Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center an NSF Science of Learning Center

In May 2005, the Everyday Science & Technology Group embarked upon a team ethnography that has resulted in over 1500 hours of fieldwork across dozens of social settings to date. Much of the fieldwork is digitally documented through the use of video and audio recording technology. Getting just the right collection of field equipment is a crucial aspect of such an endeavor. We have drafted a LIFE Technical Report summarizing our rationale and choices for all of the equipment and software used for fieldwork and analysis. We hope that other groups embarking on similar sorts of endeavors will be able to benefit from our equipment related efforts.

• Download the LIFE Technical Report on “Recommended Fieldwork & Analysis Equipment for Video-based Ethnographic Research”

Raizada, R.D.S. & Kuhl, P. K. (2007, May) Socioeconomic status predicts hemispheric specialization of Broca’s area. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY.

Meltzoff, A. N. (2007, May). The scientist in the crib: What early learning tells us about the mind. Invited address presented at the Western Psychological Association, Vancouver, Canada.

Kuhl, P. K. (May, 2007). Language learning and the “social brain”: Implications for children with autism. Keynote Address, International Meeting For Autism Research, Seattle, WA

Coffey-Corina, S., Padden, D., Kuhl, P. K., & Dawson, G. (2007, May). Electrophysiological processing of single words in toddlers and school-age children. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY.

Bernstein, D.M., Sommerville, J.A., Durham, J., Hyunh, D., & Meltzoff, A.N. (2007, May). When perspective-taking fails: Lessons from children and adults. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Researchers: Andrew N. Meltzoff, Patricia Kuhl

Hillcrest School (Renton, WA) faculty and administration were invited for a special tour of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. Teachers and scientists discussed the research and its implications for classroom application.

In 2004, the LIFE Center and the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington established the LIFE Diversity Panel. The Panel’s goal was to summarize important principles that educational practitioners, policy makers, and researchers can use to build upon the learning that occurs in the homes and community cultures of students from diverse groups. We are pleased to announce the culmination of this two year consensus process. On May 11th, 2007, the centers released the consensus report produced by the LIFE Diversity Panel called Learning In and Out of School in Diverse Environments: Life-Long, Life-Wide, and Life-Deep. A major assumption of this report is that if educators make use of the informal learning that occurs in the homes and communities of students, the achievement gap between marginalized students and mainstream students can be reduced.

Authors of the report include:

• James A. Banks, University of Washington
• Kathryn H. Au, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Arnetha F. Ball, Stanford University
• Philip Bell, University of Washington
• Edmund W. Gordon, Teachers College Columbia University
• Kris D. Gutierrez, University of California, Los Angeles
• Shirley Brice Heath, Brown University
• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University
• Yuhshi Lee, University of Washington
• Jabari Mahiri, University of California, Berekely
• Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Stanford University
• Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University
• Min Zhou , University of California, Los Angeles

On May 11th, 2007, members of the LIFE Diversity Panel — including LIFE Lead Philip Bell — participated in a “launch event” for the report on the University of Washington campus along with LIFE PI John Bransford. Over 140 faculty, students, educators, and citizens attended the event from across the state to hear about the findings of the report and discuss implications.

• Download the “Learning In and Out of School in Diverse Environments” Report (please limit yourself to one downloaded copy for personal use)
  
• Purchase hardcopies of the report from the Center for Multicultural Education
  
• Download overview slides from the Launch Event for the Report

Researcher: Patricia Kuhl

The International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) meets annually to share research and treatment in the study of children with autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Patricia Kuhl was invited to give a keynote address to describe scientific advances in the science of language learning and the impact of social factors in language learning, and on basic speech learning measures that help uncover the nature of the disorder, topics of strong interest to the autism research community.

John Bransford, Nancy Vye, Drue Gawel, and Rachel Philips at the University of Washington and Vanessa Svihla at The University of Texas-Austin demonstrated a Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) instructional tool to the North Carolina State Board of Education. The prototype is the first step in developing instructional tools that will supplement traditional standardized assessments within the discipline of the life sciences. Multimedia and virtual environments are used to situate the assessments in realistic contexts. In PFL assessments students demonstrate their team-work, communication, and problem solving skills while receiving formative feedback that helps students learn during the process. They discussed the next steps to collaboratively develop an instructional assessment system that emphasizes 21st Century Skills.

Sam Houston (CEO, North Carolina Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Center) and John Bransford (Principal Investigator, LIFE Center)