Mmantsetsa Marope
IBE Director (2015-2020)

Ineffective facilitation of learning can undermine the best curriculum. Learning is the final phase of the curriculum process; without it, the best curriculum is just a document that cannot improve learning outcomes. Yet, effective facilitation of learning still eludes the education community. Many education systems fail to demonstrate the level of learning outcomes to which they commit, and this is a threat to the attainment of the SDG4 targets. It is equally a threat to the other 16 SDGs, which depend on quality education for their attainment.

The IBE believes that a deeper understanding of how humans learn is urgently needed to better facilitate learning. Building a scientific groundwork for education and learning has the potential to revolutionize the current understanding of learning and to provide an expanded, updated, and potentially useful toolkit to shape educational practice and policy.

In response, in 2016, the IBE began translating neuroscience research to better inform teaching, learning, and assessment practices.

During 2018-2019, the IBE’s work on the neuroscience of learning has gained exceptional momentum and further consolidated the IBE’s unique role as an international clearinghouse for the sciences of learning.

The IBE Portal on Sciences of Learning

The IBE Portal features technical briefs on relevant neuroscience topics, with clear implications for education policy, teaching, and learning. The Blog IBE Speaks further supports and advocates for using credible research findings to improve teaching, learning, and assessment.

The IBE is building a community of practice of world-renowned scholars and prestigious academic institutions to help develop 21st century education systems that are supported by concrete evidence of how we learn.

Leading academic institutions have joined forces with the IBE to support and translate key neuroscience research on learning and the brain for educators (particularly teachers), policy makers, and practitioners.

Also, the IBRO/ IBE-UNESCO Science of Learning Fellowship continues to attract top senior neuroscientists, who assist the IBE in making findings of cutting-edge research substantively accessible to a large base of policy makers and practitioners.