From pandemic to endemic: why evidence-informed practices are more important than ever?

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly created major shifts in human existence today. Norms of living, ways of interaction and the process of just being and becoming differ dramatically now, compared to pre-pandemic days. Circa January 2020 when the first news of corona virus cases was broken to the world, we anticipated it to be akin to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome disease (SARS). With a bountiful of experience and lessons derived from SARS almost a decade ago, the world is perceivably more than capable, to nip corona in the bud and reign in its spread. Yet today, numerous nations around the world are still dealing with the Corona battle. As educators and Learning Scientists, one of the more prevalent questions asked of us, is, how will this pandemic affect Learning? As we move to a new normal endemic, what are the changes in teaching and learning that can be expected? In the recent two years preceding today, the National Institute of Education, Singapore, has been advancing an initiative called the “Science of Learning” (SoL) in education. SoL is fundamentally about integrating evidence from scientific findings into education. Specifically, the Science of Learning in Education (SoLE) is a nascent field seeking to identify, investigate and cohere scientific findings, across multi-disciplines, and to validly test and trial the science for translation into education. Through scientifically validated interventions and pedagogical innovations, the aim is not only to study the way people learn and how they learn differently but to also provide good scientific explanations for why some learning strategies work better for some, while worse for others. It is envisaged that education’s “grand challenges” can be optimally addressed through scientifically validated evidence. For example, what are the best ways to maximise the quality of life – do we need a combination of good cognitive and socio-emotional development coupled with optimal lifestyles such as sufficient sleep, diet and exercise? What kinds of social interactions catalyse learning and what do they do to our major learning organ, the brain? What do we know about the best regulatory mechanisms for learning and how they impact different learners? What conditions facilitate the effectiveness of learning activities, in different group sizes? It is with the end goals of addressing “grand challenges” in education that we reiterate the core purpose of Learning: Research and Practice. In advancing empirically supported learning theorisations, we support distinct and progressive research that responds to the problems of current educational practices, that is importantly, grounded in empirically supported investigations of learning processes and outcomes. We have seen a large avalanche of information surge arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, presented to healthcare and policymakers regarding the deadly disease. From injecting disinfectant to purportedly abolish the virus, debating side-effects of vaccines and its efficacies, to scepticism towards contact-tracing apps allegedly related to LEARNING: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2021, VOL. 7, NO. 2, 105–108 https://doi.org/10.1080/23735082.2021.1964779