Getting Smart Highlights SoLD Key Findings

Erin Gohl’s Getting Smart article, Education Systems Should Be Based on How Students Develop, summarizes the key findings of the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD). To highlight its practicality, Gohl presents them alongside current school districts that are incorporating similar practices to personalize learning and development for children. Here is an excerpt:

“A major theme from the Turnaround for Children papers is that individual human development cannot be separated from the relationships the person has with others. There are significant developmental insights to be gleaned from the fact that humans individually develop within a web of complex social relationships. The first finding from the Turnaround for Children key dindings document explains that “human development depends upon the ongoing, reciprocal relations between individuals’ genetics, biology, relationships, and cultural and contextual influences.” An unhealthy individual cannot form strong relationships with others, and systems in schools do not prioritize the establishment, maintenance, and healing of relationships during students’ developmental process.”

The key findings were derived from two science papers co-authored by Pamela Cantor, M.D. and Lily Steyer from Turnaround for Children, alongside David Osher and Juliette Berg from the American Institutes for Research, and Todd Rose from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Center for Individual Opportunity.

Gohl’s full article can be found here.