Calls for Proposals

We invite participation and contributions from a wide range of designers and users of STEM learning across diverse fields, such as learning materials, professional development, assessment, curriculum specification, and policy. We are particularly looking to reach out to those who may not see their work as educational design in the hope that ISDDE might provide a new "home" in which to meet with like-minded professionals who seek improved educational outcomes in STEM.

The conference will include a range of different activities including keynote lectures, working groups with a focus on different areas of design, delegate presentations of their work, and a poster session.

Presenting

We encourage all delegates to make a presentation by completing the form here:

Proposal submissions are now closed.

The submission only requires a title, 400-word abstract, and presenter/(co) author information.

• Your proposal can be: a 20-min research presentation, or a 30-min design workshop (interactive discussion on a focal design problem). Each should be used to present some aspect of your work that you wish to share with our design community.
• And/or provide a poster (on a design or a study) for display at the conference.

The Conference Committee aims to be in touch to confirm acceptance of submissions at the end of each month. For any questions, queries, or concerns about the ISDDE 2026 Conference please email isdde2026@gmail.com.

Deadline for Individual Papers, Design Workshop and Poster Submissions has been extended to April 15, 2026.

Working groups

A hallmark of the ISDDE conference, we will have three working groups. As in past ISDDE conferences, these working groups will focus on a topic collaboratively developed by participants and facilitated by co-leaders assigned to each working group. Working group members will contribute their collective expertise to an ongoing discussion and development of a byproduct to share with the rest of the ISDDE delegates.

Designing for professional learning

Professional learning for teachers and educators is a central concern in educational design, particularly in contexts where new curricula, resources, and pedagogical approaches are being introduced. Designing for professional learning involves not only supporting teachers in understanding new content, but also fostering changes in practice, reflection, and collaboration over time. In this discussion group, we propose to collaboratively explore key challenges in this area:

• How to design resources that are educative for teachers?
• How to support meaningful engagement with materials in diverse contexts?
• How to balance guidance and teacher agency?
• How to design for sustained professional learning beyond isolated interventions?
• How to support teachers in interpreting student thinking and using evidence from classroom practice?
• How to design professional learning for emerging technologies, such as generative AI?

Assessment design

Assessment plays a critical role in shaping teaching and learning, yet designing meaningful and coherent assessment remains a complex challenge. In recent years, there has been increasing attention to formative assessment, alignment with learning goals, and the integration of assessment within instructional design. In this discussion group, we propose to collaboratively explore central questions in assessment design:

• How to design assessments that help teachers understand student thinking and inform instructional decisions?
• How to align assessment with learning trajectories and instructional goals?
• How to balance validity, reliability, and usability in real contexts?
• How to integrate assessment as a core component of learning rather than as a separate activity?

Teaching and learning with generative AI

Generative AI has emerged in recent years as a powerful technological development that is transforming many fields and challenging our society. Education is not an exception, where teaching and learning are permeated by the use of new AI tools, from students using it to complete homeworks, to teachers using it to generate content and scale evaluation, to the incorporation of such tools in didactics and new teaching approaches. In this discussion group, we propose to collaboratively explore different challenges posted by AI:

• How to foster effective autonomous use by students?
• How to increase productivity for educators in content production, teaching practices, and assessment?
• Which ethical considerations should we consider?
• How to support and not replace learning processes?
• To which extent does it challenge the curriculum and the definition of learning objectives?

Designing for joy

Educational designers have developed systematic approaches to creating materials that improve learning outcomes and reduce negative experiences. In this working group, we will discuss how to systematically design for disciplinary joy, building on established principles of rigorous development to advance our understanding of design approaches that consistently create learning experiences in which students find genuine delight in thinking, knowing, and practicing within their disciplines.