Partnering with the Community: Early Childhood Education

During 2008 Fall quarter, our Allen Edwards Endowed Lectureship in Psychology partnered with the Evergreen School to host two exciting public lecture series on the UW campus.

In October, renowned developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik (Professor, University of California, Berkeley) discussed a theory of mind approach to the study of cognitive development. In particular, she described how children use probabilistic evidence to infer causality. Carol Dweck (Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford) discussed the role of children’s mindset on motivation, and the impact this has on learning and achievement.

In a second lecture series, held in November, Rena Subotnik (Director of the Center for Gifted Education Policy, APA’s Education Directorate) discussed policy issues relevant to the development of programs and services to gifted youth. Also, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute; Assistant Professor of Education at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California) focused on her interdisciplinary work that connects study of the mind and brain during development.

All of these speakers spent additional time visiting the Psychology Department as well as the Evergreen School. This proved to be a wonderful way to connect psychological science with important educational issues facing our community. http://www.evergreenschool.org/