This seminar series builds on the Blakemore and Frith ... · Web viewTitle: This seminar series...

Neuroscience and Education Howard-Jones & Pickering, 2005

Collaborative Frameworks in Neuroscience and Education: Towards a “Whole-learning” Perspective

Howard-Jones, P.A. and Pickering, [email protected]

Paper supporting Thematic Discussions at the the 6th Annual Conference of the

Teaching and Learning Research Programme, Warwick, 28-30 November 2005

1. Introduction and Aims

This paper is a preliminary attempt to draw together some of the issues and opportunities arising from the TLRP Seminar series “Collaborative Frameworks in Neuroscience and Education” . The seminar series has built on the Blakemore and Frith report commissioned by the TLRP into the implications of neuroscience in education (Blakemore and Frith, 2000) and upon the work done by the OECD Brain and Learning Project (OECD, 2002). The planning group is comprised of researchers from education, psychology and neuroscience (see Appendix 1)

The aims of this seminar series are:

1. To review contemporary work in the associated fields of neuroscience and human development and consider the existing contributions offered by these fields to the study of key educational issues.

2. To review the extent to which the fields of neuroscience and human development have successfully permeated educational thinking and to explore their potential and limitations in influencing our thinking about general teaching and learning issues.

3. To explore how theoretical perspectives arising from neuroscience and human development may conjoin with, and enrich, current theoretical frameworks in education.

4. To identify the issues, opportunities and constraints that may arise in the near future as a result of advances in the fields of neuroscience and human development.

5. To identify means by which research capacity in this interdisciplinary area can be developed, and to examine the theoretical, practical and strategic basis for research capacity building.

2. The Seminar Process

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The programme consists of 6 events across the UK (see Appendix 1) with audiences that are partly selected. This partial selection ensures some balance of professional interests whilst still retaining a strong element of openness. This process is facilitated through the development of a database of interested parties: those interested in the seminar series can send their name, institution and discipline to [email protected] and have their name placed on the information mailing list. There are now over 500 names on this list, although audiences at individual seminars are limited to 80. This limitation on numbers, the balance of participants, and the emphasis on the exploratory nature of the discussions, helps to maintain a climate of openness and mutual respect.

3. Progress

As of writing, we are now half way through this seminar series. On 20th April 2005, the inaugural seminar event “Educational practice informed by neuroscience: the present evidence” was jointly hosted by the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Institute of Education (London). The conference was opened by Dr Madeleine Portwood, who reported on the Omega 3 trials in Durham schools, where children’s achievement has been boosted by the provision of fish oil supplements. Dr Liane Kaufman then spoke about her work using neuroimaging to reveal more about dyscalculia, and Prof Anthony Bailey outlined his reasons for being hopeful that neuroscience was helping in the challenge to understand and provide education for children with autism. Afternoon discussions focused on the question "What sort of evidence from Neuroscience should inspire educational change?" and these were positive and constructive. There was unanimous agreement that improved two-way communication between neuroscience and education is needed. Summaries of these discussions can be found on the seminar web site: www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/sites/brain

The second event took place on July 25th-27th. “The Education and Brain Research Conference” was hosted by Usha Goswami at the new Neuroscience and Education Research Centre at Cambridge University. This attracted almost 200 teachers who gave up 3 days of their vacation to learn more about the brain from international experts such as Mark Johnson, John Bruer, Kurt Fischer, John Duncan, Guinevere Eden).

Recently. on October 12th at the Westminster Institute (Oxford Brookes University), the third event was opened by Brian Butterworth who discussed neural insights into mathematics before the meeting turned its attention to some of the more popular perceptions of brain-based learning. An interesting morning included preliminary results of a consultation with teachers from Sue Pickering and and a personal exploration of the brain-education relationship by John Geake, with Una Gillespie rounding off the morning with a “Headteacher’s Perspective”. Afternoon discussions asked the question “What are the routes by which neuroscience should enter our classrooms?” and summaries of these discussions are currently being prepared. John Bransford and his neuroscientific collaborator Sashank Varma flew in from Washington University to provide a very positive and heartening review of efforts to build interdiscplinary dialogue within their LIFE Centre (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments).

