Mind and Brain

• Emma Climie
• Jose Domene
• Erica Makarenko
• Carly McMorris
• Tanya Mudry
• David Nordstokke
• Xu Zhao

• Brain and education
• Child and youth mental health
• Developmental wellness and resiliency
• Intellectual disabilities
• Psycho-educational assessment

Researchers at the Werklund School are addressing how curriculum can transform ways of thinking about schooling, knowledge, and teaching and learning, while encompassing issues of content, context and teaching in both formal and non-formal educational settings. 

At the Werklund School, we are researching strategies to better understand and improve young children's learning and development as a foundation critical for continued prosperity throughout their schooling.

Werklund researchers are fostering more diverse learning communities through addressing challenges in and outside of schools, and sharing the voices of the students, teachers, school psychologists and counselling psychologists working to eradicate conditions that have historically marginalized vulnerable populations.

Werklund School researchers are re-examining the methods and theories that have shaped teaching and learning for generations, while historically marginalizing Indigenous people and perspectives. Today,  many of our scholars are working towards a curriculum in which all people belong. In their research, they are incorporating different ways of knowing, being and doing, all essential to the process of decolonizing and Indigenizing education.

Researchers at Werklund are exploring communication through the multi-faceted dimensions of literacy, and linguistic and cultural diversity, especially as they relate to different forms of expression, including print, visual, oral, and gestural texts, as well as new literacies and digital media.

Leadership researchers at the Werklund School are analysing and resolving educational policy and leadership issues specifically related to the direction and management of schools, school systems, post-secondary institutions, and both governmental bodies as well as non-governmental organizations concerned with public and private education.

At Werklund, researchers are advancing the holistic needs of children, ensuring they thrive from child to adolescent and into emergent adult, in their schools, homes and communities at large. From early learning, to social emotional learning, and in consideration of neurodiversity, researchers are redefining how teachers, school psychologists and counselling psychologists support lifelong learners.

Werklund School researchers are doing pioneering work in the area of neurodiversity, studying developmental cognitive neuroscience, neurodevelopmental disorders, early experience and brain development.

Researchers at Werklund are exploring the relationships between education and economic, political and cultural systems, as they seek new ways to understand and address social and economic inequality, gender and race relations, multiculturalism, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, sustainability, globalization and colonialism.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are among the foundational building blocks of education. At Werklund, researchers are reimagining these core subjects while developing teaching and learning initiatives that are responsive to and reflective of the rapid changes requiring societies to be more nimble and adaptable.