The science of learning and development (SoLD) refers to the growing body of research from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and other developmental and learning sciences, which tells an optimistic story about the potential of all learners.
The Learning Policy Institute
The Listener from 20 January 2024 features a range of articles relating to our education system – with the curiously worded headline “Is Our Schools Broken?” (noting the incorrect agreement between the subject and the verb, used to illustrate the assertion of a broken system perhaps?)
Among the articles was an interesting side-bar titled “Follow the Science” and the subheading “The Government is signalling a ‘big shift’ in the way subjects are being taught.”
Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, is quoted in the article as saying “A huge part of where we have gone wrong over the past 30 years is in not following the science.’ She goes on to say… “that is my job at the moment with the ministry: to make my expectations clear that we will be following the science of learning.”
Whatever your view about the legitimacy of Stanford’s claim, it’s pretty clear that the ‘science of learning’ is going to get a lot of air time during the term of this current government.
No matter how you view things, there is clear evidence that we have some significant problems in our education system. This isn’t just New Zealand’s problem – it is global. Countries around the world are concerned about falling levels of literacy and numeracy (fuelled by global measures such as the PISA 2022 results). Add to that the increasing absenteeism and truancy rates, the decline in teacher standards and problems with recruitment and retention of teachers – and principals – and you have a pretty complex set of factors to consider.
Student achievement has and always will be a fundamental measure of success of our education system – just as patients being cured is the focus of our health system. In the health system, what contributes to this success is the quality of the medical teams involved, access to the medications required and adherence to a scientific approach to diagnosing and treating each patient based on their individual symptoms and needs.
The parallels with education can be clearly seen. Having well trained staff, quality resources, well designed curriculum and a set of procedures to follow all contribute to ensuring student achievement across a range of areas.
The challenge in all of this is to settle on a course of action that takes into consideration all of the factors that need to be addressed. We’ve seen patterns of intervention in the past that focus narrowly on one aspect, but not on the others, that so often fail to produce the results promised. For example, the introduction of new assessment practices without the aligning resource or support for teachers, the release of curriculum resources without addressing the approach to teaching with these resources, embracing hybrid learning without consideration of the technical infrastructure required, or changing the structures and expectations of school leadership and governance with little preparation of those who will take on these responsibilities.
This is the point made well in a recent article by Bali Haque titled “Why the silver bullets flying around education will miss the target”. In this article Bali alerts readers to the problems that come with focusing on discrete, ‘silver bullet’ solutions to complex education problems. He says…
Learning is always about context. Who are the students in each school? What do they know already? What kind of governance and leadership exists in each school? What resources are available in each school? What are the predispositions and capabilities of the teachers in each school, and how much ongoing professional support is needed and available? How much time will teachers be provided with, in each school? How might teachers and schools be supported to make progress? And crucially, how and when will the success or otherwise of change be properly measured?
He concludes with saying…
A successfully implemented new “science of learning” based curriculum (which, by the way, will inevitably be challenged by other science of learning-based experts of various political persuasions) depends on having really good answers to all the above. Otherwise it will be a waste of time.
I agree with Bali – there are no silver bullets, despite successive governments and ministers of education approaching their role as if there are. We ignore that fact at our peril – in fact, I’d predict that, while we may see some improvements in achievement, data around decline in teacher morale, exodus of principals and student absenteeism is unlikely to change (except negatively) as the result of embracing the ‘science of learning’ as the single point solution.
If the problem is, as the minister claims, a consequence of 30 years of neglect, then it’s very unlikely that we’ll achieve what’s required to implement a foundational shift to the science of learning during just one term of government.
In addition, if we are to embrace the science of learning as a driving force of change, what must occur to ensure there is a shared understanding of what this means, both in terms of definition and in terms of implementation? The term as presented by the Minister and by the media assumes there is such a thing as the science of learning, and that whatever this is, is commonly understood. But as Bali predicts, the meaning of this will inevitably be challenged by other science of learning experts of various political persuasions.
I happen to be of the view that there is real merit in working towards a shared understanding of the science of learning in order to achieve greater consistency and coherence in our approach to teaching and learning. I also believe that, contrary to what the Minister says about 30 years of neglect, there has been a focus on the science of learning across a wide range of activity in our system, including initial teacher education (where I worked for a decade) but not with the same emphasis on a system-wide understanding and application suggested by the Minister.
The thing is that our understanding of how the brain works, how learning occurs and the conditions that contribute to this have all been advancing significantly over the past 30 years (or more), and as a profession our embracing of these ideas has been, at best, patchy and lacking rigour and research – not to mention policy reforms etc. Going back to my medicine analogy – I have a friend in hospital at the moment and I remain constantly impressed by the standard of care and the professional approach of the clinicians as they work together to diagnose and address the issues that are affecting his health. All of this supported by the most up to date equipment and medications to support the treatments that are decided on.
So what is the science of learning?
As mentioned previously, there is no uniformly agreed view of what this is – the term has been around for a while, but as such, it’s meaning has been evolving as new thinking and research adds to the breadth of understandings involved.
Key elements of the Science of Learning that appear in common across most references are:
- Cognitive Processes: Examining how individuals acquire, store, and retrieve information, as well as the factors that influence attention, memory, and problem-solving.
- Neuroscience: Investigating the brain’s role in learning, including neural pathways, plasticity, and the impact of different teaching and learning approaches on brain function.
