HOW would you feel if you discovered that your child’s doctor was unaware of recent findings in neuroscience? It’s likely you’d be worried. What if it was your child’s teacher? You might be less concerned, though teachers have an effect on children’s brains too.
But while the route from research to medical practice is well established, the same cannot be said for education. Teachers are highly knowledgeable in the domain of the classroom, but it is understandably difficult for them to keep abreast of cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience. This is borne out by a recent review by Paul Howard-Jones at the University of Bristol, UK, showing that (see “Time to banish the neuromyths in education?”).
One pervasive “neuromyth”, even among experienced teachers, is the idea of “multiple intelligences”, a theory developed in the 1980s by Howard Gardner of Harvard University. This proposes that individuals have a dominant type of intelligence, such as movement-based or logical and mathematical, which will affect how they learn. While the idea seems intuitive, embracing the abilities of all and liberating teaching from the baleful influence of IQ ratings, it has been misapplied. Other notions, such as “brain training”, are .
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That’s why it is welcome that calls are growing for greater links between education and neuroscience research. At an international meeting in Berlin last week, delegates demonstrated that there is much that brain science can do to inform teaching practice. It should be made as easy as possible for teachers to access evidence-based information. Take the example of Germany’s Transfer Centre for Neurobiology and Learning in Ulm. Rather than have researchers telling teachers how to do their jobs, it offers them training about the brain through regular seminars, and encourages them to conduct scientific evaluation of practical approaches.
“One centre offers teachers training about the brain and encourages evaluation of practical approaches”
Of course, a biological perspective alone cannot tell us how best to teach children. Images of active brain regions appear to offer reassuring certainty, but it is important that teachers, and policy-makers, realise the limitations. For a start, most fMRI studies are carried out on adults. And there’s concern that the link between brain areas and particular behaviours is less clear-cut than some researchers think.
Neuroscience is no panacea and teachers’ expertise will always be invaluable. Still, knowing how the brain works should be a crucial string to an educator’s bow. While learning will never be as easy as downloading information, more evidence-based practice will take teaching another step in the right direction.