This research describes a 54-month National Science Foundation-supported collaboration, the Thinking Mathematics Project, between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) of the University of Pittsburgh wherein expert teachers and cognitive researchers sought to codify the best of clinical and research knowledge on student learning and instruction for mathematics in the early grades. The authors draw on their documentation of the development of the collaboration between these two organizations and the teachers and researchers involved to provide highlights of participants’ reflections of the collaborative experience. Lessons about what works and what doesn’t when teachers and researchers attempt to build a common learning community are described.

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