Welcome to MWERA 2017!
Innovation in Education and Research
October 18-20, 2017
Hilton Orrington Hotel, Evanston, IL

Twitter hashtag: #mwera2017

Welcome!

Along with the Board of Directors and Program Committee, I welcome you to the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Mid-Western Educational Research Association (MWERA). The conference planning committee has worked diligently to create a program featuring thought-provoking and exciting events, including invited speakers, research-based papers, workshops, poster sessions, best practice sessions, research in progress papers, our new Flash Session, and our Luncheon Keynote Address. We are very grateful to the division chairs and co-chairs, reviewers, conference chairs, and discussants who have made this program possible.

As always, the 2017 MWERA conference invites various entities within the field of education, such P-12 educator; post-secondary educators; students; researchers; and government educational organizations, to share, discuss, and reflect on our work in education and related areas.

Conference Theme

As we move into a world of new industries, new labor market needs, and new problems to learn about and solve, we often find ourselves struggling to reform what we do in education and research. Unfortunately, after making this effort, we often discover that no substantial change has been made at all. Reforming an enterprise is not the same as transforming it. To effect true and lasting change, transformation is what we need—transformation through innovation, creativity, and thinking out of the proverbial box. So to celebrate our 40th conference, we focus on Innovation in Education and Research. We invited proposals that addressed various areas of focus such as (but are not limited to):

• innovative teaching, learning, and research processes and methods
• innovative solutions to improve student support, access to education, addressing individual differences
• creativity in educational administrative processes, policy creation, and professional development of educators
• novel uses of ubiquitous technology tools in education and research
• cutting edge technology trends in education and research
• teaching innovation and creativity to students
• transforming (instead of reforming) the teaching and learning endeavor

We are thrilled to explore these topics and much more this year. So thank you for your participation and again, welcome!

Sincerely,

Dr. Tracey A. Stuckey-Mickell
2017 MWERA VP & Program Chair