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http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/sites/brain

mailto:[email protected]


From these presentations, and from the literature review carried out in preparation for the seminar series, it is clear that neuroscience is already producing results of potential interest in many different areas of education. A review of some of these areas now follows:

4. Areas where neuroscience and education are making contact

4.1 Developmental Disorders and Special Needs Education

4.1.1. Dyslexia

The neural mechanisms of normal reading and normal reading development of still to be fully understood. A popular model involves two processors, orthographic and phonological, interconnected to a meaning processor which, in turn, is interconnected to a context processor (Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989). This idea has been supported by a number of neuroscientific studies that have associated separate brain regions with these processes. Byrnes(2001a, p143) highlights, here in the context of reading, the need to bridge the gap between neuroscientific knowledge and teaching approaches - an issue of general importance to this seminar series:

“…there is a fundamental gap between any given theoretical carving and instructional practice. Teachers, for example, need to know more than the fact that reading involves four processors in order to know how to promote reading skills in their students. They also need to know how to promote the development of these four processors and their interconnections. “

In reading, particular attention has been paid to the difficulties encountered by dyslexics, which have been informed by, and informed, neuroscience. The nature of the brain-basis of dyslexia is still disputed. High heritability (40% of siblings share dyslexia, Shaywitz, 1996) point to a biological basis, but non-genetic environmental factors still account for more than half of the variance in the data (DeFries et al., 1993). Although some researchers suggest a visual basis for the disorder (Stein, 2001; Wilmer et al, 2004), dyslexia is most often explained in terms of problems with phonological processing. The usually rapid development of speech-sound and sound-to-letter decoding may be hindered in dyslexics, due to deficiencies in these start-up systems. This has prompted the suggestion that slower learning in the initial stages of literacy acquisition may be more easily facilitated by special programs (Frith, 1999). Recent investigations of auditory processing by dyslexic children using ERP’s suggest that their phonological systems may be immature rather than developing in an essentially different way. Perceptions of dyslexia based on delay, rather than deviance, has clear implications for any remedial reading programmes. The unusual ERP patterns of dyslexics in phonetic distinction tasks (Csepe, 2003) has prompted suggestions that ERP might offer a method of identifying early those children at risk from dyslexia, thus facilitating appropriate interventions (Goswami, 2004).

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Increases in reading skill are associated with increased activity in the temporo-occipital regions of the brain, and activity in these regions is decreased in children with dyslexia (Shaywitz, 2002). The main site associated with the types of phonological difficulties associated with dyslexia is the temporo-parietal junction, where dyslexic children also show reduced activation in rhyming tasks. Targeted intervention that increases reading skills can also increase activation in this area (Simos et al, 2002). However, such an apparently simple link between a cognitive difficulty, educational remediation and brain activity may be deceptive, since it has also been suggested that dyslexics compensate for their difficulties with increased right hemisphere activation, consistent with recent MEG findings (Heim, Eulitz, & Elbert, 2003).

Indeed, there has recently been considerable popular publicity given to the issue of whether Dyslexia is a “myth”. This documentary demonstrates how easily biological knowledge becomes incorrectly and unhelpfully associated with deterministic ideas. It has been criticised for promoting an “all-or-none” theorising amongst the public, and highlighted the need to work on how to combine formal and pedagogic approaches, preferably incorporating modern views on brain function” (Nicolson, 2005). In contrast, modern developmental cognitive neuroscientific approaches emphasise that “there is no single cause of anything” and “nothing is determined” (Morton, 2004). Current resonances between neuroscience and education encourage models of learning that emphasise the complexity of interaction between biology and educational environments, and that mitigation is always possible.

4.1.2 Dyscalculia

Byrnes (2001a) considers that instructional implications of our scientific understanding of mathematics should be based on the psychological perspective until more neuroscientific studies are conducted (see Byrnes 2001b for review). However, the work of Dehaene and Cohen (1997) has shown that cognitive neuroscience can take us beyond existing cognitive models, with their proposal of a “triple-code” model for representation of numbers:

1. Visual Arabic Code (left and right inferior occipital-temporal areas) – subserving multidigit operations, identifying strings of digit and making parity judgements (e.g. knowing numbers ending in 2 are even).

