Very sad news, I met Naomi a few times and (besides the quality of her work) I was very much impressed by her very pleasant personality.

From Ton de Jong

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As a nervous new academic at Lancaster University in 1986, I joined John Self, Steve Payne, Jim Ridgway and others in the Centre for Research on Computers and Learning. At one of the very first meetings we discussed Naomi’s paper on “Constructive Interaction”, which had recently appeared in Cognitive Science. It’s a paper every grad student should read, for the ways it builds a complex argument in simple language; elegant exposition.  Naomi’s approach stimulated a number of our projects on the study of teachers’ thinking in one-on-one tutorial sessions – aimed at improving intelligent tutoring systems. She had a rare kind of talent for producing infectious ideas – we will all miss her.

From Peter Goodyear

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I remember Naomi Miyake’s opening of the CSCL conference in Hong Kong in 2011.

She shared a story (and a perspective) that I have never ever forgotten and which I share with others. The conference took place not long after the tsunami hit Japan, and Naomi told about one elementary school where a local engineer had helped the school develop a different type of emergency preparedness than most of the other schools. Normally, she explained, in the event of an earthquake students would go to an open space in the schoolyard and wait for the teachers to check the school and come out. Relying on adults.

In this school, however, the students were taught to go to the schoolyard, evaluate the safety of the situation themselves, and go to higher ground if they determined they needed to. This school was one hit by the tsunami, and while the survival rate in all the other schools was extremely low, in this school it was over 90% because the children themselves took the initiative to evaluate their safety and move to higher ground.

The story brings tears to my eyes each time. What a belief in what kids are capable of, and what an important story to tell to remind us all to engage kids in their fullest capacities for reasoning and looking out for each other.

Naomi told the story with tenderness, and I know that her work as a scholar was with this ethic in mind – to educate in a way that children reach to their fullest capability in learning and taking responsibility.

I am so sad for the loss of Naomi to our community.

From Deborah Fields

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I was very sad to hear about the loss of Naomi. Naomi was a leader in Learning Research in Japan and Internationally.   She was a great friend to me and we collaborated in research and in the organisation of conferences and events for CSCL, for the Cognitive Science Society and for AERA on many occasions. I admired her resilience and courage in her long fight with cancer.  I will miss her very much.

From Stella Vosniadou

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My deepest condolences to you and your family