The Blue DOT 14 - Multidisciplinary Science & Evidence For Education

An Eye-Opening
Experience
JOANNE MARIEKE BUIL, ISEEA FELLOW
Joanne studies social-emotional learning (SEL) and the influence of peer- and teacherstudent
relationships on children’s social, emotional, behavioral and neurobiological
development in kindergarten and elementary school. In her research she focuses on
how teachers and peers can stimulate children’s SEL in order to help children to be
active and engaged students equipped to become critically and creatively thinking
citizens in the ever-changing, global-oriented 21 st century.
My name is Marieke Buil.
I’m from the Netherlands,
Europe, where I obtained
my PhD in developmental
psychology at the Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam with my studies on the
interplay between personal endowments
and the school environment in the
development of child and adolescent
externalizing problems. With my PhD
study and the research projects I managed
thereafter, I showed that negative schooland
classroom contexts, and negative
teacher-student and peer-relationships,
predict a variety of adverse social,
emotional, behavioral and neurobiological
outcomes in elementary school children,
emphasizing the importance of the schoolenvironment
for children’s development.
Thus, it is without a doubt that the schoolenvironment
is of tremendous importance
for children’s healthy development. After
~10 years of (intervention) research
into teacher-student relationships,
student-student relationships, and social
emotional learning, resulting in many
recommendations for educational practice
and policy published in scientific papers, I
felt I could do more to actually reach those
people who matter most: the teachers,
the policymakers and the students. Like
many researchers’ experience, I felt
trapped in the research-to-practice
gap, where study findings of my
peers and me remain ‘stuck’ in
my little science bubble of fellow
researchers. When I received an
invitation to apply for a position of
postdoc research fellow, working on the
Summary for Decision Makers of the
International Scientific and Evidencebased
Education (ISEE) Assessment, I was
more than happy to apply and I was even
more happy when I got the position!
It has been an absolute pleasure and
honor to work on this project, reenvisioning
the future of education
based on scientifically robust,
evidence-based findings from a
broad variety of disciplines. Never
before have I had the opportunity to
work together with so many different
people, from so many different cultures
and so many areas of expertise. Input
for the ISEE Assessment comes from
educationalists, (developmental)
psychologists, neuroscience, economists,
philosophers, psychiatrists, sustainability
Like many researchers’ experience, I felt
trapped in the research-to-practice gap,
where study findings of my peers and me
remain ‘stuck’ in my little science bubble of
fellow researchers.
and environmental scientists and many more scientific areas. I
have the pleasure to collaborate with all these researchers from
various fields, but also with international government advisors,
entrepreneurs, jurists, politicians, engineers and more. Where I
thought before that I was doing ‘interdisciplinary science’ when
working together with e.g., a medical doctor and someone from the
local government, this project by UNESCO MGIEP showed me
what true international, interdisciplinary collaboration means.
It’s an eye-opener and worthwhile to experience that
people from various backgrounds can have wildly
different opinions about and insights in what for example
‘education’, ‘curriculum’, ‘assessment’, ‘flourishing’, and
‘learning’ entails.
Although at times challenging, it has been and is a very important
learning opportunity for me to learn to understand ‘education
and learning’ from all these different angles and to come to a
shared meaning, vision and mission and I’m very happy that I can
collaborate in this project!
ISSUE • 14
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