the Research Forum is English, all electronic communication will be in English, all sessions will be conducted in English, and all written materials produced will be in English. All participants will receive an electronic file of the papers by June 15, 2005 so that they can read the papers before attending the Forum. A bound collection of these papers will also be distributed in a hard copy when participants arrive at the conference, as well as being posted on the SRTL-4 Website under secured access. There will also be a CD Proceedings that will include a revised version of all papers presented in the Forum. Following the precedent of SRTL-3, we plan to have a special issue of SERJ devoted to Research on Reasoning about Distribution. Presenters are invited to submit papers for potential publication in this issue, which will be guest edited by Maxine Pfannkuch and Chris Reading.

The presentations of SRTL-4 are thematically grouped into five clusters. The activities of the scientific program include:

• Research presentations to the entire group. There will be 10 such presentations, with two presentations per thematic cluster. Each presenter, or team of presenters, will be allocated 90 minutes to present, which includes interactive whole group discussion and a small subset of video clips, if desired.
• Small group discussion around the cluster’s thematic topic (1 hour).
• Short opening session for reflection on the presentations and discussions of the previous day (30 minutes).
• Optional, extensive time devoted to viewing and discussing research video-tape (two 2-hour sessions).
• Poster session for informal sharing of research by any participants who wish to exhibit their current research (2 hours).
• Panel presentation by discussants (90 minutes).

The main meeting room is equipped with overhead projection, the viewing and hearing of audio tape, video tape, and DVD, internet access, and computer access.

INVITED PARTICIPANTS

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRESENTERS

All presenters are requested to complete the Registration Form online by May 15, 2005. Also, presenters are requested to complete the Payment Form and render payment online by May 15, 2005. For presentations with more than one presenter, separate Registration and Payment Forms must be completed by EACH presenter. Remember, after May 15 the registration fee increases by NZ$50. Finally, each presenter is requested to submit a paper on their research presentation topic. Please submit the paper electronically by May 1, 2005 to the local coordinator at m.pfannkuch@auckland.ac.nz. See Guidelines for preparing paper in this announcement.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISCUSSANTS

All discussants are requested to complete the Registration Form and return it electonically by May 15, 2005. Also, discussants are requested to complete the Payment Form and render payment by May 15, 2005. Remember, after May 15, 2005 the registration fee increases by NZ$50. The discussants will actively particiapte in all sessions and discussions. In addition they will have 30-minutes each to share their own reflections and comments on the Forum in a panel on the concluding day.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

All graduate students are requested to complete the Registration Form and return it electonically by May 15, 2005. Also, graduate students are requested to complete the Payment Form and render payment by May 15, 2005. Remember, after May 15, 2005 the registration fee increases by NZ$50. Graduate students and beginning researchers are invited to participate in the following ways. They may exhibit a poster that shares their current research project, take active part in all the discusssions, and finally may also help synthesize the small group discussions at the end of each day to share with the whole group at the reflection beginning of the following day.

PRESENTATION FORMAT

The scientific program calls for presentations to be grouped thematically into five clusters. A cluster consists of two presentations, combined with small group and whole group discussion. This structure allows each presenter to share the details of their research with the entire group, and in addition, permits the entire group to process the research findings and substantively interact with the cluster topic. Presenters should plan to present a small, but relevant subset of research video clips and bring handouts of transcribed interviews/ observations or other materials as needed, if they are not included in their paper. Presenters will not show their entire video footage during their 90 minutes presentation, but will have the opportunity to interact with video research data during two optional dedicated 2-hour sessions for this task. All presenters are requested to bring their video segments on a CD/DVD. Presenters are expected to consider comments and suggestions made during the discussion in the Research Forum in the revision of their paper before submission of their paper to the SRTL-4 Proceedings CD. Revised papers are expected to arrive before Sep 15, 2005 along with the final cut of the digitized video clips.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING DRAFT PAPER

GENERAL GUIDELINES

When writing your paper please give special consideration to the following points, based on lessons learned from reviewing papers submitted to past SRTL meetings:

1. The opening sections

The opening sections (Introduction/Background/review of scientific literature) should examine selected literature. Make sure the review of the scientific background is explicit about the specific purposes/goals of the study, as well as about the motivation or justification for raising your specific research questions, e.g., why is it useful to study XXX? How would answering these questions contribute to existing knowledge?

