May 2024

The 2023 volume of Review of Research in Education (RRE), titled “The Science of Learning and Development,” examines a broad range of syntheses related to the science of learning and development. The volume, just released this month, includes diverse and innovative perspectives in seven invited articles, nine invited commentaries, and eleven refereed articles.

This expansive volume reflects the collaboration of a powerful interdisciplinary team of editors, associate editors, and reviewers. The team includes general editors David Osher (American Institute for Research) and Vivian Gadsden (University of Pennsylvania), co-editors Carol Lee (Northwestern University) and Richard Lerner (Tufts University), and six associate editors and an editorial board.

The table of contents and abstracts can be viewed here. In their introduction, the editors state their belief that the “conception of human learning and development unfolding within complex dynamic systems is particularly consequential for seeking to understand the diversity and cultural variation within and across human communities.”

“We are so pleased to have been able to serve as editors of such an important volume,” said Osher. “This work builds upon converging knowledge across biology, neuroscience, developmental science, education, and sociology regarding how humans learn, develop, and support each other in dynamic socio-cultural contexts. The volume provides interdisciplinary analyses, disciplinary-focused commentaries, and research reviews that illuminate the implications of this new science of human learning and development for research and practice.”

David Osher is a vice president and Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research. In addition to work on the science of learning and development and robust equity, his work focuses on school climate and the conditions for learning, engagement, the development and use of social and emotional competencies, supportive and community-building approaches to school discipline and safety, cultural competence and responsiveness, family and youth engagement, collaboration, and implementation science.

Vivian Gadsden is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a past president of AERA, an AERA Fellow, and a member the National Academy of Education.  Gadsden’s research interests focus on cultural and social factors in learning and literacy across the life-course and intergenerationally within families, particularly those at the greatest risk for academic and social vulnerability. Her studies and writing examine these interests in relationship to social determinants of health and education, poverty, and family members' beliefs and practices around learning, educational access, and educational persistence.

Carol D. Lee is the Edwina S. Tarry Professor Emerita, School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.  She is president of the National Academy of Education, a past president of AERA, a fellow in the International Society of the Learning Sciences and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including most recently the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award from AERA, the Squire Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, and the McGraw Prize in Education.  Her research focuses on cultural and ecological supports for learning, with a specialized focus on literacy.

Richard M. Lerner is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. Lerner is known for his theoretical work on the mutually influential relations between individuals and their settings, as the fundamental basis of life-span human development, and for his use of this approach to developmental theory to describe, explain, and optimize the relations between adolescents and their peers, families, schools, and communities. His work integrates the study of family, school, and community-based programs in the promotion of positive youth development and youth contributions to civil society.