On Friday 28 November 2025, the UQ Learning Lab held its Annual Symposium, A Global Lens on the Science of Learning, bringing together researchers, educators, school leaders, students and industry partners from Australia and abroad to consider learning and wellbeing across the lifespan and in diverse contexts.
The day opened with two keynotes. Professor David Osher (UQ Learning Lab Adjunct) presented Thriving for Deeper Learning in School and Life, making the case that resilience and thriving are deeply social, and that schools achieve more through coherent, joined-up design than through piecemeal programs. Associate Professor James Kirby (UQ Compassionate Mind Research Group) followed with a session on facilitating learning and wellbeing through compassion-based approaches, introducing the three flows of compassion and the Three Circles model of emotion.
Our Partner Schools then shared findings from a year of research-informed inquiry in their own contexts, spanning learner identity, school transitions, teacher wellbeing, scholarship, character development, personalised learning, metacognition, academic wellness through self-regulation, student perceptions of feedback, and curious classrooms. A third session explored how the science of learning is being mobilised at scale, featuring Brisbane Catholic Education's work building a Living Learning Model across 146 schools and more than 78,000 students, Professor Annemaree Carroll on tackling student absenteeism through a social-justice lens, and Dr Natasha Matthews on cognitive offloading and the developing brain.
The day closed with a poster session showcasing work from the Lab's higher degree researchers and Partner Schools, and a panel discussion on the future of the science of learning. The clear message across the day: when researchers, educators and industry work together, meaningful and sustainable change is possible.