2. Analogical quantity or magnitude code (left and right inferior parietal areas) – for representing on a number line, allowing judgements of proximity (3 near 4) and ordinal relations (3 less than 4). This phylogentically old ‘number sense’ is evident in animals and infants (Dehaene, Dehaene-Lambertz, & Cohen, 1998). It has been suggested by Dehaene and Cohen (1997) that problems with this innate approximation ability may explain many of the instances of dyscalculia, with Blakemore and Frith (2000, p40) suggesting that this may indicate the need for early intervention.

3. Verbal code (left perisylvian) – representing numbers via a parsed sequence of words - for rote learning of mathematical fact. It has also been suggested

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(Goswami, 2004) that if dyslexia has a phonological basis, then the types of dyscalculia so often comorbid with dyslexia may have their basis in this area too.

At the recent TLRP seminar on October 12th (2005), Brian Butterworth drew attention to how our knowledge of the brain-basis for dyscalculia may influence attitudes and teaching approaches.

2.1.3 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD

ADHD occurs in 3-7 % of the population (Barkley, 1997) and is thought to be related to frontal lobe abnormalities. Medication such as Ritalin targets the dopaminergic (DA) and noradrenergic (NA) tracts that feature in neural models of attention (Solanto, 1998). In the NA system it has been shown to improve delayed responding and working memory and its effect upon the DA system of rats has been to improve responsiveness to reinforcement.

ADHD is of particular interest to educators because sufferers usually exhibit classroom behaviour that is particularly challenging and do not appear so amenable to routine management strategies. There are also various drawbacks to purely pharmacological treatments for ADHD that do not involve monitoring by teachers who are informed with an understanding of ADHD, and who are with the children daily. There are several additional arguments for educational practitioners and teachers to be more informed of the brain-basis of ADHD and its medication (Cooper and Bilton, 2002). The children themselves and their teachers may come to believe that any observed improvements are purely artefacts of the medication and there may be a need for teachers to anticipate

- the effects upon self-esteem of taking the medication itself- the usual “ups and downs” of behaviour even when a positive result from or

the medication has been obtained (DuPaul and Stoner, 2003, p224) - rebound when the medication wanes (Brown and LaRosa, 2002).

Jones (2002) warns against allowing children to believe that they have a “broken brain” and that a narrowly neurobiological focus “discounts the uniqueness of the individual and the meaning of inner personal experience”. Such ideas support the notion, discussed elsewhere, that children’s learning potential is mediated by a self-image that includes a concept of their own mind and brain. Rowland et al (2002) remark that approaches based purely on medical therapy ignore the complex interaction with ecological dynamics, this providing an exonerating excuse for teachers to justify problematic behaviours under the façade of within-child deficits (Breggin and Breggin, 1994). Success of treatment is determined in large part by changes in school performance (DuPaul and Stoner, 2003, p225) although the relationship between behaviour and achievement in these instances may not be a simple one (DuPaul and Stoner, 2003, p199). It may be important for teachers to understand the brain basis of ADHD to be clear that its associated medical treatment does not “cure” but rather manages AD/HD by helping “the individual to be present cognitively in such a way that learning of adaptive strategies can occur” (Cooper & Ideus, 1996, p70).

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There appears to be a multimodality superiority effect of combined medication and behavioural (parent and classroom) treatments that, although not surpassing purely medical treatments in terms of alleviating the core symptoms, do show marked improvements in exchanges, conduct and compliant behaviour (Jensen et al, 1999). Classroom contingency management (DuPaul and Eckert, 1997), peer tutoring (DuPaul et al, 1998), computer assisted instruction (DuPaul and Stoner, 2003), task and instructional modification, and strategy training (DuPaul and Stoner, 2003) all show promise in terms of their positive influence upon the learning of children with ADHD.

Randomised controlled trials of treatment with certain highly unsaturated fatty acids has shown that such dietary supplements can improve the academic achievement of children with ADHD (Richardson and Puri, 2002; Richardson, 2004). Such nutritional supplements are commercially available without prescription and increasingly widely used in the belief that they can enhance learning.

