Collaborative Research: Science of Learning Center: Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2)

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NSF and Gallaudet University?s Science of Learning Center for Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) entails multidisciplinary projects sharing in scientific purpose the discovery of how aspects of higher cognition are realized through one of human?s most central senses, vision. Through the enhancing lens of natural signed languages, projects investigate how deafness and visual languages provide a window into the flexibility and structure of the human mind. Projects identify the effects of visual processes, visual language, and social experience on visual learners? development of cognition, language, and reading and literacy. Visual learning is unraveled in monolinguals and bilinguals spanning development, to promote optimal practices across educational settings. Center projects are divided into seven Strategic Focus Areas. Four involve state-of-the-art scientific research, neuroimaging, and/or computational modeling, each rendering emerging findings to educational intervention design, including, Visual & Cognitive Plasticity, Language Development & Bilingualism, Reading & Literacy, and Translational Research to Educational Practice. Three involve, Translational outreach, Center Management, and Diversity. Uniqueness: Deaf and hearing scientists and educators; two-way dialog among researchers and teachers/public; Student Leadership Teams; infrastructure promoting national and international resource sharing across vast partnership institutions; capacity to serve as the nation?s ?first-response? regarding educational priorities. Broader Significance: Center products ensure advances in education for students at risk for low achievement. Comparative analyses of auditory and visual bases for language, reading, and print-literacy lead to new paradigms for understanding learning essential for enhancing educational, social, and vocational outcomes for all humans, deaf and hearing, consequently transforming the Science of Learning.