We’re counting down the days to the 2025 Flux Congress in Dublin! To share in the excitement, we had the pleasure of interviewing the chair of the upcoming Jacob's Foundation Science of Learning Symposium.
In the spotlight below, Dr. Julia Moser offers an early look at what attendees can expect from her chaired session.
Take a moment to read what’s in store — and let us know what you're most looking forward to at Flux 2025!
What is your symposium about?
The Jacob's Foundation Science of Learning Symposium is an integral part of the Flux congress and has been a constant for years. The interesting thing about this year’s symposium is that we are shifting the focus to science of learning in a global context. This is happening in the framework of the Jacob’s Foundation’s new Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) program, a global research initiative designed to capture the variability in children’s learning and development across diverse cultural contexts. Presentations in this symposium will showcase research on language exposure, storytelling, dialogic reading, and bilingual environments and their impact on children’s cognitive and sensory development as well as findings on adaptive interventions to foster executive function development. Speakers will put their findings in the context of classroom observations, community perspectives and educational policies. Together, they will emphasize how developmental science can inform inclusive, effective educational practices grounded in both empirical evidence and real-world complexity.
Who are the speakers? What diverse viewpoints do they bring?
The speakers of this symposium are Amy Lightbody, Ivy Nkrumah, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus and Sebastian Lipina. All speakers share a common interest in the science of learning, however simply by studying learning in their specific cultural context (USA, Ghana, Israel and Argentina) each of the speakers brings a unique perspective to the table. They furthermore represent different aspects of this complex scientific endeavor with Dr. Lightbody as part of the global steering committee for LEVANTE, being involved in the organization of cross-cultural studies, Drs. Nkrumah and Horowitz-Kraus performing such studies and Dr. Lipina, focusing on science based interventions, building up on such studies.
How did this symposium come about?
This symposium was made possible thanks to the incredible support of the Jacob’s Foundation. After numerous program committee discussions our team identified suitable speakers to represent the science of learning in this global context and Jacob’s was at our side throughout the process to make sure all of the speakers will be able to attend Flux 2025 in Dublin.
What was your goal in organizing this symposium?
The goal of this symposium was to bring a fresh perspective to the staple Jacob's Foundation Science of Learning Symposium. With the LEVANTE program now being in full swing, we are very excited to share this global perspective with the Flux community, while still keeping the traditional focus on the science of learning. We hope that this symposium can provide food for thought for the attendees and promote interesting discussions throughout the conference.
What else are you looking forward to at Flux, and/or around Dublin?
Personally, I am very excited for Flux being hosted in Europe once again. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see old friends but also lots of new faces, for whom Flux being hosted outside of the US is a chance to make the trip.
Join us for this exciting session in the upcoming Flux meeting in Dublin!