Neuroscience And Teaching: What Teachers Need To Know About "Education Neuroscience"

Neuroscience is the study of the brain and how it words on a molecular and physical level. It's emerged as a fascinating area, primarilly because we now have brain scanning technology that tells a lot about what happens in the brain in various situations. Education Neuroscience is an extension of this, trying to take information about how brains work on a physiological level, and base teaching techniques upon that knowlege.

But It's Not Simple To Apply Neuroscience to Better Teaching

There are a lot of problems attached to coming up with practical advice for teachers based on brain functions. As you'll see in the references below, opinions are splite about whether teachers should be learning more about brain functions.

  • The science is so new, and oriented towards PURE research rather than applied research, so often the research while fascinating has NO current easy application.
  • Because we live in a marketing society, all kinds of claims have emerged from companies stating their products are about "brain based learning", when in fact, the premises they are based on are wrong, inaccurate, thus making the techniques worthless in the classroom.
  • Neuromyths are beliefs about the brain and how it works that have little if no scientific verification, or have actually been disproved. Unfortunately, one concern is that teachers will believe these "conclusions" and try to use them in the classroom, when in fact they are false. A little knowledge, in complex fields is often a bad thing.

Conclusion About Application Of Neuroscience To Teaching

At this point the field is not developed enough to yield practical teaching and learning strategies for teachers and curriculum developers. This may change in the future. Right now, it's teacher beware, particularly of charlatans trying to capitalize on our love of science, and our fascination with how brains work.

But draw your own conclusions. Below you'll find an amazing collection of articles and information about the meeting of brain science and classroom practice.

Top : Neuroscience And Teaching - Education Neuroscience : Page 3 :

The fastest growing science, neuroscience, and it's application to teaching (education neuroscience) has potential to help teachers teach more effectively and understand how students learn. But it's not that simple. In this section we'll look at if neuroscience can aid teachers, pitfalls, and myths.

Essential Readings In Applying Neuroscience To Improve Teaching, Current Flaws and Pitfalls

Neuroscience And Teaching - Education Neuroscience

Should Teachers Be Trained In Neuroscience? Caution Needed - by NA
It would make sense to include training in neuroscience into curriculi for teacher education, but some believe this would be a bad idea, because it would promote "neuromyths", believing things that aren't true. Neuroscience is complex, and a little knowledge may be worse than none. (Views So Far 516 )

Study: Many Teachers Believe Neuroscience Myths - by JOY PULLMANN
Teachers believe a great many myths about brain science, such as that learning styles matter and enriching preschool environments boosts learning, according to a study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The more general knowledge a teacher had, the more likely she was to believe false, popular myths about how brains works. (Views So Far 373 )

The Misuse of Neuroscience in Schools - by Cristina Akiko Iizuka
The pressure to improve educational practices has led to a number of misunderstandings about how neuroscience can be applied to maximize learning. These unfounded practices and beliefs may come from misconceptions brought about by past experience, undue generalizations of scientific data, biased interpretations and/or encouraged by media. As an institution for the dissemination of knowledge, however, it may sound shocking to even think that some of the practices and beliefs being encouraged in our schools today may be based on tenuous scientific evidence. Neuroscience knowledge has undoubtedly broadened our understanding of the brain in a way that is important for educational practices. (Views So Far 329 )

The Neuroscience Of Learning: 41 Terms Every Teacher Should Know - by Judy Willis
Another article by Judy Willis, who clearly has an unshakable, and perhaps unwarranted belief in the current value of neuroscience for teachers, but we include it here because it contains forty one terms about the brain that teachers may want to learn if they want to learn more about neuroscience. (Views So Far 403 )

Why teachers shouldn't learn neuroscience - by Valerie Strauss
In this Washington Post article, the author suggests that the move to teach teachers about neuroscience may be misguided and be more harmful than not. Takes about neuromyths, pseudo-science, etc. (Views So Far 316 )

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Specific Topics (4)
As we develop this category on the application of neuroscience to teaching and education, we'll be adding more reference material on specific topics within neuroscience, and organizing them by subject. As our collection grows we'll create new categories, on topics like "brain differences" between genders, or "applying neuroscience to teaching math.
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