Prof Michelle Ellefson

I am a Professor of Cognitive Science in the Faculty of Education. My research integrates cognition, neuroscience, child development, and education into a multi-disciplinary programme aimed at improving education in three core areas: science, maths, and literacy. Using an iterative process, I link laboratory-based research with classroom learning to better understand mechanisms responsible for cognitive development and improve educational practice. I study the role of executive functions in school achievement, investigate the role of causal reasoning for learning scientific phenomena, and apply specific cognitive principles to classroom learning (e.g., simplicity and desirable difficulties). Initially trained in developmental cognitive neuroscience, my inter-disciplinary team of students and collaborators includes developmental scientists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, educators, linguists, chemists, biologists, and physicists.