Eileen Lappin Weiser Center for the Learning Sciences Launch

Keynote: Carol D. Lee, Ph.D., Northwestern University

“New Frontiers in the Learning Sciences: Implications for Research and Infrastructures to Support Research Preparation”

New insights into human learning and development have evolved across disciplines:  psychology- cognitive, social, cultural; human development; learning sciences; and the neurosciences (cognitive, social, affective). I synthesize these findings that include understanding dynamic systems, the interdependencies among physiological processes, sense-making within the individual as such processes are dialogically intertwined with individual variation, participation in cultural practices within and across settings, the intersections across time frames – episodic in the moment, within ontogenetic time frames of development, across cultural historical time frames and how we understand the normativity of diversity of pathways of development and what this means for how we conceptualize identity and cultural membership are another area of important re-conceptualization. I offer recommendations for what these conceptual challenges mean for the preparation of learning scientists and research in the field, and how such work can contribute to equity in opportunity to learn.

Registration requested: https://myumi.ch/Er5eX

Carol D. Lee is the Tarry Professor Emerita in the School of Education and Social Policy and African-American Studies at Northwestern University.  She is President of the National Academy of Education, a past president of the American Educational Research Association, AERA’s past representative to the World Educational Research Association, past vice-president of Division G of AERA, past president of the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, and past co-chair of the Research Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English.  She is a member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow of AERA, the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, a former fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Reading Hall of Fame.  She has received numerous awards including Distinguished Contributions to Education from AERA, the McGraw Prize in Education, the Squire Award and  the Distinguished Service Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, Scholars of Color Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Illinois-Urbana, The President’s Pacesetters Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education and an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2023, she was selected by President Biden to serve on the National Board for Education Sciences.  She is a founder of 3 African centered schools in Chicago spanning a 50 year history. Her research addresses cultural supports for learning that include a broad ecological focus, with attention to language and literacy and African-American youth.  Her career spans 58 years, having taught high school, primary school and at community college before entering Northwestern University.