Ensure that your research questions are clarified and that when citing previous research, you describe what was found and how that feeds into or is the basis for raising the question(s) you pose. Avoid stating research questions that are too broad or fuzzy. Clearly show how the questions emerge from what is known and not known.

2. The Method section

The method section needs to be structured. Try to organize it according to the three standard subtopics: (a) "Participants" (or "Subjects"), (b) "Instruments" (and/or "Tasks"), and (c) "Procedure". That said, in certain qualitative or complex studies, you may need to open the section with an additional subsection (before Participants) titled either "Approach" or "Context" or "Setting" (to describe considerations that led to a specific design, the learning environment within which the study takes place, etc.), and/or to close with another subsection titled "Analysis" (describing the analytic procedures if it is nonstandard).

3. The Discussion section

The Discussion section should be structured as well.

• Briefly summarize the overall pattern of your results and explain how the results help to answer the research questions listed earlier. Discuss how the findings link to and add to the existing knowledge/literature base, inform current models, etc.
• Discuss the limitations of your study and the ramifications, e.g., in terms of the extent to which your findings can be generalized to other participants/contexts, etc.
• Present specific conclusions or point to implications regarding: research and knowledge (e.g., needed changes to: models or theories, research methodologies, future studies, etc.), educational practice (teaching methods, technologies and materials, teacher training, etc.), and if relevant also assessment and/or evaluation.

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR SRTL-4 PAPERS

4. Submission

Presenters are requested to submit a paper on their presentation topic by May 1, 2005 to the local coordinator at: m.pfannkuch@auckland.ac.nz.

5. Structure

A common format is requested for all SRTL-4 papers. The structure should be:

• Overview of the problem and its importance
• Brief review of related literature
• Purpose/goals of the study and its specific research questions
• Method (or "Context and Method"):
  - "Approach" or "Context" or "Setting"(optional)
  - "Participants" or "Subjects"
  - "Instruments" and/or "Tasks"
  - "Procedure" (could be combined with Instruments/Tasks).
  - "Analysis" (optional)
• Results
• Discussion (including limitations)
• Implications for research, educational practice, and assessment
• References
• Appendices
• Annotated list of video segments (if included)

We assume that this structure will fit most papers. If it does not fit yours, please let us know. Be reminded that the focus of your paper should be on a particular aspect of reasoning about distribution - limit your literature review and results and discussions to this topic.

6. Format/Template Guidelines

The paper should use the Statistics Education Research Journal (SERJ) Microsoft word template, author guidelines, and template guidelines, all three of which can be downloaded from http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php?show=serj. Use this word document electronic format for submission.

Please follow the SERJ submission guidelines BUT before you save the document for sending to the SRTL-4 coordinator (m.pfannkuch@auckland.ac.nz) please increase the font by 1 point and change the line spacing to 1.5 in order to improve the readability at this stage of the process. Also follow these particular guidelines for SRTL-4:

1. Page length is restricted to maximum 7,000 words for body text. This limit on word count refers to the main text of the paper, and does NOT include: material in tables/graphs in the text, references, appendices, abstract, and other elements that are not part of the body text. Please be careful to be concise and focus on details relevant to reasoning about distribution. To avoid lengthy text that repeats published materials, provide citations and point the reader to references with more detail on related work.
2. Longer supporting materials may be included in appendices. We encourage you to include full interview transcripts, copies of assessment items and instructional materials.
3. If you wish to include video segments as part of your paper, you should reference as follows: “see video segment 1”.
4. Page numbers should at the bottom in the center of the page, numerals only. Font should be Times New Roman 10 pt. (This font size is for page numbers only.)
5. About style: The use of first person is only appropriate when using “we” to describe study details throughout the paper. The passive voice, instead of “I”, should be used for papers authored by one person (For example: instead of “I asked the students”, “students were asked”).

POSTER SESSION

Any participants who would like to present their current research in statistics education on any topic other than reasoning about distribution are invited to informally share this research in a poster session. Discussants and graduate students, in particular, are encouraged to share their research. You will be able to bring your research description on A4 sheets of paper, which you can pin on a board at the conference venue. If you are interested in presenting a poster please submit a title and short one paragraph abstract when you register for the conference on 15 May 2005.