Scientists Find Learning Is Not 'Hard-Wired'
Neuroscience exploded into the education conversation more than 20 years ago, in step with the evolution of personal computers and the rise of the Internet, and policymakers hoped medical discoveries could likewise help doctors and teachers understand the "hard wiring" of the brain.
That conception of how the brain works, exacerbated by the difficulty in translating research from lab to classroom, spawned a generation of neuro-myths and snake-oil pitches—from programs to improve cross-hemisphere brain communication to teaching practices aimed at "auditory" or "visual" learners .
Today, as educational neuroscience has started to find its niche within interdisciplinary "mind-brain-education" study, the field's most powerful findings show how little about learning...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or start a 2-week FREE trial.
Subscribe to Education Week
You Save 20% or More!
Access selected articles, e-newsletters and more!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- Elementary Principal
- Forest Grove School District, Forest Grove, OR
- Teacher
- Perspectives Charter Schools, Chicago, IL
- School Turnaround Facilitator (Stockton, CA) ($83K-$102K/YR
- WestEd, Multiple Locations
- Superintendent
- Princeton Public School District, Princeton, NJ
- Director of School Support
- The Achievement Network, Multiple Locations