Promise and Peril of Neuroscience for Alternative Education. Uncorrected proofs version of Chapter 6, The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education, (Lees, H. E. & Noddings., N, Eds.). London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) (original) (raw)
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Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document. For a definitive version of this work, please refer to the published source.
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To date there has been little opposition to the growing influence of cognitive neuroscience in education from the education profession itself. However there is growing criticism from the fields of psychology and philosophy. This paper aims to summarize the central arguments found in literature critical of the claims made by cognitive neuroscientists who advocate its potential to improve education. The paper is organised around three sections which draw together assessments from psychology, philosophy and sociology of education. The first, "Brain, Mind and Culture", lays out the general argument against neuroeducation and evaluates two common assumptions made by advocates of neuro-education: that there is a causal relationship between brain and mind; and that learning is a central tenet of education. The second section, "Promises and Problems", critically considers an example of neuro-educational research, and then goes on to discuss how neuro-education has detrimental consequences for two necessary conditions of liberal subject based education; disciplinarity and pedagogic authority. The final section, "Discourses of Risk, Vulnerability and Optimal Outcomes", considers wider sociological literature to locate neuro-education within its contemporary cultural context. The paper concludes with a summary of the main philosophical and moral objections to neuro-education.
Neuroscience and education: from research to practice
| Cognitive neuroscience is making rapid strides in areas highly relevant to education. However, there is a gulf between current science and direct classroom applications. Most scientists would argue that filling the gulf is premature. Nevertheless, at present, teachers are at the receiving end of numerous 'brainbased learning' packages. Some of these contain alarming amounts of misinformation, yet such packages are being used in many schools. What, if anything, can neuroscientists do to help good neuroscience into education?
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There have been numerous detractors and supporters relating to attempts to merge the neurosciences and the knowledge base of related contributing disciplines with the field of education. Some have argued that this is a “bridge too far”. The predominant view is that the relationship between neuroscience and the classroom has been neither significantly examined, nor applied. What is needed is a specially trained class of professionals whose role it would be to guide the introduction of cognitive neuroscience into educational practice in a sensible and ethical manner. Neuroeducators would play a pivotal role in assessing the quality of evidence purporting to be relevant to education, assessing who is best placed to employ newly developed knowledge, as well as with what safeguards, in addition to investigating how to deal with unexpected consequences of implemented research findings. This special issue of the “The Brain Goes to School” aims to provide support for the development of trai...
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Recent research in neuroscience has a seductive appeal for quick applications to many everyday phenomena. 1 This research has also attracted educational entrepreneurs, who often create commercial programs that turn neuroscience into classroom practice. 2 Phrases such as "brain-based education" give them an air of respectability and authority, enticing educators to adopt them. However, basic brain research is often superficially understood, and thus translated too quickly into educational practices. 3 The large gap between neuroscience and practice is ignored too often by entrepreneurs selling their programs. They often end up making inflated claims about neuroscience's direct benefits in day-to-day teaching practices. Problematizing this is a good public service for philosophy of education.
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Neuroscience and What It Tells About Education
Springer briefs in education, 2019
This chapter reviews findings from neuroscience and discusses how Student Centered Cooperative Learning can facilitate application of these findings on behalf of learning. Firstly, on a physical level, neuroscience tells us that human brains need water and nutrition. Secondly, on an affective level, students need the right level of challenge, support in the face of bullying and other threats, and motivation. Thirdly, insights from neuroscience confirm that cognitive learning benefits when new learning connects with students' background knowledge in order that students can construct networks of knowledge. Next, that chapter focuses on insights from social neuroscience, in particular why and how to promote mutual concern, encourage students to believe that collaboration can be beneficial, help students develop and deploy cooperative skills, and manifest altruism. Advances in science have greatly added to our knowledge of how the brain works. No longer do we see the brain as the behaviorists did, an impenetrable black box into which we cannot look, or as the early cognitivists did, as something that can only be described via metaphors, as in the computer metaphor of the mind (Crowther-Heyck, 1999; see Chap. 4). Instead, researchers in education and related fields use newly developed neuroscience tools to look at actual brains thinking in real time, as these researchers search for insights into what strategies promote learning. Indeed, brain-based education has become a popular term (Jensen, 2008; Kumar & Yap, 2010; Shaughnessy, 2016). This chapter presents findings from neuroscience and their implications for education, in particular how Student Centered Cooperative Learning (SCCL) provides many ways to apply this research. Perhaps surprisingly, or maybe comfortingly, findings in neuroscience support the overall thrust of SCCL. Education Applications from Neuroscience At an accelerating rate, neuroscience provides new information about how the human brain, all 1300-1400 g or three pounds of it, works (Jan, 2017). Actually, much of what has been learned about the brain fits well with what people in the overlapping