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HONG KONG, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The Yidan Prize Foundation has awarded Dr Linda Darling-Hammond and Professor

Yongxin Zhu the 2022 Yidan Prize, the world's highest education accolade. The

award recognizes their innovative work in empowering educators, and promoting

inclusive and equitable access to education, ensuring every learner can reach

their full potential.

Founded in 2016, the Yidan Prize Foundation has a mission to create a better

world through education. Following a rigorous independent judging process, Dr

Linda Darling-Hammond and Professor Yongxin Zhu receive the 2022 Yidan Prize

for Education Research and the 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Development,

respectively.

"We offer our warmest congratulations to our 2022 Yidan Prize laureates, Dr

Linda Darling-Hammond and Professor Yongxin Zhu. They both play an important

role in empowering our teachers and youth with the skills needed to thrive in

the 21st century. Their work clearly shows the transformative impact that

teachers can have on learners. And when students have great teachers, they have

great opportunities," said Mr Edward Ma, Secretary-General of the Yidan Prize

Foundation.

Recognizing excellence to spark real, scalable change in education

Dr Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus,

Stanford University, and President and CEO, Learning Policy Institute, is

awarded the 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research for her work in shaping

education policy and practice around the most equitable and effective ways to

teach and learn. Her research reveals the diverse ways children learn and how

best to teach them—and feeds those insights into robust educator development

programs and transformed schools that holistically support teachers to change

children's lives.

"With an unwavering drive to see every learner reach their full potential,

regardless of social background, gender and geography, Linda has spent her life

building research tools that support policy and practice to create better and

fairer educational opportunities. Her influence on public policy has helped

policy architects shape positive changes for children on a large scale," said

Mr Andreas Schleicher, head of the Yidan Prize for Education Research judging

panel, and director for the OECD's Directorate of Education and Skills.

With the Yidan Prize funds, Linda will scale up her critical work at Educator

Preparation Laboratory (EdPrepLab): a network focused on supporting

student-centered, equity-focused teacher preparation programs, which are

grounded in the science of learning and development and prepare teachers to

help all students learn in empowering ways. She will expand the reach of

EdPrepLab, adding new programs, investing in new research about effective

programs, and creating a space where educators, researchers and policymakers

can easily share and learn from each other.

Professor Yongxin Zhu, Founder of New Education Initiative (NEI) and Professor,

school of Education, Soochow University, is awarded the 2022 Yidan Prize for

Education Development for his work in improving teaching quality and

transforming learning outcomes in China. His NEI programs support the

well-being and development of teachers, reaching over 8,300 schools, over

500,000 teachers and 8 million students across China—more than half of which

are in rural and remote areas. By bringing a learner's whole community

together, NEI transforms home environments into positive learning spaces and

fosters a collaborative approach to learning. Teachers, students and families

work together towards clear learning goals, deepening education outcomes beyond

a focus on teaching-to-test and exams.

"Professor Zhu is successfully addressing some of the most intractable

challenges in education: improving equity and inclusiveness. His work

encourages an appreciation of the value of learning for personal growth by

improving reading, writing and communication.  He has succeeded in gradually

changing how teachers approach professional development and how students learn

in classrooms and at home. Perhaps most importantly, he reminds us of the

importance of joy and well-being for every learner," said Dorothy K. Gordon,

head of Yidan Prize for Education Development judging panel, and Board Member

of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education.

Professor Yongxin Zhu plans to use the Yidan Prize funds to expand NEI's reach

in remote, rural areas in China and develop a cloud-based learning hub,

improving education quality and providing inclusive and equitable access to

education for all learners.

"The Yidan Prize champions the most innovative ideas in education and helps

scale them so as many people as possible can benefit. Our laureates are

therefore crucial to our aim of transforming education worldwide—and through

that, unlocking a brighter future for all learners," said Dr Koichiro Matsuura,

Chairman of the Yidan Prize Judging Committee and the former Director-General

of UNESCO.

Yidan Prize Foundation is championing changemakers in education

The Yidan Prize honors individuals or teams that have significantly contributed

to the theory and practice of education. Each laureate will be awarded HK$30

million (approximately US$3.9 million,shared equally for teams), half of which

will serve as a project fund to help them scale their education projects and

support more learners globally.

The 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate, Professor Eric A.

Hanushek, is using the Prize funds to set up the Yidan African Fellows Program,

a network of local policy fellows with an aim to improve education

decision-making across sub-Saharan Africa. In India, 2021 Yidan Prize for

Education Development Laureate Dr Rukmini Banerji is working with Pratham to

develop, test and refine early years programs and expand collaboration with

local governments. These programs are expected to benefit 35,000 children

across 650 communities.

2023 Yidan Prize nominations open in October

The Yidan Prize continues to welcome nominations to honor changemakers in

education, who are positively impacting learners across the globe with

transformative, scalable, and sustainable learning solutions.

ABOUT THE YIDAN PRIZE FOUNDATION

The Yidan Prize Foundation is a global philanthropic foundation, with a mission

of creating a better world through education. Through its prize and network of

innovators, the Yidan Prize Foundation supports ideas and practices in

education—specifically, ones with the power to positively change lives and

society.  

The Yidan Prize is an inclusive education accolade that recognizes individuals

or teams who have contributed significantly to the theory and practice of

education.

https://yidanprize.org

SOURCE Yidan Prize Foundation

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=430509

   Caption: Dr Linda Darling-Hammond (left), 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research

Laureate, and Professor Yongxin Zhu (right), 2022 Yidan Prize for Education

Development Laureate

   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=430511

   Caption: The two prizes are designed for impact: laureates receive a gold medal and

HK$30 million (shared equally for teams), half of which is a project fund of

HK$15 million to help them scale up their work