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Neuroethics, Neuroeducation, and Classroom Teaching: Where the Brain Sciences Meet Pedagogy
Abstract
The popularization of neuroscientific ideas about learning—sometimes legitimate, sometimes merely commercial—poses a real
challenge for classroom teachers who want to understand how children learn. Until teacher preparation programs are reconceived
to incorporate relevant research from the neuro- and cognitive sciences, teachers need translation and guidance to effectively
use information about the brain and cognition. Absent such guidance, teachers, schools, and school districts may waste time
and money pursuing so called “brain-based” interventions that lack a firm basis in research. Meanwhile, the success of our
schools will continue to be narrowly defined by achievement standards that ignore knowledge of the neural and cognitive processes
of learning. To achieve the goals of neuroeducation, its proponents must address unique ethical issues that neuroeducation
raises for five different groups of individuals: a) practicing teachers, b) neuroscience researchers whose work could inform
education, c) publishers and the popular media, d) educational policy-makers, and e) university-level teacher educators. We
suggest ways in which these ethical challenges can be met and provide a model for teacher preparation that will enable teachers
themselves to translate findings from the neuro-and cognitive sciences and use legitimate research to inform how they design
and deliver effective instruction.
KeywordEducational neuroethics–Neuroeducation–Pedagogy–Classroom instruction
... Como ética aplicada se centra fundamentalmente en la repercusión psicológica de las medidas neurofisiológicas, en el escrutinio divulgativo y en la responsabilidad metodológica dada su incursión en la educación. La «neuroética educativa», desarrollada por Hardiman et al. (2012), incide especialmente en el modo, es decir, plantea cómo llevar a cabo los hallazgos científicos y cómo interpretarlos en la praxis escolar. Por ende, esta última asume el reto de llevar 'adecuadamente' las ciencias del cerebro a los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje; dicho de otro modo, evita los neuromitos (Gracia Calandín, 2018;Pallarés-Domínguez, 2016b). ...
... Por su parte, el alcance educativo de la neuroética se distingue en sus dos acepciones. Como ética aplicada o rama de la bioética, la disciplina incide respectivamente en la «ética neuroeducativa» (Howard-Jones, 2010) y en la «neuroética educativa» (Hardiman et al., 2012), es decir, en la dimensión ética de las implicaciones neurocientíficas y en el modo de llevarlas a cabo en la praxis escolar. Aquí cabe señalar que el desconocimiento generalizado sobre las ciencias del cerebro desemboca en falacias conocidas como neuromitos, por lo que sería conveniente incidir en una mayor formación a cargo de profesionales situados entre los neurocientíficos y los docentes para evitar tales límites. ...
¿Cuáles son y dónde están los límites éticos de la neuroeducación? El artículo reflexiona sobre una cuestión necesaria para el devenir de los procesos cognitivos mediante la deliberación crítica, la delimitación de fronteras y la estimación del progreso. Su hilo argumental proyecta, por un lado, que el giro experimental podría poner en entredicho el objetivo ético y humanista de la educación; por otro lado, que una renuncia sistemática a los avances de las neurociencias supondría, igualmente, abandonar la búsqueda del florecimiento humano. Las humanidades solo no brindan el enfoque biopsicosocial desde el que hemos de entender nuestra autorrealización. Por ende, el primero de los límites que es origen de todos los demás surge dada una disyuntiva científico-humanista. Los nuevos confines a delimitar subyacen de las implicaciones neurocientíficas en sí mismas y de cómo estas se trasladan a la praxis escolar, si es que tuviesen validez en este campo. Aquí los neuromitos juegan un papel importante. Precisamente, la neuroética como ética aplicada o rama de la bioética recoge estos aspectos mediante la ética neuroeducativa y la neuroética educativa. En su rama fundamental, dicha disciplina abre el debate sobre la neuroeducación moral. Pero la posibilidad de reducir lo moral y todo lo que somos a nuestras bases neurales deriva en nuevos límites. Para superarlos, destaca el potencial de una simbiosis sociocultural y biológica con las nociones de ‘neurocultura’ y de ‘epigénesis proactiva’. Finalmente, el ensayo delibera sobre los límites más especulativos entre lo que somos y nuestras posibilidades para entenderlo en base al transhumanismo.
... Although all topics addressed have applicability to education, the last four addressed more general and basic concepts with a direct relationship between neuroscience and teaching. In accordance, other researchers nd that the teachers are most interested in topics that they see as highly relevant to their teaching work (Hardiman et al. 2012). It is undeniable that learning in rapid training courses provides limited knowledge, but this is the beginning of building a bridge between brain scienti c knowledge and educational practice (Cui and Zhang 2021). ...
