Professor Moriah Sokolowski Awarded Jacobs–CIFAR Fellowship
Dr. Moriah Sokolowski, Assistant Professor of Psychology, has been awarded the highly prestigious Jacobs–CIFAR Research Fellowship. Offered jointly by the Jacobs Foundation and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the fellowship supports a small group of exceptional early- and mid-career researchers around the world who are advancing new insights into how children and youth learn and develop.
Dr. Sokolowski’s research focuses on a challenge that affects many students: the urge to withdraw from math. Her work explores why this happens and how educators can help children stay engaged. As she explains, “At the broadest level, my research asks, Why do some children avoid math, and how can we help them stay engaged—even when it feels hard?”
She notes that many children avoid math not because they lack ability, but because the subject triggers anxiety and discomfort. “I hypothesize that this tendency is rooted in basic human approach–avoidance instincts, which were once useful for survival but now interfere with modern learning,” she says. Through this fellowship, she will study math avoidance across cultures using behavioural measures, statistical tools, and brain imaging, with the goal of designing a teacher-delivered strategies to help children approach math with confidence rather than fear.
Understanding how different students learn math is essential to this work. “Students do not learn in a one-size-fits-all way,” Dr. Sokolowski explains. “Some children dive into math with enthusiasm, while others shut down the moment a problem feels challenging.” She adds that avoidance is an often-overlooked barrier to learning. “When a child avoids math, they miss out on practice, which lowers achievement and increases anxiety, creating a cycle that becomes harder to break. Studying math avoidance across countries will provide insight into how educational expectations, cultural norms, and classroom environments shape student motivation.”
The fellowship arrives at an important moment as Dr. Sokolowski continues to grow the Neuroimaging, Development, and Educational Attainment (NeuroIDEA) Lab at TMU. “As an early-career researcher building a new lab, this fellowship provides both the resources and global network needed to launch an ambitious, internationally collaborative research program,” she says.
Dr. Sokolowski's research can make a real difference for students who struggle with math or learning in general. “Math anxiety and math performance feed into each other—anxiety leads to poorer performance, which increases anxiety, and so on,” she explains. “Shifting the focus from ‘math ability’ to math engagement can give students a stronger sense of agency and open pathways they may have believed were closed to them.” Her research will help teachers recognize early signs of avoidance and to develop classroom practices that encourage students to engage with math even when they feel uncertain.
Most importantly, she sees the fellowship as a platform to pursue work that can have lasting impact. “Helping all children, regardless of background or temperament, identify and succeed in their ideal academic and eventually occupational niches is the guiding goal of my research,” she says.