4.1.3 Sleep, School Phobia and Biological Rhythms

Miike et al. (2004) recently used radiological imaging techniques to identify disturbances in the metabolic system of the brains of children suffering from school phobia. They linked these disturbances, and thus the associated decreases in motivation and ability to learn, to modern environmental factors. They drew on these results to emphasise the importance of understanding the biological rhythms of children when attempting to support scholastic achievement. Regular sleep cycles, in particular, play a critical role in learning capability (Macquet, 2000) and the gaining of insight (Wagner et al., 2004).

4.1.4 Nutrition and SEN

Well publicised trials set up by Alex Richardson of Oxford University in collaboration with Madeleine Portwood of Durham LEA have been attempting to determine whether supplementing the diet with Omega-3 fatty acids can help to boost the progress of children with specific learning difficulties (Richardson and Montgomery, 2005). Dr Portwood reported very favourable findings at the TLRP seminar on April 20th (2005). Not every child every benefited from the treatment – many did not. But according to Portwood, about 40% of children showed some clear improvement.

4.2 Teaching and Learning – Using knowledge about the brain to improve the teaching of typical students

4.2.1 Attention and motivation

Vygotsky (1978) considered that there were two types of attention: a natural kind of attention that was involuntary and a higher order of attention that was voluntary and motivated by the individual. Educators are chiefly interested in the second type of attention that, with its association with free-will, is less amenable to scientific study. This

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may explain why, despite some overlap between the psychological and neuroscientific literature, neither has been very productive in terms of providing new strategies that encourage typical students to focus their attention upon typical tasks. Even the link between attention and motivation is rarely approached scientifically, and is best represented in the educational literature (Wittrock, 1991).

However, cognitive neuroscience may shed light upon the how our motivation to attend is influenced by reward and punishment. Zalla et al. (2000) revealed that different responses occurred in the amygdala, an area of the brain strongly connected with others associated with learning, depending upon whether a task response was followed by “WIN” or “LOSE”. Although consistency in the classroom is seen as beneficial, the desire to carry out a task can be positively influenced by a reward being uncertain, as evidenced by the attractiveness of gambling. Elliot et al. (2000) has used fMRI to identify the neural correlates of gambling and these included areas also associated (Thut et al, 1997) with financial reward (e.g. the thalamic and ventral striatal regions). Studies with monkeys have also provided clues about how reward uncertainty may actually increase motivation, thus suggesting a brain-basis for the pleasures of gambling and also the addictive aspects of computer-games (Shizgal and Arvanitogiannis, 2003). Indeed, the uncertainty of outcome in some video games is an important aspect of the challenge that provides pleasure (Loftus and Loftus, 1983, p41). In education, there has been much discussion about whether the motivational aspects of computer games (Gee, 2003) can be identified and tapped into, in order to support the engagement of pupils in learning tasks.

4.2.2 Memory and the retention of knowledge

Psychological models of memory have been produced through behavioural studies that offer a considerable number of insights and strategies to enhance memory retention. Neuroscience has contributed to these insights through revealing neural correlates of memory processes that are chiefly consistent with these underlying psychological models (for a review see Byrnes and Fox, 1998). Strategies for the enhancement of retention have been created using these models and evaluated for their educational potential (e.g. Pressley et al., 1982). More recently, studies that have attempted to train working memory have been carried out. Olesen, Westerberg and Klingberg (2004), for example, gave adults training in a visuo-spatial working memory task over a period of 5 weeks. fMRI scanning produced evidence of training-induced plasticity in areas of the brain associated with working memory performance (see also Landau et al., 2004; and Jonides, 2004).

4.2.3 Neurofeedback

A programme of training in the use of EEG feedback provided significant improvements for students of music in terms of their performance (Egner and Gruzelier, 2003). This is an interesting example of a technique being borrowed from neuroscience to provide direct improvements for learners and, as such, is unusual. Despite its apparent success, the intervention was not built around any particular cognitive model and the processes by which improvement were achieved are not well understood. Improvements in other types

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of cognitive performance have been fostered by similar means (Egner and Gruzelier, 2001). More will be heard about the benefits neuro feedback on musical performance when Dr Aaron Williamon and John Gruzelier speak at the forthcoming TLRP seminar on 25th January 2006.

