The Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) brings together researchers from around the world aiming to capture the richness and diversity of child development and learning.
Only by conducting open-access, cutting-edge research can we enhance our knowledge on learning and developmental variability.
Delve into the science of learning variability, explore cutting-edge research, and discover practical insights to enhance learning for all.
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The LEVANTE full cohort now includes a diverse set of new research sites in the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Argentina, Switzerland, and Canada, expanding the international scope of the initiative alongside the pilot sites. Each site is dedicated to investigating cognitive processes and their links to learning and development in children. The studies will utilize the LEVANTE measures alongside other cognitive assessments to explore areas such as cognitive variability, metacognition, memory, peer tutoring, and language development. With large participant cohorts ranging from 150 to 6,500 children, this new phase aims to generate insights into the factors influencing cognitive and educational outcomes across diverse populations.
Learn more about our new cohort of LEVANTE sites.
Principal Investigator: Alicia Forsberg
The LEVANTE site at the University of Sheffield, led by Principal Investigator Alicia Forsberg, focuses on the development of working memory, metacognition, and their roles in learning. By studying how these cognitive processes vary across individual children and developmental stages, the research aims to identify factors that can help reduce learning inequalities. A key component of the research involves integrating metacognition—awareness of one’s own cognitive processes—into the LEVANTE framework, assessing its impact on learning success. The team also plans to develop metacognitive interventions tailored to individual learning profiles. Through these efforts, the site contributes to a better understanding of how to support personalized learning and address variability in educational outcomes, in line with the goals of the LEVANTE network.
Principal Investigator: Zoe Ngo
The LEVANTE site, led by Principal Investigator Zoe Ngo at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, focuses on understanding how children’s memory abilities develop from age 4 to 10. This research explores how changes in memory and brain function shape children’s ability to remember meaningful experiences and links memory growth to other aspects of cognitive and social development. By integrating lab-based findings with real-world data, Zoe and her team aim to build personalized tools to enhance education for children, particularly those from diverse backgrounds. The research will also advance the use of wearable technology to study memory development in natural settings, providing valuable insights for educational strategies and policies.
Principal Investigator: Cecilia Calero
The LEVANTE site led by Cecilia Calero at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina is conducting the “Little Teachers Project,” a large-scale, school-based study that explores how children learn by teaching others and themselves. This research uniquely combines peer tutoring (PT) and self-regulated learning (SRL) to investigate how these practices shape cognitive development, educational equity, and lifelong learning skills. With a focus on real-world classrooms in resource-constrained settings, the team examines the individual and collective impact of these strategies on both tutors and learners. Supported by economist and Co-PI Victor Volman, the project aims to generate culturally diverse, open-access data that contributes to educational policy and the broader LEVANTE network’s mission of fostering inclusive, effective learning environments across global contexts.
Principal Investigator: Iliana Karipidis
The LEVANTE site, led by Principal Investigator Iliana Karipidis from the University of Zurich, focuses on exploring the development of language and literacy skills in children, particularly in multilingual contexts. The research aims to understand the variability in children’s learning trajectories, investigating how brain development, language environment, genetics, and learning experiences influence literacy acquisition. Karipidis and her team strive to develop and assess new tools for measuring literacy skills across diverse linguistic backgrounds, enhancing educational strategies, and identifying early indicators for children at risk of learning difficulties. Their contributions to the LEVANTE network include creating a shared framework for studying children’s learning and building an international brain imaging database.
Principal Investigator: Rogier Kievit
The LEVANTE site led by Principal Investigator Professor Rogier Kievit at the Donders Institute/RadboudUMC, in collaboration with Co-PI Professor Carolina de Weerth, investigates how early life experiences shape children’s later cognitive performance. By incorporating the LEVANTE cognitive battery into two unique longitudinal cohorts—Skippy, an RCT exploring the effects of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact, and Smiley, an observational study with data on diet, stress, behavior, and the microbiome—their research aims to uncover how modifiable early-life factors impact cognitive performance and intra-individual variability over time. Using advanced quantitative tools, like Hidden Markov Models, the team will model cognitive fluctuations and development. Their findings will contribute to the LEVANTE network by offering empirical evidence and methodological expertise, helping to bridge scientific insight and real-world impact through collaboration and global dissemination.
Principal Investigator: Catherine Lebel
The LEVANTE site, led by Principal Investigator Catherine Lebel from the University of Calgary, is focused on studying child development through the ongoing Pregnancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic study. This research follows over 6,500 mother-child pairs and seeks to understand how early life environments, including family structure and parental mental health, impact children’s cognitive development and learning outcomes. By incorporating LEVANTE’s performance-based measures of child cognition at ages 6 and 7, the project aims to enhance the understanding of developmental variability, resilience, and risk factors across diverse contexts. The study also integrates rich datasets, such as MRI scans and parent-child interaction videos, to offer unique insights into the factors that support optimal child development.