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The post What We Learn newsletter: Autumn 2023 edition appeared first on Jacobs Foundation.

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Expanding measurement of holistic skills: Why, What, How is the title of a GPE Summit side session we will host together with the LEGO Foundation. We will learn what holistic skills are being measured, discuss barriers, and consider how to come together as a community to address them. The event will take place on July 19th at 9 am EST / 3 pm CET. Find out more here.

“Teachers’ stories need to be shared.” In a new BOLD podcast series, educational researcher Nina Alonso shares powerful stories from teachers around the world, as well as insights from experts on learning and development.

FROM ACROSS OUR NETWORK

Growing the evidence: Schools2030 and the Jacobs Foundation have partnered to find ‘what works’ for quality learning, with the goal to adapt and scale education innovations globally. Read more

What helps against loneliness? A new study by the University of Cambridge will seek answers to this question by investigating the mental health trajectories of adolescents and adults around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OUR INSIGHTS

Can Co-Leadership be the future of philanthropy? How can we re-think our organizational structures and decision-making mechanisms to meet the challenges of the future? We had the opportunity to reflect on these questions and our experience with Co-Leadership in a newly published piece in Alliance magazine. Let us know what you think!

What we are reading:

• Pathways towards quality primary education: Improving completion and learning outcomes
• New evidence on learning trajectories in a low-income setting
• The effectiveness of technology-supported personalized learning in low- and middle-income countries
• Four steps for humanizing personalized learning
• What does a common agenda for global public goods in education look like?

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Researchers have found genes can have a strong influence on how well teenagers sleep. These findings suggest that adolescents can be genetically predisposed to poor outcomes. As low quality and insufficient sleep are associated with poor mental health, researchers are throwing back the covers to find out more. 

One important sleep researcher in the Jacobs Network is Cognitive Neuroscientist Leila Tarokh. Leila does research to get a better understanding of how different bodily functions contribute to sleep, especially for people with a psychiatric disorder that changes how sleep is experienced in the brain. Better understandings lead to better therapies. 

Thanks to a Jacobs Foundation grant, Leila set out to study the heritability of adolescent sleep patterns. Her focus is on “high-density waking and sleep EEG”, which uses sensors placed on the scalp to track electrical activity in the brain while people sleep. Leila is currently examining sleep in adolescents with major depressive disorders. She is a group leader at the University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Same But Different: Identical Twins Show Distinct Patterns of Brain Connectivity

Identical twins share nearly all of their genetic material and, because they grow up together, they usually share the same familial and social environment. But even with all this in common, they do not have the same brain patterns when they sleep. Researchers like Leila are interested in working with twins because it seems that even minor differences in your environment early in life can become significant later. And we can see this in the brain. 

We asked Leila some questions about her work.

What led you to begin researching brain development in twins?

I became fascinated with how variable sleep patterns and brain activity are during sleep in individuals while working as a postdoc with Mary Carskadon, one of the USA’s prominent sleep researchers and we started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. We found some measures of brain activity during sleep were correlated with changes in cognitive function. We also found there are large individual differences and that these might reflect important aspects of brain function. 

One way to understand why these differences exist is to study twins. Twin studies are sometimes called nature’s experiment because identical twins share almost all their genes.

What has been an especially exciting result of your work on sleep and the brain?

We were really surprised to see how both genetic and environmental factors can shape the brain, depending on what is being measured and where in the brain. This means that we see the impact of “nature” and “nurture” on sleep and this goes to the core of understanding who we are.

How has being in the Jacobs Network affected your work or been helpful in your research?

I am forever grateful to the Jacobs Foundation for giving me the opportunity to answer what had become a really burning question for me. Not only did the funding for the twin study allow me to answer this question, but it opened up further opportunities to establish myself as an independent researcher.

Can you share with us the next steps in your research, what application would you like to see it used for?

Many patients with psychiatric disorders suffer from sleep problems and such disorders have their onset during adolescence. If we can find a way to use sleep EEG to see which adolescents will be most vulnerable to developing a psychiatric disorder, we can intervene early to shape the course of development for the better. In current projects we are recording sleep EEG in a large sample of adolescents and following them over time to see which ones develop mental health problems.

The post Leila Tarokh, PhD: Part of the Jacobs Network appeared first on Jacobs Foundation.

At the center of “Life Lines” is a group of fifteen or so teenagers. Each of them underwent a long journey before arriving in Switzerland. They travelled along uncertain paths, coming from Argentina, Ukraine, Afghanistan, or Syria. For them, attending school in Switzerland was already somewhat of an experiment: one that began with language, as not one of them was ‘born and raised’ in the German (or Swiss-German) tongue. 

These teens eventually ended up in a so-called “integration class”. The class, held in Volketswil near Zurich, is taught in part by Walter Riedweg, a Swiss artist and part of the well-known duo Dias&Riedweg. Whilst Walter is at home in Rio, he comes to Switzerland twice a year to teach children who pose a challenge to conventional school norms. 