... The other topics addressed in the course, although important, were more speci c, and this may have affected the choice of teachers. Teachers do not want only to learn basic facts about the brain but want to understand more complex processes that would have an impact on their teaching (Hardiman et al. 2012). However, our course was the rst in-depth contact with neuroscience related to education for many teachers. ...
Understanding how the brain function to promote learning shouldn't just be interesting to neuroscientists, but especially to teachers. From the moment that teachers understand the processes of learning and memory, this knowledge can help their teaching practice. Here, we report the 10th edition of the course "Neuroscience Applied to Education", offered online in the pandemic period of 2021, in Brazil. The course featured classes on eight neuroscience topics, taught by expert professors. The course had the participation of schoolteachers, most of them teaching children aged between 6-14 years old. Teachers stated that their perception of basic neuroscience knowledge improved after completing the course. They believed that the specific neuroscience topics related to education and teaching practice will have the greatest impact on their professional performance. Teachers evaluated the very well course, and the topics discussed generated debate and interest from the professors.
... The increase in research from the neuro-and cognitive sciences, and the corresponding unique ethical issues and challenges, has necessitated the development of neuroethics. The latter includes the ethics of conducting neuroscientific studies, evaluation of the possible ethical, social, and legal impact of the results of those studies, and the promotion of pragmatic, interdisciplinary discovery and application of results (Hardiman et al., 2012). Effective translation of research findings into educational practice, and vice versa, is required to eliminate neuromyths and achieve collaboration between various fields. ...
Working memory (WM) is a neural system that plays a role in all complex thinking processes, including academic reading and learning. Research exploring the relationships between WM, academic reading, and academic achievement within online higher education is, however, limited. These relationships are particularly under-researched within the South African context. This study thus used a non-experimental ex post facto cross-sectional design to quantitatively investigate whether WM is associated with the academic reading and academic achievement of online distance e-learning first-year tertiary students attending the University of South Africa, and to evaluate the use of two open-source web-based WM tasks. One hundred and thirty-six young adult participants completed a demographic and background information survey, an academic reading test, the Reading Span, and the Operation Span. The latter two tasks were developed by the researcher and served as measures of working memory capacity (WMC). Participants’ final end-of-course grades were requested from the university, and the results showed that WMC was significantly correlated with both academic reading and academic achievement. Findings furthermore illustrated the acceptable performance of both WMC tasks, providing a crucial resource in South African WM research. Findings are interpreted in relation to existing scholarship regarding cognitive functioning, academic reading, and academic achievement. Implications for higher education institutions and future research are discussed.
... Entender el aprendizaje desde su base neurobiológica nos permite comprender cómo las complejas conexiones neuronales que se dan en los niños y las niñas al interior de las salas de clases se originan a través de señales eléctricas en el cerebro, mediante potenciales de acción y liberación de sustancias químicas a nivel neuronal, conocidos como neurotransmisores (Hardiman et al., 2012). Algunos de ellos son reconocidos en el contexto educativo por sus grandes repercusiones en el aula; a modo de ejemplo, Guillén (2017) nos expone que la dopamina hace que el alumno se motive mediante el juego y mantenga la atención. ...
El presente artículo analiza el contexto educativo actual de pandemia provocado por el COVID-19 y orienta su desarrollo en vista de una reformulación desde la perspectiva de la neuroeducación, e invita a la transformación de la pedagogía y la forma en la cual los estudiantes reciben la educación, tomando como punto de partida para la discusión la realidad de la educación básica en Chile. En este contexto, el presente estudio tiene como objetivo revisar y analizar los aportes teóricos que los principios de la neuroeducación entregan a la práctica docente y adaptarlos al contexto de pandemia, centrando el interés en la importancia de la educación socioafectiva en tiempos de crisis. El encuadre metodológico se orienta desde la revisión literaria y teórica de la neuroeducación. Para finalizar, se presentan estrategias adaptadas desde la literatura para abordar y potenciar las habilidades de aprendizaje en la educación virtual desde una mirada socioafectiva.
This article analyses the current educational context of pandemic caused by COVID-19 and orients its development in view of a reformulation from the perspective of neuroeducation and invites to the transformation of pedagogy and the way in which students receive education, taking as a starting point for discussion the reality of basic education in Chile. In this context, the present study aims to review and analyse the theoretical contributions that the principles of neuroeducation provide to the teaching practice and adapts them to the pandemic context, focusing on the importance of socio-affective education in times of crisis. The methodological framework is oriented from the literary and theoretical review of neuroeducation. Finally, strategies adapted from the literature are presented to address and enhance learning skills in virtual education from a socio-affective point of view.
