Mark Hardman
Dr. Mark Hardman is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research at the University College London. Originally a science teacher, he has been a teacher educator and researcher for nearly two decades. Mark’s teaching and research both focus on supporting teachers to become agents of change: within the lives of young people, school and local communities, and the world more broadly.
Within this, Mark is focused on understanding both how and what children learn within classrooms, by drawing on research in conceptual change and cognitive neuroscience. By situating this learning as within complex systems and assemblages of human and non-human, he explores how young people gain knowledge that supports their capacity to be creative, and think the as-yet unthought.
Mark works closely with schools in London, with local and national government and has worked with teachers in Vietnam and India. He has research collaborations with colleagues in Sweden, Finland, the USA, Canada and Australia.
Keynote Address
Meaning-making in Classrooms: Developing Powerful Knowledge for All Students
In a rapidly changing world, education must draw on the best of human knowledge and make it meaningful to the lives of young people, so that they can use it to shape their own futures. This keynote explores how students make meaning in classrooms, and the kinds of environments and teaching practices that best support this process for all learners.
To understand what is involved in meaning-making, we will examine insights from conceptual change research and cognitive neuroscience. Students build new understandings based on prior experiences, often shaped by personal and emotional contexts. They bring with them naïve ideas, everyday knowledge, and diverse cultural backgrounds. What happens when these meet the abstract concepts and disciplinary knowledge laid out in curricula?
This question lies at the heart of teaching. Teachers play a vital role in transforming academic knowledge so it can meaningfully connect with students’ lived experiences. The goal is to provide students with powerful new ways of seeing and engaging with the world. Drawing on classroom-based research, we will highlight how experienced teachers support meaning-making and ensure equitable access to powerful knowledge for all students.
Connecting this back to insights from cognitive neuroscience, we will also frame how teachers can provide environments in which students feel safe, valued and empowered. Supporting all students to develop their own motivations and interests, alongside powerful knowledge, will give them the strongest foundation to shape meaningful futures.