And if none of your pupils speak German (or hardly so) you have to become a bit more inventive and make use of whatever skills and intuitions you might have: theatre improvisation, music, the whole range of human expressiveness lends itself to these situations. For such an approach, the rigid setting of schools (concrete architecture and all) is perhaps not the best place to start. Why not leave the building completely and visit, say, a museum? In a museum, you can discover things and talk about them – especially if you have no idea what they are: ceramic tiles in which a surah from the Qu’ran is written in Arabic calligraphy, an opium pipe made from tortoise shell – even a fearsome photograph from the 1930s, depicting a Haitian zombie. 

From time to time, Walter brought his pupils to the Johann Jacobs Museum. The museum, tiny as it is, somehow feels less threatening than other more imposing museums usually do. For Walter’s pupils, we take objects out of their vitrines and pass them around carefully: a Queen Victoria bust made in the 19th century by the Yoruba people, for example. No one can ignore her power. 

And yet, someone does. One boy is seemingly glued to his smart phone. I feel annoyed. I ask him,
“What is going on?”
“I sent a photo of the Queen to a friend in Lebanon.”
There is indeed a boy with a white t-shirt peering out of Wasem’s screen. He sits in what appears to be a tent and starts talking to us – in Arabic. Thanks to Wasem’s translation app, I understand his questions
“Where are you, what are you doing?”
The collective of the “Queen”, technology and a nomadic network has delivered an external visitor to the Johann Jacobs Museum. In the following weeks, this particular experience inspired us to look more closely – initially at famous Arab maps of the Mediterranean, drawn by Muhammed al-Idrisi in the 11th century.

In March, school was over. Covid-19 reigned; anxiety filled the air. The teens were left to their own devices, and thus began calling Walter. Loosely inspired by the Khan Academy, we started our own online platform. Though we did not feel entitled enough to be teachers. While we do know a few things, perhaps it is the teens who know more, and perhaps better said, more relevant things? – At this point, the idea of “Life Lines” came up: let us look together – at the various paths that had brought each of us here. A treasure trove of experiences is scattered along these paths. One Afghan boy, who had arrived in Switzerland as an unaccompanied minor, for example, was originally bound for Sweden. Not unlike Christopher Columbus, he got the destination just slightly wrong. Perhaps a better role model for this type of travelling is Ibn Battuta. He was twenty-one in 1325 when he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca from Morocco – only to return after twenty-nine years of travelling the globe whilst “[…] dining with sultans, khans and emperors, escaping from pirates, siring children on several continents, crossing deserts, dodging the Black Death, finding employment as a quadi (judge) and courtier […]”. 

Over the course of the summer we collected data on our online platform: music the teens were listening to, as well as the music of their parents; films, memories of villages, towns and camps, of roads taken by day or night, the smell of seasons, dreams still remembered… All these data help to illuminate an individual’s encounter with history. 

“Life Lines”, the exhibition, will be an attempt to give form to the highly complex set of data which has been compiled over several months by this group of school children. Giving form is something art can do – as there is no real narrative. Narrative inevitably means coherence, which is precisely what is lacking in so many life stories in which the lines are torn apart by fate or history, or both. 

As it was said in the beginning, this is not going to be a conventional museum exhibition. It is just another beginning.

This article was written by Director of the Johann Jacobs Museum, Roger M Buergel. 

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The culmination of their collaborative work was presented on 26 August via webinar at the Learning Sciences Exchange Summit. The webinar was hosted by New America in conjunction with the Jacobs Foundation, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University and Roberta Golinkoff of the University of Delaware.

Three exciting project prototypes

Each team presented their evidence-based project.

1. Grandfathers (Video): this public service announcement is based on infant reading-comprehension research. Two grandfathers vie for their granddaughter’s attention with their dramatic, and sometimes ridiculous, book readings. The announcement is deliberately humorous to grab caregivers’ attention. You can read more about this project here.
2. Bunny to Bunny (Video): a more literal storytelling approach with a book series. The hope is parents will use the books as both a bonding moment and reference tool for high-quality interactions with their baby. Caregivers get tips or “carrots” in the back of the book about the beneficial interactions the book promotes between caregiver and child. You can read more about this project here.
3. Talk With Me! (Video) this public service announcement uses stunning animations to remind parents they can do one very simple thing to help their child’s brain grow and develop—talk with them. Rich conversations in early childhood can impact on the rest of a child’s life. Find out more.

All three groups are hoping to bring their messages and prototypes to larger audiences by finding funders, publishers, and broadcasters to help them scale-up or continue their work.

The next cohort of Learning Sciences Exchange fellows will benefit from building on the solid groundwork of the first class of fellows to create their own unique projects. These projects will be featured at the next Learning Sciences Exchange Summit, in the summer of 2022.

The post A rich and virtual Learning Sciences Exchange Summit appeared first on Jacobs Foundation.

What future are we preparing our children for?

