What we get wrong about learning — and how to reframe it

Can the power of community transform our educational systems for the better? This neuroscientist says absolutely.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is a neuroscientist and USC professor, and she has spent her career studying education and the ways we can enhance it. Her findings claim that diversity has a huge impact on brain growth and even life experience. She explains that similarly to how fabric is composed of thousands of intricately woven threads, our schools need the active coordination of many people and skills, making them stronger together.

Immordino-Yang stresses the importance of this strong social fabric, explaining that spending time around those who differ from us can help us become adaptable and truly deepen our understanding of the world around us. This idea calls for a new approach to education, where teachers and students work together to create systems of learning that help them grow alongside one another, instead of on confined and isolated paths.

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About Mary Helen Immordino-Yang:

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD, is an expert on the psychological and neurobiological foundations of social emotion, self-awareness, and culture, and how they impact learning, development, and education.

She is a Professor of Education at the USC Rossier School of Education, a Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute, a faculty member in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Southern California, and the Director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education (CANDLE).

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About The Well
Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

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[SeventhSaucer]

Education professional here. I agree a radical overhaul is needed, but this is just vague, useless postering. How do we deal with the well-financed agendas of corporations and theocrats? What kinds of accessments are warranted? What should a clasroom look like, or should it even be a room? Who or what should be doing the teaching? Where do parents fit in? What should the curriculum even be?

[leexiong]

The reason education is the way it is is because of simplicity. We don't have enough teachers, or even people who care and have time to work with just one student. And of course it doesn't help if everyone is doing their own thing rather than screwing the bolts in at their job.

I could see a system on which students can freely roam about their interests, kind of like college, but that solves the first issue we have, but not the second. It's the same reason colleges have GE, minimum unit requirements etc. It is in a way, also a business.

It looks like education is outdated, to put it simply. Only the one in a million student comes around to shake up the foundation of knowledge, and the rest of us should be doing our work being nurses, engineers etc.

There are no philosophers or keepers of knowledge and learning.

[cynthia]

Can you give some concrete examples how to implement it.

[kengenhanma]

mainstream stuff about self-improvement are so overrated.The best investment you can make is in yourself. Books are the ultimate learning tool. Unveiling Your Hidden Potential by Bruce Thornwood helped me build discipline and separate my mindset from 90% of other people

[jesusruiz]

Exactly the type of video I need. Currently enrolled in a programming bootcamp and constantly feel like not learning well.

[igorGriffiths]

My children left school not knowing what they were good at or where their passions lay, instead they were taken on an outdated journey of preparing them to enter a job market which has not existed for a very long time. Education should be about opening the mind not narrowing its focus to generalized ideas. The teacher sows the seeds, some will go and nurture these seeds and develop them further in their own time and thus learning more about themselves and this idea, others may just do the basics to get through school. However discussion should be the focus of schooling rather than rote learning, allowing every student to choose to explore their potential or not.

[olavberrig]

I almost fell asleep when hearing this woman. We need to make students LOVE a topic. I found working with people towards a goal, e.g. proving a new theory, making a new type of instrument, creating a new business, are what’s motivating me and others. If you want to learn about electromagnetic waves, , start with water. Let students see water waves, they are close enough to electromagnetic waves.

[mpozad]

Schools are not substitutions for parental role modeling, cultural values and average IQ.

[cirusMEDIA]

How would this work in public schools?

[ragemachinist]

Well this is very vague and somehow incredibly inspirational at the same time...

[canwejustnot]

Who is the we, and what educational system is she speaking about?
I feel like the education i enjoyed was a good combination of passing on knowledge and challenging creative and out of the box thinking.
(Dutch standard education, VWO)

[coryc.]

I'm a HS shop teacher, they know exactly why they need to pick up what I'm putting down. The main thing I try to convey is to step away from future oriented goals and cultivate purpose. It's not what you do but how you do it.

[violetafarcas]

Finally, I hope this shift will happen soon, as current education produces masses of anxious children

[craigmerkey]

As someone who has worked with special needs children and families for over 30 years this is everything!

[crawkn]

This is very vague, and much of the proposed interaction doesn't seem that it would be easily within the control of an educator. Even in a brief synopsis, it is possible to provide a practical example to illustrate.

[JohnCooper-ntmy]

GLORY!!!'m favoured, $140K every 3weeks! And I am retired i can now give back to the locals in my community and also support God's work and the church. God bless America 🇺🇸 ❤️

[HakuCell]

"why is this useful? why else?" those are good questions that students should ask teachers.

[miriamschiro]

I don’t like that the education system do not focus on figuring out the skills, passions and talents of each student THAT’S the real test they need to give them then help them achieve their goal by what their skills, talent, and passions are.

[jithenin]

Thank you MARY & BigThink for this Upload 👍❤️

[cave]

the reason why the eduction cares more about the answers rather than thinking, or perfer the skills over why we needed them, because the education is about to create more operators in the producction line, not human development. At least in the past. School bells are basically just factory break bells, from what I read.