To elevate the converging knowledge from the science of learning and development, the SoLD Alliance assembles this knowledge into several initial findings, which are overlapping and need to be understood in an integrated way. When considered together, they have profound implications for the structure and culture of education and youth development systems and, in particular, for efforts to advance equity.
This list of key findings below is, and always should be, a work in progress. As our work in the science of learning and development continues, we will learn and say more about these and other findings, and their implications.
Every young person has great potential to learn and thrive. All children develop billions of neural pathways that can enable learning and positive development. These include multiple pathways to learning foundational knowledge and skills, at every stage of life, and to discovering multiple areas of talent and interest that create the potential for fulfillment in school and in life. Realizing this potential—finding and forming the integrated neural connections around complex knowledge and skills—depends chiefly on how we understand and support each young person’s unique pathways and how we shape their experiences, environments, culture, relationships and learning as a whole child.
The concept of genetic determinism—that an individual has a fixed capacity to learn and adapt, determined at the beginning of life—has been shown to be a myth. Genes are chemical followers, and within each person, only a small portion of their genetic make-up is activated over the course of their lives. Indeed, the validated, mainstream scientific literature of recent decades is in strong agreement that every young person has the potential to thrive —if adults responsible for their learning and development challenge their own assumptions about who can learn and how to bring out abilities and talents in every child.
There is no “Bell Curve” on human potential
Download PDFThe tissue that makes up a young person’s brain is more easily changed than any other organ in the human body. It is constantly being shaped by experiences, environments, and relationships —both positively and negatively. Neurological development and remodeling occur more regularly in human beings and extend for longer periods than in any other mammal. These processes begin in utero and continue well into early adulthood—certainly past one’s mid-twenties—and beyond. Learning also continues across the lifespan as individuals learn from experiences and how they make sense of those experiences.
This malleability is more important than scientists of earlier decades recognized. Researchers previously thought that most development only took place in the first few years of life. The truth is much more encouraging: Lifelong learning can happen for virtually anyone under the right circumstances and with the right support.
We focus on two particular periods of heightened sensitivity and change in a person’s life. The first is from birth until approximately age five, and the second is in adolescence. During these times, a young person makes important progress, such as developing an identity and learning more and more complex skills. But neurological development hardly goes quiet in between or after. Even in late adolescence, new experiences stimulate the creation of synapses in the brain—the connections that send signals between neurons—to form at a rate of hundreds per second.
The ability to learn does not end, and adversity in life is not decisive.
Download PDFAll of us have unique neurological structures, genetic expressions, backgrounds, and personal experiences. Because of this individuality, we each have a unique, dynamic learning path. Just as no two children have the same interests, vulnerabilities, and personal strengths at any one moment, no two children will come to understand educational concepts in exactly the same way or at the same time.
There is no such thing as an “average” learner. Children do not learn as uniform cohorts. Each young person will learn different material in different ways and at a different pace to build deep understanding —and forge new neural pathways—that become a foundation for new knowledge and skills. Some children may acquire a specific skill only to lose it and learn it again later on. These individual pathways may form patterns across children that can inform teaching and learning, but those will never be singular or tied to a simple “average.”
Variability in and among children is the norm, not the exception. So how can we expect schools or other settings designed for an “average” learner to work equally well for all students? The learning process is too complex, and variability among children is too great, for reliance on averages.
Instead, several research teams have used the metaphor of a “constructive web”—multitudes of complex relations between an individual and their context—to help visualize how an individual young person may progress developmentally.
Because of this new understanding of how each of our brains uniquely processes information, modern research has begun to put a premium on studying the individual, so that educators can see what works best for each learner and under what conditions.
There is no “normal” or “average” learner.
Download PDFJust as our brains process information in unique ways, the experiences that shape us are at least equally unique across the breadth of our lives. And our brains respond to the world around us—to context—uniquely as well.
We don’t receive or process information in a vacuum. Our learning and development are deeply affected by our physical and emotional states, and these states are moderated by our cultures and context, which includes the effects of those with whom we have immediate contact as well as external factors such as policies, norms, and structures that affect them and us. Think about how well we as adults function in our daily lives when we are afraid, confused or threatened—or conversely, how we function when we are confident and relaxed. Children are no different and will struggle, or thrive, under the conditions they experience as well.
We use the word context to describe how children’s development is affected by experiences, environments, and cultures. Culture is particularly important because it affects and is affected by what happens in context. Indeed, a young person’s culture both shapes the nature of learning environments and shapes the ways in which they experience and respond to these environments. Within school, for example, culture influences the literature children will have access to and read, and it affects how children internalize, respond to, and learn from that literature. Culture also shapes how adults view children and, correspondingly, the deeply consequential choices they make as they go about teaching and supporting children.
Learn more about Context in the ‘How the Science of Learning and Development Can Transform Education: Initial Findings’ development tool.