A look at the formal education system suggests that we are preparing children for a future that will be more or less identical to the present, a future in which education is primarily a tool for transferring knowledge as a way of preparing students for the workplace. Yet this will not adequately prepare them for any of the possible futures described in the study, since those futures all have one thing in common: increasingly rapid change. Simply conveying information will not enable students to adapt to these changes without making themselves sick.

Which of the skills described in the study are most important for young children to learn?

Evolution has equipped young children with all the qualities they need to do well in life, no matter what the future looks like. They are creative, adept at problem-solving, enthusiastic, socially oriented, cooperative and empathetic. We need to create the necessary conditions so that they can build on those qualities and gain self-efficacy. This is important not only in early childhood, but also during the school years and later in life.

In your opinion, what is the greatest deficit in early childhood education with respect to the skills described in the study?

In Switzerland, the problem is that we fail to give families with young children enough support in creating favorable conditions for their children. This particularly affects socially disadvantaged families. But the goal should not be to make early learning more like school – on the contrary. We need to eliminate chronic stress and make sure that parents have the time they need to develop supportive relationships with their children. We are one of the few OECD countries that provide no paid parental leave, or even paternity leave. Also important are stimulating environments, at home and outdoors, where children can engage in free play and interact with their peers.

What trends are you seeing in childrearing?

There is an increasing focus on performance, influenced by modern humanism and capitalism, during the first years of a child’s life. This puts unnecessary pressure on families and child care providers. Instead of being present in the moment, people are spending more and more time thinking about the future. And in most cases they are thinking not about what a successful life, in a broader sense, might look like, but instead about success in school and in the workplace. This places too much emphasis on some skills, while others – such as creativity, social competence and enthusiasm – are considered less important because they are not relevant for selection into a more advanced academic track or a more prestigious career. The result is that many talents every child has remain undeveloped. Society cannot afford to let this happen, if it is to meet the challenges of the future – whatever that future may ultimately look like.

Prof. Martin Hafen

“We are preparing children for a future that will be more or less identical to the present.” 

What does all of this mean for schools?

It’s not that schools are not changing; indeed, in many respects they are changing for the better. However, they need to focus more attention on the principles of early learning, since those are the principles that lead to genuine learning. In concrete terms, this means giving children more choice in what they want to learn and setting aside more time for experiential learning; it also means more cooperative learning, more movement-based learning and more opportunities for children to form their own opinions. In addition, we should follow the example of school systems in Scandinavia and wait until the end of the period of compulsory education before separating children into different academic tracks. Selection pressure interferes with the development of life skills and exacerbates inequality based on children’s backgrounds. This is surely not the objective of a humanistic education system.

Not all parents are equally capable of teaching these skills to their children. How can we support parents in that effort?

A crucial place to start is by reducing social inequality. Precarious working and living conditions make it much more difficult for parents to provide the conditions their children need for healthy development. We also know that the supply of non-family child care in Switzerland is inadequate, in terms of both quantity and quality, and that child care is much too expensive for families. The government should invest just as much in early childhood as it does in the formal education system, since early childhood is a crucial period for future-oriented education and the development of life skills. Economizing in this area increases the risk of future social and health-related problems – leading to suffering and additional costs. This is not the way to meet the challenges society will face in the future.

Read more and get inspired:

https://jacobsfoundation.org/en/publication/future-skills/

ABOUT

Prof. Martin Hafen is a social worker and sociologist who teaches and directs a project at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). His doctoral dissertation proposed a cross-curricular theory of prevention based on sociology’s systems theory. For the past 10 years, his research and publications have focused increasing attention on early childhood education, which – based on scientific evidence – he identifies as the most important area for prevention.

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The website offers an opportunity for individuals to measure their own, or their child’s, sensitivity via a short questionnaire that assesses how they are affected by various psychological and sensory experiences. For example, how much they notice when small things around them have changed, whether loud noises make them feel uncomfortable, and whether they dislike watching violent TV programmes.   

Professor Michael Pluess, Professor of Psychology at Queen Mary University of London, and one of the researchers involved in the development and management of this website, said: “Our website responds to the growing interest of the general public in understanding their sensitivity. The questionnaire we provide is based on extensive research and has been developed and refined over time, so people can trust the results they receive.”  

Sensitive people are defined by researchers as those who are more strongly affected by what they experience. Although everyone is sensitive to an extent, research has shown that people tend to fall into three different groups along a spectrum of sensitivity with about 30% classed as low, 40% as medium and 30% as high in sensitivity.  

The initial development of the website has been funded by the Jacobs Foundation.

Further information

Read this interview with Michael Pluess on BOLD (Blog on Learning and Development) to learn more about the needs of highly sensitive children:

“Sensitive children shouldn’t have to learn in the wrong environment”

Watch this video to learn more on individual differences in sensitivity (Michael Pluess for BOLD, Blog on Learning and Development):

The post Are you a highly sensitive person? appeared first on Jacobs Foundation.