Technology is also now being developed to produce direct brain-computer interfaces based on EEG (BBC, March 2004).

4.2.4 Problem-solving and creativity

A recent fMRI study challenges the popular use of anomalous evidence in constructivist teaching (Fugelsang and Dunbar, in press – see Pettito and Dunbar, 2004). When students of physics were presented with evidence that was consistent with current theories, areas commonly associated with learning, such as the caudate and parahippocampal gyrus, were activated. When presented with evidence that was inconsistent with their theories, activation occurred chiefly in the anterior cingulate and the Dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex DLPFC. This was used as evidence to suggest that, since these latter parts of the brain are associated with error detection and conflict monitoring, the teaching strategy of using anomalous evidence encourages inhibition, rather than transformation, of naive concepts.

The inclusion of random material in an open creative task is a well known strategy for producing outcomes that are judged as more creative, although it is difficult to establish whether the strategy encourages additional processing of the type associated with creative thought. In a factorial fMRI study, Howard-Jones et al. (2005) showed that activity associated with pursuing a creative objective in a story-telling task was increased when participants were required to include words that were less semantically related. This result was used as evidence to suggest such strategies do encourage additional processing of the type associated with creative activity and are, therefore, beneficial to learners.

4.2.5 Learning about our own brains

The development of a theory of mind in the pre-school years has been linked to children’s later abilities to think critically and reason scientifically (Astington and Pelletier, 1996).

4.2.6 The role of the social environmentThe identification of mirror neuron circuitry implies our brains are hard-wired to send and receive unconscious messages about body language that may facilitate a type of “mind-reading”. These findings have been chiefly in the realm of motor function – we tend to imitate the gestures of others when we are talking.

If teachers are transmitting attitudes, thought processes and emotional states in this way, then it may be more a case of “think as I think” rather than “do as I do”. Such findings emphasise, amongst other things, the potentially subtle power of everyday vicarious

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learning and the imitation of teachers’ mental processes by pupils. Other research shows that gesture may not simply express cognition but also facilitate or constrain it.

In a study involving a computer-based ball-tossing game, Eisenberger et al. (2003) demonstrated that the neural correlates of the social pain caused by exclusion from a collaborative computer activity appear to parallel those of physical pain. This was one of the first social neuroscientific studies to have been carried out but the realm of social interaction has been cited as one of the major frontiers for neuroscience in future years .

4.3 Curriculum: When should we learn what?

Neuroscientific findings have been used to support proposals that children should start studying languages, advanced mathematics, logic and music as early as possible (Beck, 1996; US Dept of Education, 1996). However, there is no established approach to interpreting what we know about plasticity in educational terms and the processes themselves are still being researched. It is known that synaptogenesis is greater in the earlier stages of the human life course. For example, in the human visual cortex, a peak in the number of synaptic connections occurs between 8-10 months with synaptic density levelling out at around 10 years (Huttenlocher, 1990). However, the link between synaptic genesis and cognitive capacity is not straightforward (Golman-Rakic, 1987). We do know, however, that there are sensitive periods regarding cognitive development, as demonstrated by the difficulties we have in distinguishing between the language sounds we have not heard in the first 12 months of our lives (Kuhl, 1998). Importantly, early introduction of a second language also appears to provide additional “cognitive advantage” in other areas, helping children become better “multi-taskers” (Baker et al, 2003).

Neuroscientific findings support the notion of a young brain as being more flexible, sensitive and plastic than it is in later life, with predispositions to learn in certain domains (Blakemore & Frith, 2000). A better understanding of the late development in puberty of cognitive control has been provided by measurements of myelination(Giedd et al., 1999), gray matter reduction (Sowell et al. 2001) and synpatogenesis (Huttenlocher, 1979). This research indicates that the prefrontal cortex, relative to other brain areas, lags behind in its development and reaches maturity only in late adolescence. This provides interesting insights into teenage behaviour, although the educational implications of such knowledge are still to be determined.

