Slippery slopes. Some considerations for favoring a good marriage between education and the science of the mind–brain–behavior, and forestalling the risks

The Prevalence of Educational Neuromyths Among Pre‐Service Special Education Teachers

“…Persistent beliefs in neuromyths may be explained, in part, by the strong appeal of information that purports to be based on neuroscience and the brain (see Weisberg, Keil, Goodstein, Rawson, & Gray, ), and educators are increasingly presented with information about the brain and learning (Howard‐Jones, ; Newton, ). However, many theories peddled to educators are founded on imprecise and superficial understandings of the brain (Pasquinelli, ). Much coverage of neuroscience, especially in the popular media, tends to be sensationalistic and misinterprets research findings (Pasquinelli, ), thereby creating conditions in which neuromyths are disseminated and injudiciously accepted.…”

“…Researchers have begun to study beliefs in neuromyths—“misconceptions about mind and brain functioning” (Pasquinelli, , p. 1)—among pre‐service and in‐service teachers (Dekker, Lee, Howard‐Jones, & Jolles, ; Deligiannidi & Howard‐Jones, ; Ferrero, Garaizar, & Vadillo, ; Gleichgerrcht, Lira Luttges, Salvarezza, & Campos, ; Karakus, Howard‐Jones, & Jay, ; Macdonald, Germine, Anderson, Christodoulou, & McGrath, ; Papadatou‐Pastou, Haliou, & Vlachos, ; Pei, Howard‐Jones, Zhang, Liu, & Jin, ; Rato, Abreu, & Castro‐Caldas, ; Tardif, Doudin, & Meylan, ). Results indicate that a majority of pre‐ and in‐service teachers across multiple countries support the use of several neuromyth‐based instructional practices including those founded on learning modalities (i.e., learning styles), hemispheric dominance (i.e., left brain versus right brain theory), and perceptual motor training (e.g., Brain Gym).…”

When I Met my brain: Participating in a neuroimaging study influences children’s naïve mind–brain conceptions

“…In the past few years, there has been growing interest in the field of neuroeducation, which aims to bridge the gap between developmental cognitive neuroscience and education. These studies investigate the neural mechanisms of learning and offer new information about the brain that is useful for educators [25,26], and a large majority of educators find relevant neuroscience for practice [24]. However, despite this enthusiasm, the relation among neuroscience, cognitive psychology and education remains difficult, and their transfer into the classroom remains rare [6].…”

Roles of working memory performance and instructional strategy in complex cognitive task performance

“…Studies in the field of mind, brain and education (MBE) investigate the learning processes, mechanisms, constraints and their related cognitive functions; develop models for interpreting the evidence; apply methods for verifying the case and then plan a vision of education (Pasquinelli, ). The research findings in the field of MBE may provide additional necessary tools not only for practitioners but also for instructional designers to better design personalized e‐learning environments in the future.…”