Lectures Mind, Brain and Education
Course overview
Main aims course
1. Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of mind, brain and education; its importance and
challenges
2. (Further) develop skills to critically evaluate claims about what brain research can and can’t
mean for education
Critical thinking – concepts & tools (Paul & Elder, 2014)
,Lecture 1A – Introduction and course overview
“Education is about enhancing learning, and neuroscience is about understanding the mental
processes involved in learning. This common ground suggests a future in which educational practice
can be transformed by science” (Royal Society UK (2011)
• Mind, Brain and Education
• Educational Neuroscience
Why is neuroscience relevant for education? Why do teachers need to
know about the brain?
1. The brain provides the machinery to learn, & learning disorders
go together with (often subtle) changes in the brain
o Education is constrained by how the brain works and
develops
o Should connect to machinery
2. Education changes the brain: learning = reorganizing connections and networks (week 2)
3. To prevent miscommunications
o Neuro-myths in education
Can neuroscience be applied to the classroom directly?
No! But why not?
1. Neuroscience methods have limitations (week 5)
o Highly controlled lab conditions vs. the complexity in the
classroom
o Brain images less exact than they may appear
2. Complex translation (week 1 and 6)
o Neuroscientists are not teachers & teachers have limited neuroscience expertise →
miscommunications
Brain imaging: from lab to daily-life .. (more in week 6!) →
Arguments for something being a myth:
• Indirectly based on neuroscience, but not tested directly with controlled studies
o (BrainGym claims – we have to drink 6-8 glasses of water – it might be a core truth
that it’s good for the brain to be hydrated, but there is no evidence for the specific
statement which says that the brain will shrink if you don’t drink enough)
• “Evidence” incorrectly interpreted or inflated
o (diagnosis with brain scan – there is evidence on group level that there might be
some brain processes that are different between kids with ADHD and healthy
children, but it’s not possible to do a brain scan on an individual for a diagnosis)
• There is evidence against
o (10% myth, learning styles – there is evidence that we use all of our brain, there is
evidence that it isn’t better to teach a child in their preferred learning style)
,Fact or myth? (Howard-Jones, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2014)
BrainGym
Program of teacher-led physical exercises which are claimed to improve the cognitive abilities of
primary school children.
→ These are being taught with pseudoscientific explanations that undermine science, and mislead
children about how their bodies work
• Nothing wrong with physical exercise!
o Research shows physical exercise improves e.g. memory
• Specific BrainGym exercises: no scientific basis
• And in any case: effectiveness of such a program should be validated in controlled studies
Sense about BrainGym
• Scientists responses to claims in BrainGym programme
Neuro-imaging: a lot to offer
Old methods that have been used to study the brain
• Phrenology → Bumps on the skull would be the stuff/skill someone was
good at
• Post-mortem brains > not possible to study function
• Lesion studies > investigate patients with certain brain damage
• Animal research > not easy to translate to humans (especially in higher
cognitive functions)
, Since ~ 20 years: neuro-imaging (fMRI – EEG – MRI)
• Human brain in action
• Brain networks underlying behaviour
Diffusion Tensor Imaging & magnetic
scanning
→ But we need to be transparent about the
limitations
Neuro-imaging: a lot to offer (lecture 1B)
• Neuro-imaging enables studying the
living human brain in action
• Understanding brain-behavior relations
• Longitudinal studies
o Development: e.g. adolescent brain
o Typical and atypical development
• Shedding light on mechanisms:
o Adding a level in understanding causal influences on educational outcomes
MBE/Educational Neuroscience
The current debate about the relevance of brain research for education continues in two extreme
directions (tutorial 1):
• Optimism → Myths grow and persist, inflated expectations
• Scepticism → Throwing the baby out with the bathwater
MBE/Educational neuroscience: interdisciplinary field that finds and paves the middle road
→ we’re not there yet, but there are certainly opportunities
→ discarding myths, encouraging promising directions
Course overview
Main aims course
1. Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of mind, brain and education; its importance and
challenges
2. (Further) develop skills to critically evaluate claims about what brain research can and can’t
mean for education
Critical thinking – concepts & tools (Paul & Elder, 2014)
,Lecture 1A – Introduction and course overview
“Education is about enhancing learning, and neuroscience is about understanding the mental
processes involved in learning. This common ground suggests a future in which educational practice
can be transformed by science” (Royal Society UK (2011)
• Mind, Brain and Education
• Educational Neuroscience
Why is neuroscience relevant for education? Why do teachers need to
know about the brain?