Imaging studies have suggested that the naive scientific theories that so often provide stumbling blocks for physics students are not entirely lost with the acquisition of more accurate models but only inhibited by them (Fugelsang and Dunbar, in press – see Pettito and Dunbar, 2004). This has prompted the proposal that scientific concepts should be introduced earlier to children before their naïve ideas have become too ingrained (Pettito and Dunbar, 2004).

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Although the overall synaptic density of different brain regions tends to level out before adulthood, the adult brain remains flexible. Several studies have shown how adult brain structure can be changed through learning experiences. These include

Increases in size of part of the hippocampus of taxi-drivers (Maguire et al., 1997,2000)

Enlargement of a motor region from 5-day piano course (Pascual-Leone et al., 1995)

Enlargement (and subsequent diminishment) of areas associated with perception in a juggling task after a 3 month course (Draganski et al, 2004).

4.4 Further Horizons

Recent research has shown the existence of mirror neuron circuits that produce motor mimicry in response to perceived actions (e.g. Rizzolatti et al., 2002). It has been suggested that such circuits provide a fast learning mechanism for new actions through imitation (e.g. Meltzoff, 2002). Also, through the unconscious use of gesture and body-language, these may also induce similar emotional states in “conspecifics”, as well as empathy and cooperation (e.g. Dijksterhuis and Bargh, 2001). These findings support proposal for a type of “mind-reading” (Gallese and Goldman, 1998) that suggests interpretation of some types of interaction in the classroom may require a level of subtlety that has not been previously recognized, especially in areas such as modeling and vicarious learning.

Recently, attention has also become focused upon new psychoactive drugs (cognitive enhancers – or smart pills) that are now in the process of becoming licensed for 2008 (Gazzaniga, 2005; Jones et al., 2005). These present a host of moral issues for educators, although some neuroscientists believe that they present more of an opportunity than a threat to learning. Michael Gazzaniga wrote recently: “The government should stay out of it, letting our own ethical and moral sense guide us through the new enhancement landscape.” (Gazzaniga, 2005, p37).

5. Thematic Strands and Issues arising from Discussions

Much of the above emphasises the likelihood that our rapidly advancing knowledge of the brain is set to radically influence educational thinking in the future. Early discussions amongst the planning group drew attention to a number of thematic “strands” that would be helpful in organising the issues here:

1. Theory: how do concepts from neuroscience resonate with current educational thinking?

2. Methodology: what methodologies are suitable for the investigation of concepts and applications of neuroscience in education?

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3. Perceptions: what are the perceptions of educators about neuroscience – its significance and promise?

4. Scrutiny: What accounts for the popularity of ideas about brain-based learning, brain-friendly teaching, etc and how does this compare with their scientific basis?

5. Horizons: Where might a successful collaboration between neuroscience and education lead in the future?

6. International Developments

Discussions within the seminar have highlighted a number of strategic interantional developments in this area. There are many instances of neuroscience producing knowledge of interest to educators, with a growing number of examples of interdisciplinary research. The development of links between neuroscience and education is happening globally, with considerable differences in the approaches taken. Japan has initiated Major Brain Science & Education Research Programmes that include longtitudinal imaging studies (10,000 children) looking at:

Effects of new technologies on babies, children and adults Effects of DNA characteristics on language development Evidence for educational policy making Studies of emotion, mechanisms for “will to learn” Mechanisms for second language acquisition Techniques for early diagnosis of language difficulties Preventing and intervening in dementia Gene-chip methodology to find out how environmental Stimuli driven mRNA expression ( e.g. “extending sensitive periods”)

Since 1988, The American Educational Research Association has had a Special Interest Group in the area of Neuroscience and Education which focuses on the rapidly increasing number of research papers in this area.

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Science Foundation have published a report on how the new field of Neuroscience in Education should develop in the Netherlands over the next 5 years, recommending a focus upon:

Hypothesis driven evidence-based approaches Integration of brain, cognitive, psycho-social perspectives Plasticity, environmental influences, adolescence, motivation & attitudes,

organisation of education and development, different learning trajectories

The Centre for Neuroscience and Education (in the Faculty of Education) at Cambridge University was opened in July of this year, and at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol, a research network NEnet has been recently formed.