Background: This study aims to critically review, quantify, and assess research outcomes on brain-based learning with an evidence-based study on Scopus indexed literature, with a focus to understand the evolution structure and growth, detect trends, subject development, and most importantly, identify the gaps in the published body of literature that relates brain-based learning to design and visual arts education.
Methods: Various scientometric tools were used to map, visualize, and analyze 186 research publications, indexed in Scopus in a twenty-year timespan ‘2001-2021’. Annual publication trends, relevant sources, prolific authors, authorship patterns, productive organizations and countries, funding agencies, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and thematic evolution mapping on brain-based learning publications were examined in this study.
Results: Despite the significance to apply brain-based learning strategies in design and visual arts education to boost students’ knowledge and creative skills, the findings show a decline in quantities and growth patterns in brain-based learning research directed towards design disciplines in the past twenty years. Among the identified (186) documents published in (128) sources, with (1013) citations, the study detected only (57) research (30%) that were related to ‘design education,’ including those focusing on ‘instructional design, ‘and ‘syllabus design’ whereas only (3) articles were in ‘design and visual arts’ disciplines.
Conclusion: These rather small numbers reflect the big gap in the current body of literature that associates brain-based learning with creativity-based disciplines, specifically in design and visual arts education. This infers the necessity to direct the attention of academics, researchers, and educationalists in the fields of design and arts towards brain-based learning applications, research and pedagogy.
Traditional learning and teaching approaches such as problem-based or project-based learning, among others, do not explicitly consider emotional-enhanced learning, which is a well-known driver of engagement leading to long-term memory retention. On the other hand, existing brain-based learning methods do not provide structured and scientifically-based strategies for the formation of the learner’s emotional experience and engagement. The Neuroscience-based Learning (NBL) technique is a novel neuroeducational approach that explains and applies the implicit neurophysiological mechanisms underlying vivid and highly-arousal emotional experiences leading to long-term memory retention. The NBL is devised from a cybernetics and system approach perspective. It starts from the basis of the neurophysiological learning scheme, describing the relationships among the environment and the learner’s internal mental processes ranging from perceptions, comparison with previous experiences and memories, immediate sensations, reactions, emotions, desires, intentions, higher-order cognitive functions, and controlled actions to the environment. The scheme relates memory systems, non-associative and associative learning mechanisms, implicit and explicit learning subsystems, signaling chemicals, and their neural subsystems, as well as identifying the amygdala as a key sensor triggering and modulating implicit learning. The NBL method exposes the triggers for vivid and highly arousal emotional learning: novelty, unpredictability, sense of low control, threat to the ego, avoidance (aversion-mediated learning), and reward (reward-based learning) and devises the principles of NBL toward more didactic applications. The foundations for implementing NBL in education and recommendations for learning during the online and pandemic situations were proposed.KeywordsNeuroeducationImplicit learningNeuroscienceEmotional-enhanced learningLong-term memory
En los últimos años se ha visto un creciente interés por el conocimiento relacionado con el cerebro y las neurociencias. Esto ha llevado a que se genere una importante cantidad de investigaciones y que el contexto propicie el surgimiento de creencias erróneas.
Estudios realizados en varios países convergen en el hallazgo de que el conocimiento sobre neurociencias en todos los campos de conocimiento es pobre y en algunos estudios en Europa y América del Sur, incluso se observó que un mayor interés en neurociencia predice (paradójicamente) una mayor creencia en neuromitos, combinada con una incapacidad para juzgar información como real o pseudocientífica.
La brecha entre la neurociencia cognitiva y el aprendizaje sigue siendo muy amplia . Y una de las consecuencias de esta distancia es la propagación de mitos que en muchos casos cuentan con algún sustento científico pero que son resultado de una malinterpretación o descontextualización de los resultados de investigaciones.
Especialmente en el ámbito de la educación, la necesidad de incorporar recursos que permitan renovar la visión del aprendizaje ha favorecido el desarrollo de estas creencias erróneas, que se convierten en dogma y generan confusión sobre los aquellos aspectos que tienen una base científica y aquellos que deben ser refutados.
