Weaving a Colorful Cloth: Centering Education on Humans’ Emergent Developmental Potentials
A research synthesis by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Pamela Cantor, M.D., and Hirokazu Yoshikawa, offers a conceptual foundation for rethinking the nature of learning, the work of teaching, and the purpose and design of schools and youth-facing policies.
Source: AERA / Sage PublicationsJournal
Review of Research in Education, Vol. 47, No. 1, March 2023
Authors
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Na’ilah Suad Nasir
Pamela Cantor, M.D.
Hirokazu Yoshikawa
Abstract
This article integrates work from human development, psychology, education, and neuroscience to argue for five interrelated developmental principles that together provide the conceptual basis for a fundamental shift in thinking in education about the nature of learning, and hence the work of teaching, and the purpose and design of schools and youth-facing policies. These principles foreground humans’ natural agency, subjectivity, and variability and the dynamic, adaptive interdependence of body, mind, and culture in development and learning. The authors take the analogy of weaving cloth to highlight the properties and valuable variations of effective educational systems. They argue that reconceptualizing learning is necessary to meaningfully improve schooling and its outcomes, support equity and human dignity, and ultimately, build a sustainable democratic society.
Citation
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Nasir, N. S., Cantor, P., & Yoshikawa, H. (2024). Weaving a colorful cloth: Centering education on humans' emergent developmental potentials. Review of Research in Education, 47(1), 1–45. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x231223516