1. The brain provides the machinery to learn, & learning disorders
go together with (often subtle) changes in the brain
o Education is constrained by how the brain works and
develops
o Should connect to machinery
2. Education changes the brain: learning = reorganizing connections and networks (week 2)
3. To prevent miscommunications
o Neuro-myths in education
Can neuroscience be applied to the classroom directly?
No! But why not?
1. Neuroscience methods have limitations (week 5)
o Highly controlled lab conditions vs. the complexity in the
classroom
o Brain images less exact than they may appear
2. Complex translation (week 1 and 6)
o Neuroscientists are not teachers & teachers have limited neuroscience expertise →
miscommunications
Brain imaging: from lab to daily-life .. (more in week 6!) →
Arguments for something being a myth:
• Indirectly based on neuroscience, but not tested directly with controlled studies
o (BrainGym claims – we have to drink 6-8 glasses of water – it might be a core truth
that it’s good for the brain to be hydrated, but there is no evidence for the specific
statement which says that the brain will shrink if you don’t drink enough)
• “Evidence” incorrectly interpreted or inflated
o (diagnosis with brain scan – there is evidence on group level that there might be
some brain processes that are different between kids with ADHD and healthy
children, but it’s not possible to do a brain scan on an individual for a diagnosis)
• There is evidence against
o (10% myth, learning styles – there is evidence that we use all of our brain, there is
evidence that it isn’t better to teach a child in their preferred learning style)
,Fact or myth? (Howard-Jones, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2014)
BrainGym
Program of teacher-led physical exercises which are claimed to improve the cognitive abilities of
primary school children.
→ These are being taught with pseudoscientific explanations that undermine science, and mislead
children about how their bodies work
• Nothing wrong with physical exercise!
o Research shows physical exercise improves e.g. memory
• Specific BrainGym exercises: no scientific basis
• And in any case: effectiveness of such a program should be validated in controlled studies
Sense about BrainGym
• Scientists responses to claims in BrainGym programme
Neuro-imaging: a lot to offer
Old methods that have been used to study the brain
• Phrenology → Bumps on the skull would be the stuff/skill someone was
good at
• Post-mortem brains > not possible to study function
• Lesion studies > investigate patients with certain brain damage
• Animal research > not easy to translate to humans (especially in higher
cognitive functions)
, Since ~ 20 years: neuro-imaging (fMRI – EEG – MRI)
• Human brain in action
• Brain networks underlying behaviour
Diffusion Tensor Imaging & magnetic
scanning
→ But we need to be transparent about the
limitations
Neuro-imaging: a lot to offer (lecture 1B)
• Neuro-imaging enables studying the
living human brain in action
• Understanding brain-behavior relations
• Longitudinal studies
o Development: e.g. adolescent brain
o Typical and atypical development
• Shedding light on mechanisms:
o Adding a level in understanding causal influences on educational outcomes
MBE/Educational Neuroscience
The current debate about the relevance of brain research for education continues in two extreme
directions (tutorial 1):
• Optimism → Myths grow and persist, inflated expectations
• Scepticism → Throwing the baby out with the bathwater
MBE/Educational neuroscience: interdisciplinary field that finds and paves the middle road
→ we’re not there yet, but there are certainly opportunities
→ discarding myths, encouraging promising directions
