An ad hoc committee will conduct a study and prepare a report that will update and extend the NRC report How People Learn (NRC, 2000) by reviewing and synthesizing research that has emerged across the various disciplines that focus on the study of learning from birth through adulthood in both formal and informal settings. Consideration will be given to the research and research approaches with greatest potential to influence practice and policy, as well as cultural differences and similarities in learning, including special populations such as those learning English as a second language and those with learning disabilities. The report should specify directions for strategic investments in research and development to promote the knowledge, training, and technologies that are needed to support learning in today's world.
To address its charge, the committee will review research on learning and learning contexts across the lifespan (specifically, infancy and early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, middle adulthood and older adulthood). The committee also will consider advances in such rapidly growing fields as cognitive neuroscience and learning technologies, as well as discoveries, innovations, and inventions in: education and education research; cognitive science; developmental cognitive neuroscience; cognition, learning, and memory; cognitive aging; language and linguistics; social, emotional and motivational aspects of learning; learning in academic domains; learning disabilities; assessment (e.g., of learning, achievement, and performance in academic, cognitive, social, and affective domains); and research methodology ranging from basic research to implementation and dissemination science.

Attention will be given to ethological advances and designs that permit the integration of knowledge from multiple fields (e.g., network modeling, multi-level modeling, simulation modeling) and that enable study of the complexities of learning across various contexts (e.g., the interplay of micro and macro level learning and how teacher-learner interactions within specific curricula and approaches to pedagogy result in learning in domains over time).