The foundational contributions from neuroscience regarding how learning occurs in the brain reside within one of Shulman's seven components of teacher knowledge, Knowledge of Students. While Knowledge of Students combines inputs from multiple social science disciplines that traditionally inform teacher education, teachers must also (and increasingly) know what happens inside students' brains. Neuroscience professional development provides neuroscience principles that teachers can learn and apply to distinguish among pedagogical choices, plan lessons, guide in‐the‐moment classroom decisions, and inform the views of students. Neuroscience does not directly invent new pedagogies. Rather, knowledge of neuroscience guides teachers in choosing appropriate pedagogies, pragmatically informing teaching. By providing physiological explanations for psychological phenomena relevant to education, teachers benefit from neuroscience content in their training and professional development. Understanding how learning occurs in students' brains provides teachers with insights into how to choose appropriate classroom pedagogies both in lesson planning and in‐the‐moment classroom decision‐making. Neuroscience knowledge also shapes how teachers view students' abilities and potentials. These practical applications of neuroscience illustrate the importance of including neuroscience in professional development and initial teacher education, under the component of teacher professionalism established by Shulman as Knowledge of Students.
Background:
The early involvement of many actors including health professionals is identified in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions as crucial in constructing conversations around awareness, reaction, and knowledge development pertaining to the ethical, legal, and societal consequences of neuroscientific or neurotechnological advancements (NA). Occupational Therapists (OTs) have a stake in NA; however, OTs are rarely mentioned within this context. Lifelong learning (LL) could be used to increase OTs knowledge on NA and its consequences. However, LL is rarely mentioned within neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions.
Objective:
The study's purpose is to understand the role of OTs as professionals and citizens in neuroethics and neurogovernance discussions and to examine the utility of LL processes put in place for OTs to empower OTs to contribute in a meaningful way to NA discussions.
Methods:
8 semi-structured interviews with OTs were conducted and analyzed using a directed content analysis.
Results:
Although participants believed OTs can provide a holistic perspective to neurogovernance discussions, their knowledge on NA and its consequences is limited, and LL is not used as a tool to remain informed about such consequences.
Conclusion:
More education on NA and its consequences throughout their OT degree and through LL opportunities is warranted to facilitate their involvement.
This volume traces development of the human brain from infancy through middle childhood from the perspective of cognitive and affective neuroscience. We view the brain in terms of networks of neural areas that can be shown to be active when adults orient their attention or resolve conflict between competing thoughts or emotions. We ask how these networks develop and what their consequences are for the developing child and the adults with whom they interact. Because formal schooling plays such an important role in this development, we are particularly concerned with networks involved in processing the written word and in carrying out numerical computations. The first part of this volume provides a background for relating new developments to past ideas about the brain and education. The second part of this volume deals with the development of attention networks in infants and young children. The third part of the volume deals with what is known about brain changes during the learning of individual school subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It has been suggested that the field of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) requires a stable infrastructure for translating research into practice. Hinton and Fischer (2008) point to the academic medical center as a model for similar translational work and suggest a similar approach for linking scientists to research schools. We propose expanding their model to include a formal role for clinicians. Including clinicians who work with children with learning problems brings an important perspective to the translational work. For example, the integration of the concept of “differential diagnosis,” a core precept in clinical medicine, would bring needed diagnostic specificity to the field of MBE. We describe a virtual infrastructure for collaboration, or “collaboratory,” consisting of research scientists, educators, and clinicians, linked to an academic institution. We anticipate that MBE graduates can play a critical role in the collaboratory model. With additional training, they can become “neuroeducators” capable of moving comfortably among the disciplines, building linkages, fostering communication, and facilitating collaboration.
The primary goal of the emerging field of educational neuroscience and the broader movement called Mind, Brain, and Education is to join biology with cognitive science, development, and education so that education can be grounded more solidly in research on learning and teaching. To avoid misdirection, the growing worldwide movement needs to avoid the many myths and distortions in popular conceptions of brain and genetics. It should instead focus on integrating research with practice to create useful evidence that illuminates the brain and genetic bases as well as social and cultural influences on learning and teaching. Scientists and educators need to collaborate to build a strong research foundation for analyzing the “black box” of biological and cognitive processes that underpin learning.
The aim of this work is to relate discussions of ideology and science within the Radical Science movement of the 1960s–1980s with present conversations on the integration of biology, psychology, and education. The argument is that an ideological analysis yields useful direction with respect to how a learning science might develop and how we might appeal to our best aspirations while avoiding our worst. The ideology of “how” in the title refers to beliefs about research strategies: In an ideology of “how,” the aim is discovery and there is an appreciation of complexity. This stands in opposition to an ideology of “what,” which focuses on diagnosis and categorization.