Submission Guidelines

Invitation to WALS 2021

Call for proposals

Deadline: 13 Aug 2021

Conference theme:  

“Revisiting Lesson and Learning Studies: Accessibility, Quality, and Sustainability”

Conference objectives             

The WALS 2021 Conference will feature paper presentations, symposia, posters, skill-building workshops to highlight empirical findings, explore ideas and share experiences on  current topics related to Lesson or Learning Study in general, the theme and strands of the conference especially.  We cordially invite students, teachers, school leaders, teacher educators, researchers and curriculum developers from all countries and regions to join us online at WALS 2021.

Strands and submission            

Strands 

Contributions to the conference will be accepted in relation to the following strands:

  1. Lesson or Learning Study in initial teacher training
  2. Leadership, management and policy aspects of sustainable Lesson or Learning Study
  3. Developing Professional Learning Communities: Models and practices
  4. Lesson or Learning Study in different cultural, subject and learning contexts
  5. Research methodology and theoretical underpinnings of Lesson or Learning Study
  6. Creating knowledge in practice: action research and other practice-based research approaches
  7. Innovative uses of Lesson or Learning Study
  8. Reconceptualisation of Lesson or Learning Study through ongoing practice-based classroom teaching and learning

Submissions  

Submissions are accepted online only at www.walsnet.org/2021. The deadline for the online submission is on or before 13 August 2021 (all time zones). Late submissions will not be accepted. In case your  proposal is accepted, you need to register by 30 September 2021 in order to be included in the programme. There is no need to be a WALS-member to submit. The registration fee includes a one-year membership. 

The official language of WALS international conference is English. Please note that only paper and session submissions that have not been previously presented and/or published at another conference are eligible.

Author submission limitation

In order to provide conference participants with a broad array of presenters and presentation topics, the Conference Committee allows you to submit three proposals as a presenting author. However, it is possible for you to be listed as a non-presenting co-author on another person’s submission..  

Submission formats

The WALS 2021 Conference invites contribution in the following types of presentation formats.

Types of PresentationDescription
PaperPapers in any of the strands listed above or related areas. Paper presentations will be recorded in October (maximum 10 minutes) and attendees will be able to view recorded presentations prior to a live Q and A session shared with other paper presenters. A chairperson will be nominated to manage the timing and chair the Q&A live session.
SymposiumA symposium consists of three (exceptionally up to four) presentations of related papers and will last for 90 minutes. Each symposium ideally presents several related (sometimes contrasting) views on a single topic or issue. Each session is chaired and a discussant is invited to reflect on the presentations. Most symposia will be recorded in October prior to the conference with a live Q and A session but you may be asked to consider carrying out a live symposia. Examples of symposia: Researchers from the same field may collaborate in organizing a symposium consisting of 3 research papers which covers inter-related topics. A school may be interested in organizing a symposium consisting of 3 presentations from school leaders’ perspectives or teachers’ case studies.Teachers may wish to collaborate across schools to present case studies of similar subjects or focus.
PosterShort presentations of research and practices are invited in poster sessions. The poster sessions offer presenters the opportunity to present their work which may still be in progress. The posters are presented in a 5-minute verbal pitch to the audience using powerpoint or other softeware, e.g Prezzi. You may also choose to present without voice sharing a visual presentation. All accepted presentations will need to be recorded in October. Attendees will be able to view the presentations in advance of live Q and A sessions during the conference.

Submission procedures

Proposals can be submitted on or before 13 August 2021. The proposal is to be submitted by completing the online submission form which can be found at www.walsnet.org/2021/proposal. Only proposals which are submitted online and in time will be reviewed. Please create an account before submit your proposal at www.walsnet.org/2021/register

Each proposal contains the following information.

  • Names and email addresses of all authors (This information will not be revealed to the reviewers to ensure the anonymous procedure.)
  • Title of the proposal (up to 25 words)
  • The strand selected
  • The type of presentation
    a. Paper
    b. Symposium
    c. Poster
  • Keywords that illustrate the content of the proposal with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 keywords
  • An abstract (up to 250 words) describing the aim of the research/practice/project, methodology, (preliminary) findings, significance for theory and/or practice and relevance for the selected conference strand.

In the case of a symposium, an additional summary of 250 words (highlighting the content of the symposium in general, key points of the three papers and their inter-relationship, including the names of the chair and discussant) has to be submitted together with the abstracts of the three papers.

Each proposal will be reviewed by two independent reviewers. The final decision for acceptance lies with the programme committee. Possible outcomes are “Accepted” or “Rejected”. In the case of acceptance, the programme committee may decide to assign the proposal to a different format than the one originally submitted. Once accepted, the abstract of the paper (and summary in the case of a symposium) will be published in the online conference programme. By submitting a proposal, you grant permission for such publication.

Criteria and guidelines

For the review procedure, the following criteria and guidelines apply.

Paper / Symposium / Poster Proposals:

  • Clarity of aim / formulation / conceptualization
  • Quality of writing and organization
  • Relevance of research topic for this conference and selected strand
  • For symposiums, a critical criterion is whether individual presentations are sufficiently inter-related.

Notification of acceptance for the 1st Round Proposal Submission will be provided w/b 2nd August 2021.

Important Dates

20 March 2021First announcement at WALS 2021
20 March 2021First call for proposals / Proposal submission opens.
1 May 2021Registration opens
30 May 20211st Round Proposal submission closes
13 August 20212nd Round Proposal submission closes
w/b 2nd August 2021Notification of acceptance for the 1st Round Proposal Submission
w/b 6th September 2021Notification of acceptance for the 2nd Round Proposal Submission
From 1 August 2021Online registration opens
27 November 2021Online registration closes
28 November 2021PhD Pre-conference
29 November to 1 December 2021WALS International Conference 2021 Online
2 December 2021 WALS AGM and Closing Ceremony