A better understanding of how humans learn could lead to improved teaching techniques and, along the way, alter the trajectories of countless human lives. Thanks to a National Science Foundation grant for 3.5 million, with the possibility of an additional 32 million over the next decade, a UC San Diego-based interdisciplinary team of scientists and educators is poised to clarify the importance of time in learning.
The center called The Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center will benefit from major participation from scientists at Vanderbilt University, Rutgers University at Newark, and other U.S. and international institutions.
When you learn new facts, interact with colleagues and teachers, experiment with new gadgets, or engage in countless other learning activities, timing plays a role in the functioning of your neurons, in the communication between and within sensory systems, and in the interactions between different regions of your brain. The success or failure of attempts to communicate using gestures, expressions and verbal language also depends on timing.
Gary Cottrell, a Computer Science and Engineering professor from UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, is the driving force behind the founding of the center as well as a participating researcher. Cottrell recruited over forty researchers from across the United States, Canada, and Australia to participate in the effort.
The NSF's Science of Learning Centers program offers awards for large-scale, long-term centers that will extend the frontiers of knowledge on learning of all types and create the intellectual, organizational, and physical infrastructure needed for the long-term advancement of learning research.
"It was a monumental task putting this together," Cottrell said, "but when we started talking about our plans, people just came out of the woodwork to join in. It was a group effort," Cottrell said.
Cottrell will direct The Temporal Dyn
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Contact: Daniel Kane
dbkane@ucsd.edu
858-534-3262
University of California - San Diego
28-Sep-2006