Download PDFThe presence and quality of our relationships may have more impact on learning and development than any other factor. Indeed, relationships are the primary processes through which our biological and contextual factors are reinforced. Emotion and cognition are inextricably linked, and one of the best ways to promote a positive context is to create opportunities for positive developmental relationships, both in the home and outside of it.
Positive relationships—supportive families, an involved teacher, a caring coach—serve as the foundation for children’s ability to adapt, establish good emotional health, foster social connections, and build the complex neural processes that make us resilient and effective learners.
One way to see the power of relationships is to examine the limbic system, which is the learning center of our brains. It is exquisitely sensitive to experience and plays a role in how we control attention, focus, memory, and emotion. Two key hormones mediate the structures of this system:
Education systems can support this positive development by fostering opportunities for children to build strong, trustful relationships that help them grow, build identities, explore the world, and learn with positive reinforcement—and by providing adults with supports so that they have the ability to attune to children’s needs in a timely and supportive manner.
Relationships ignite development and help us learn.
Download PDFDespite common misconceptions, learning is a full-body experience, not something that happens only through academic experiences or only in our minds. We learn through our emotions and feelings, through engagement with others, through bodily motions, by examining objects in our hand or ideas in our minds, and by moving through time and space. We learn by overcoming failure or frustration, and feeling happiness when we figure out problems. We learn through relationships, interacting with our peers and teachers, and observing and influencing our communities. Learning is integrated with every aspect of our existence: academic, social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and identity-building.
In other words, the brain is nested in the body—and both are nested in a young person’s physical, cultural, cognitive, and emotional environment. The brain grows in its ability to do complex things, such as reading, riding a bicycle, or developing resilience, when structures of the brain become integrated and wired together.
The idea that we are connected to our bodies and our environments is called embodiment. Multiple neural, relational, experiential, and contextual processes converge in the brain—in ways unique to each young person—to produce complex skills and an identity that, under favorable conditions, will continue to develop positively.
Learn more about Integration in the ‘How the Science of Learning and Development Can Transform Education: Initial Findings’ development tool.
Download PDFJust as children currently move up through grade school, we often think of learning as a linear process. First, they learn A, then B, then C.
But, in reality, learning and development look less like a straight line on a chart; instead, imagine an impressionistic painting. Up close, it might seem messy, with chaotic brushstrokes going back and forth. As previously noted, children may learn skills, and then may lose them. They may attempt certain concepts and fail, only to grasp them later.
However, if we step back from the painting, we can see that each small, seemingly-confused brushstroke makes up a complete picture in the end. Children learn and grow from where they are—building on their individual experiences and understanding—even though they don’t do so linearly or in the same way or pace. Progress along a continuum is driven by the right degree of challenge—and productive failure— for each learner.
These two images—of learning and development that are both variable and progressive, moving from simplicity to greater complexity—are compatible; they are seen in every young person. The brain grows, changes, and remodels as they develop, shaped by biological processes as well as by contexts that encompass their environments, experiences, relationships, and cultures.
Learn more about Continuum in the ‘How the Science of Learning and Development Can Transform Education: Initial Findings’ development tool.
Download PDFOur brains are exquisitely, biologically designed to filter, organize, and categorize the incoming stimuli (i.e. information) from other people, places, and things – and from our own individual perceptions of the world around us. This constructive process of meaning-making leads every human being to develop along a life path marked by an evolving understanding of themselves and the changing world around them. As such, the process of meaning-making is purposely responsive to relationships, experiences, environments, and cultures — to context — and fundamental to every young person’s learning and development, both in and out of school and throughout their lives.
To understand why this process matters for learning and development, it is important to consider first how meaning-making happens. As our experiences expose us to new information, neural connections form rapidly in our brains, and we begin to learn as a direct result of engaging in real-time, on-task activities and behaviors, like reading a piece of text or solving a math problem at the moment. However, in order to transform that new learning into a deeper understanding that continues to inform future learning — that is, learning that “sticks” and isn’t quickly and easily forgotten — individuals need opportunities to reflect and act on new learning by applying it to tasks, using it to solve problems, and practicing skills. Through focused action and reflection, individuals’ brains then begin to connect new information to existing neural pathways formed by previous learning and experiences, thereby forming more long-lasting, durable understandings.
Learn more about Meaning Making in the ‘How the Science of Learning and Development Can Transform Education: Initial Findings’ development tool.
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All children can learn and thrive. Many people who work with children believe this to be true. But the science of learning and development shows that this idea is more than just a belief. It’s a scientific truth—and, more importantly, it’s a foundation upon which we can design and build learning environments and educational systems so that every young person can achieve their full potential.
Given what we know from the science of learning and development, we can redesign all learning settings so that young people can thrive.
The SoLD Alliance has released numerous publications outlining how research moves from practice to policy. These resources, including peer-reviewed papers authored by founding SoLD partners and published in Applied Developmental Science, can be found below.
The SoLD Alliance is a field-building resource hub for researchers,
practitioners and policymakers.
