Earlier this week, ISLS announced that Susan Jurow and Jianwei Zhang will be the Co-editors in Chief for the next 4 volumes (2021-2024). Congratulations Susan and Jianwei! Both have extensive experience as authors, reviewers and associate editors at JLS. We look forward to working with them during the transition and wish them well in this exciting role. -- Jan and Susan. 

We're thrilled that the special issue for 2020 already has been published. "Situating Data Science: Exploring how Relationships to Data Shape Learning" Edited by Michelle Wilkerson and Joe Polman. Read at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hlns20/29/1?nav=tocList 

Each year scores of learning scientists volunteer to donate their time and energy to reviewing the scholarship of their peers for JLS. These reviews are the labor that gives the journal its value to the field, and that enable the community to continue to grow and redefine itself over time. JLS prides itself on providing reviews that are thorough and constructive, that hold up scholarly standards while inviting newcomers into the intellectual community. We sincerely appreciate the contributions of all of the scholars who have provided reviews for JLS over the last year.

As noted by the editorial team at JLS, there are always some reviewers who go above and beyond the expected commitment. Sometimes that is in the form of putting in extra effort to mentor a junior scholar with support and explanation to scaffold the process of authoring a journal manuscript. Sometimes it takes the form of providing reviews that are not only thorough but also timely. Sometimes a reviewer who has already completed multiple reviews for the journal will agree to do just one more review, despite the press of many other commitments. These acts of generosity and collegial dedication are generally invisible to all but the members of the editorial team. There is a solid core of such reviewers for JLS, and each year some new ones emerge.

Journal of the Learning Sciences is inviting proposals for a special issue, to be published in 2022. Instructions for preparing a proposal are posted on the Instructions to Authors at the publisher’s website, https://tinyurl.com/y9neyuhd. Proposals are due December 2, 2019 and will be peer reviewed by the journal’s editorial leadership team. Submitters of the accepted proposal will be notified in February 2020.

In general, we are interested in proposals on emerging themes in the field. For example, proposals that take up the call for research that has impact on teaching and policymaking that was elaborated in a guest editorial in issue 27 (1); on the intersection of the learning sciences and the future of work; on novel methodological and technological approaches to teaching and learning; on artificial intelligence and learning, and so on. This list is not meant to limit the range of possibilities, but to provide some examples of possible themes. We are interested in receiving proposals that reflect the global membership of the ISLS community. This may include multiple suggested authors, a guest editor, or a discussant from outside of the United States.

What is really known about classroom dialogue? Which aspects are relevant for student learning – and which do not matter?

Join the online conversation with the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Team Christine Howe, Sara Hennessy, Neil Mercer, and panelists - Christa Asterhan, and Antonia Larrain on Nov 13. #JLSWebinar #dialogicteaching #educationaldialogue

Issue 28 (3) is available online!

IN THIS ISSUE: In Rosemary Russ and Leema Berland use activity theory to demonstrate how the pervasive tension between learning correct ideas and constructing one’s own ideas often results in unacknowledged slippage between competing activity systems within reform efforts. Marc Clarà investigates how discursively symmetric dialogue develops across lessons in collective inquiry. Doris Chin et al. test choice-based assessments (CBAs), which measure how people learn when there is minimal guidance and they must make decisions as independent learners, in the context of teaching design-thinking strategies to 6th-graders. Christina Barbieri et al. examine the effectiveness of self-explanation prompts, visual signalling cues, and a combination of the two features on middle school students’ algebra learning.

Issue 27 (2) is out!

Just in time for your reading during AERA.