- Behavioral Science: Analyzing behavior patterns, motivation, and the impact of reinforcement on learning outcomes.
- Educational Psychology: Applying psychological principles to understand how students develop cognitively, emotionally, and socially, and how these factors influence learning.
Simply put, the goal of the learning sciences is to better understand the cognitive and social processes that result in the most effective learning. While many sources suggest that the term “learning sciences” was coined in the 1990s, arguably the science of learning has a much longer history – and can be identified in the work of educational theorists dating back to cognitivists such as Piaget and behaviourists such as Skinner.
For example, Piaget’s ‘stage theory‘ from the cognitive sciences has been used to inform the widely accepted ‘age-based’ cohort approach in our current education system on the one hand, and the idea of mastery-based progression on the other.
The work of behavioural scientists was used to accelerate the training of pilots in WW11 as the field of educational technology was booming. Much of what we see in the learning science literature today can be seen in the development of Skinner’s ‘teaching machines‘ and programmed instruction.
Fast forward to the modern day and these same ideas have been embraced by online game developers, elaborated on by theorists as the principles of gamification. Or by innovators such as the Khan Academy’s work on using large language models and AI to develop a world-class education system available to anyone.
The influence of these ideas are well documented in the historical development of educational technology – a term originally used in a way synonymous with what we now refer to as the science of learning, rather than focusing on technology as an artefact. (I taught in this field during the 1990s at the CHCH College of Education).
But just as it’s helpful to have an historical perspective on where this thinking has evolved from, it’s also important to remain up to date with the contemporary thinking and research that can inform our current approaches.
In the sections below I share some of the contemporary resources that have helped shape my understanding and thinking about the science of learning – the first in the list being a publication that I contributed to back in 2019:
Aligning Educational Policy with the Science of Learning and Development
Aurora Institute
This report analyses recent learning sciences research and provides nine recommendations to address a critical need: how can education policy support and align with the science of learning and development?
Research on how students learn and develop is providing teachers, practitioners, and policymakers with insights on how to help students learn and grow academically and develop holistically to achieve successful outcomes in their education and in life.
This report intends to bridge a knowledge gap in the field and can be used by education leaders to create a vision and framework for how to best support student learning and development.
The Science of Learning and Development – Learning Policy Institute
Linda Darling-Hammond and the team at the Learning Policy Institute have an impressive track record in this area of research and policy development. According to them, the science of learning and development (SoLD) refers to the growing body of research from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and other developmental and learning sciences, which tells an optimistic story about the potential of all learners. This evidence shows that the brain continues to develop throughout life as a product of relationships, environments, and experiences. Findings from this work have serious implications and powerful lessons for improving education. The foundations of the U.S. education system were built more than 100 years ago and were designed to select and sort—through segregation, unequal school funding, and tracking—rather than promote development and help every student access opportunities and reach their full potential.
The Science of Learning – Deans for Impact
This publication summarises the existing research from cognitivescience related to how students learn, and connects this research to its practical implications for teaching and learning.
The document is intended to serve as a resource to teacher-educators, new teachers, and anyone in the education profession who is interested in our best scientificunderstanding of how learning takes place.
Deans for Impact is a national nonprofit organization that represents a diverse group of teacher preparation programs in the United States.
The Science of Learning and Development – Pamela Cantor
I’ve read and heard a lot of Pamela Cantor’s work and think very highly of her. This essential text unpacks major transformations in the study of learning and human development and provides evidence for how science can inform innovation in the design of settings, policies, practice, and research to enhance the life path, opportunity and prosperity of every child. The ideas presented provide researchers and educators with a rationale for focusing on the specific pathways and developmental patterns that may lead a specific child, with a specific family, school, and community, to prosper in school and in life.
How the Science of Learning and Development That Can Transform Education
The Science of Learning and Development Alliance
This brief summarises several initial lessons from contemporary research that have significant implications for those working to advance opportunity, equity, learning, and youth development. In it they say…
To elevate the key insights from this research, we have articulated several initial core findings that have significant implications for our education systems. It should be emphasised that these findings are overlapping and need to be understood together in an integrated way. This list of key findings is, and always should be, a work in progress. As the science of learning and development advances, and our work expands, we will learn and say more about these and other findings, and their implications.
The Science of Learning and Development – Edutopia (website)
Dr Pamela Cantor from Turnaround for Children sets the scene in this video on the Edutopia website with the question “what science should we be paying attention to in order to understand how learning happens?” The video features contributions from Dr. Cantor and Dr Linda Darling Hammond, providing thought provoking perspectives on how we might approach the science of learning in our practice.
5 replies on “Science of Learning”
A thought-provoking and timely article about the Science of Learning and Development. I am not entirely SoLD though. What is also needed in the effective learning equation is a complementary bi-focal understanding of the Arts of Teaching, Facilitating, Coaching and Mentoring at all stages of human potential development.
Thanks Derek for this awesome summary. I am enjoying reading these and have ordered Cantor’s book too. The Edutopia video is a great summary of SoLD and I especially love how Cantor and Darling-Hammond emphasise the art of teaching and learning through the explanation, touching on relationships and belonging and kids having adults who believe in them. Beautiful.
Thanks for this Derek, I found this really useful. The SOLD Alliance has a nice paper on the implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development, and also one on Educator Learning to Enact the Science of Learning and Development. I think both are reasonable starting points for this area and look at not just practice in the classroom, but also system-wide interventions.
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