The Blue DOT 14 - Multidisciplinary Science & Evidence For Education

An Interview by Rebecca
Merkley with Mary Helen
INTERVIEW
Immordino-Yang
BY REBECCA MERKLEY
Rebecca Merkley
Rebecca Merkley
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD,
studies the psychological and
neurobiological bases of social
emotion, self-awareness and culture
and their implications for learning,
development and schools. She
is a Professor of Education at the
USC Rossier School of Education, a
Professor of Psychology at the Brain
and Creativity Institute, a member of
the Neuroscience Graduate Program
Faculty at the University of Southern
California, and Director of the USC
Center for Affective Neuroscience,
Development, Learning & Education
(CANDLE).
Rebecca Merkley is an Assistant
Professor in Cognitive Science
at Carleton University in Ottawa,
Canada. She has a PhD in Experimental
Psychology from the University
of Oxford and an EdM in Mind,
Brain, and Education from Harvard
University. Her recent research
projects have included researchpractice
partnerships investigating
whether educators benefit from
learning about findings from the
science of learning and implementing
them in their classrooms.
Our ISEE Assessment Research Fellow,
Rebecca Merkley, sat down to have a
virtual conversation with Dr. Mary Helen
Immordino-Yang, Professor of Education,
Psychology and Neuroscience at the
University of Southern California (USC),
Director of USC Center for Effective
Neuroscience Development Learning and
Education and Advisory Board Member
of UNESCO MGIEP’s International
Science and Evidence based (ISEE)
Assessment.
Over a quick thirty-minute rendezvous,
Rebecca and Dr. Immordino-Yang
spoke about the importance of the ISEE
Assessment, its multidisciplinary and
evidence-based nature, the need for
personalised learning, the requirement to
re-look at standardised examinations and
much more. Read the full interview below.
My name is Rebecca Merkley and I am a Research Fellow at
International Science and Evidence-Based Education Assessment,
which is being led by UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute for
Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP).
And today I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mary Helen
Immordino-Yang who is on the Advisory Board for the Assessment
and has kindly agreed to chat with us and tell us a bit about her
experience.
So, Dr. Immordino-Yang what attracted you to the ISEE
Assessment and why do you think it is important? Why did you
want to be involved with the Assessment?
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Hi Rebecca. It is good to talk with you. I think what is really
important about an Assessment like this one is the
need to connect around the globe around issues of child
development and education. Education is the gatekeeper.
Educational opportunities are gatekeepers too. So, it is really
important that we have conversations across nations, across borders
around these really important issues that face our children and
share what we are learning so that we can all benefit.
How do you think your research or even neuroscience broadly
might have an influence on education and human development
and flourishing?
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
I think when we are studying a topic as complex and
cultural and context dependent, as human development
and flourishing, it is really important to bring to bear
all the levels of analysis that contain the ways that we
can learn about the complex system we call humans. In
the last few decades, there has been a growing body of evidence
around the understanding of the biological underpinnings of
human development and flourishing and learning, and so it is really
important to bring that evidence to bear when we think about how
we design opportunities and support experiences for young people
to be able to engage optimally in opportunities that the world will
allow them to grow themselves over time in ways that are beneficial
in the current modern world. I think all of the sources of evidence
need to come together to a central conversation where we integrate
and reconcile these different perspectives to be able to understand
in a multi-dimensional way -what is going on and what that means
and what we decide to do.
ISSUE • 14
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