They are Professor Carol S Dweck of Stanford University and Vicky Colbert, founder and director of Fundación Escuela Nueva. Each laureate will receive approximately US$4 million (B123mn) to recognise their distinguished contributions to education and to help fund their future work.
The Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate is Carol S Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, the United States. Her groundbreaking research focuses on the pioneering concept of the “growth mindset” built on a fundamental belief in the malleability of intelligence. The theory has become an influential concept in how children in the classroom are encouraged to evaluate and realise their full potential.
The Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate is Vicky Colbert, founder and director of the Colombian organisation Fundación Escuela Nueva and co-author of the Escuela Nueva educational model, Colombia.
The education project she has led Escuela Nueva (“New School” in Spanish) uses a transformative “learner-centred” model to integrate the curriculum, teacher training, community involvement and school administration in a coherent and cost effective way.
The model has addressed fundamental issues in global education – providing high quality schooling for rural areas, and is proven to be impactful for its scalable outcomes in many countries and has been continuously expanded and developed for over three decades.
Charles Chen Yidan, founder of the Yidan Prize, said, “To witness the level of innovation and dedication shown by the inaugural laureates in their work and the breadth and depth of the impact they have made is humbling. The Yidan Prize was founded to shine a light on education that is transformative, sustainable and address the world’s needs as we look to the future.”