The purpose of the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center it to understand and advance human learning through a simultaneous focus on implicit, informal, and formal learning, thereby cultivating generalizable interdisciplinary theories that guide the design of effective new learning technologies and environments. The investigators argue that, given the complexity of learning phenomena and the disparate levels of analysis that can be used to study learning, a transformed science of learning will not come about by proceeding with "research as usual." Their plan is to bring experts together from research traditions that have tended to work separately rather than collaboratively. The expertise in the Center spans neurobiological, psychological, and social/cultural approaches as well as pioneering work in augmenting human learning through innovative technology and new media tools. The investigators hope to encourage productive conceptual collisions by deliberately juxtaposing the different traditions' prevailing assumptions, theories, and methodologies. These collisions are designed to spark efforts toward creating a coherent, integrated perspective that is theoretically sound and has clear and far-reaching implications for improving people's abilities to learn.
A central premise of the LIFE Center is that successful efforts to understand and propel learning require a simultaneous emphasis on informal and formal (e.g., K-16) learning environments, and on the implicit ways in which people learn. The basic research will be conducted through three intersecting and multidisciplinary strands of inquiry. The first strand, Implicit Learning and the Brain, will document learning in the brain over the lifespan and discover from empirical and modeling work the underlying neural processes and principles associated with implicit forms of learning in the domains of cognitive, linguistic, and social learning. The second strand, Informal Learning, will conduct studies of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math learning in informal settings to develop comprehensive and coordinated accounts of the cognitive, social, affective, and cultural dimensions that propel learning and development outside of school. The third strand, Designs for Formal Learning and Beyond, will conduct experimental studies of theory-based principles for the design of high-quality learning environments. A major focus of the cognitive component of the strand will involve theories and measures of transfer -- the ability to enter an unanticipated setting with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to make sense of the structure of a problem, to locate and use relevant resources, and to reflect on one's efforts so as to learn to "work smarter." The investigators also propose to initiate a line of technology projects that would proceed in concert with the theoretical work on transfer. This strand will place special emphasis on studying powerful roles for new technologies.
