The misuse of neuroscience in schools
April 2014
http://www.staq.qld.edu.au/home/2014/4/ ... =hootsuite
Cristina Akiko Iizuka & Welber Marinovic, The University of Queensland
This article appeared in the Queensland Science Teacher 40.2 in February 2014. You can download it as a PDF (3.8 Mb).
With the advances in neuroscience knowledge over the last decades and the growing social interest in this field of research, neuro-motivated proposals on how to inform educational programs and approaches have become increasingly popular. As any new and aspiring research field, educational neuroscience has suffered to some extent from over-optimism and wishful thinking (Weigmann, 2013). Teachers and parents alike want children to strive and fulfil their potentials. It comes as no surprise, thus, that schools may feel the need to encourage teachers to employ the most updated knowledge available to make sure their students succeed. This push is motivated by a noble sentiment of duty towards the students and community, and is likely to be supported by most parents.
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.