Since the publication of the first volume, interest and work in the application of artificial intelligence to education has grown rapidly. The convergence of interests we noted in Volume one, between advocates of intelligent tutoring systems and those of more exploratory learning environments, is now being realized in a melding of research programs and implemented systems, exhibited in fact by the papers collected for this volume. "Synthesis and Reflection" was taken as the theme for the fourth international AI and Education conference held in Amsterdam in May 1989. The progressive internationalization of work in this area has meant that the domains of concern and ways of dealing with them has also multiplied. Contemporaneous with a confluence of research programs there is developing a broadening into other concerns, beyond instruction narrowly considered, even into issues of cross-cultural transmission of knowledge and how, specifically, experience with computation can impact the lives of people with major handicaps. Appropriately, the papers in this collection reflect this also. We see a continuing need for research in AI and education to integrate itself into this wider context and hope that advances in hardware and software technology will continue to support such efforts.