Internationally, the OECD’s “Brain and Learning Project” has been working towards a better understanding of the learning processes of an individual’s lifecycle, aiming to

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establish direct links between brain and learning specialists across member countries. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a new program “Mind, Brain, and Education” aims to create “a new field of mind, brain, and education, with educators and researchers who expertly join biology, cognitive science, and education…”. The newly-formed International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) seems set to provide a platform for a number of new collaborations, including the possibility of a new international journal dedicated to this interdisciplinary area.

7. What might be the benefits of closer collaboration between educational and neuroscientific communities?

Inclusion of our increasing knowledge about the brain can help contribute to a more complete picture of educational processes and issues. The construction of a “whole learning” perspective, enriched by our new scientific understanding, offers:

A counter-reductionist perspective that recognises the importance of considering biological and social influences upon learning. Modern cognitive neuroscience rejects simplistic cause-effect relationships in favour of complex individual trajectories of development that are influenced by numerous environmental factors of which education is a significant influence. One of the most recent and influential models embodies maxims such as “there is no single cause of anything” and “nothing is determined” (Morton, 2004). Current resonances between neuroscience and education encourage models of learning that emphasise the complexity of interaction between biology and educational environments, and that mitigation is always possible. Morton concludes: “Cause is not an easy word. Its popular use would be laughable if it was not so dangerous, informing, as it does, government policy on matters that affect us all.”

Enriched interpretations of classroom interactions that may challenge existing ideas about teaching and learning in unusual and unpredictable ways. Far from being incompatible with interpretive meaning-based research, neuroscientific perspectives may be asking us to use a little more imagination when interpreting. For example, the identification of mirror neuron circuitry implies our brains are hard-wired to send and receive unconscious messages about body language that may facilitate a type of “mind-reading”. If teachers are transmitting attitudes, thought processes and emotional states in this way, then it may be more a case of “think as I think” rather than “do as I do”. Such findings emphasise, amongst other things, the potentially subtle power of everyday vicarious learning and the imitation of teachers’ mental processes by pupils. Other research shows that gesture may not simply express cognition but also facilitate or constrain it.

Help with resolving conflicts. Discussions within the seminar series have been constructive and exploratory, with notably few conflicts or misunderstandings. There has been a general appreciation of the many complex influences upon learning outcomes, the need to construct linguistic and conceptual bridges, and the value of a climate of mutual respect. In contrast, however, the current debate surrounding the “Dyslexia Myth”

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highlights the need for more positive cross-disciplinary discussion of this type, and for the adoption of holistic models that include biological and social/educational factors

Opportunities to prompt further scientific inquiries of interest to educators. There is now sincere interest amongst the neuroscientific community in a two-way dialogue that can inform neuroscience as well as education. Such dialogue can help highlight neuroscientific research questions of interest to educators (Berninger et al., 1998; Geake and Cooper, 2003).

Empowerment of learners with a better understanding of their own learning processes. Children’s conceptions about their own brain may empower or constrain their learning. Satisfying children’s natural enthusiasm for understanding their own brain may also help them develop essential learning skills.

Opportunities to develop cogent forums that can determine and communicate the educational significance of our burgeoning neuroscientific knowledge. Such communications might include limitations and constraints upon interpretation and a much-needed scrutiny of neuromyths (see below).

The exploding of myths and unhelpful attitudes. Some important thinking processes, such as creativity, can be explored and demystified with collaborative scientific research using neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscientific techniques (e.g. Howard-Jones et al, 2005). Whilst discussions within the seminar series have drawn almost exclusively upon academic scientific research, teachers themselves draw on a quite different set of sources to construct their ideas about the brain. Many of these derive from popular brain-based educational programmes created independently of scientific consultation or educational evaluation. Collaboration with neuroscience and psychology can help scrutinise these ideas.

Improved preparedness for imminent social, cultural and scientific change. New neuroscientific knowledge is producing nutritional and drug-related issues that will require an increasingly informed understanding, investigation and comment from educators. Most mainstream teachers now encounter pupils with ADHD taking Ritalin but have little understanding of the mechanisms by which it operates (these are themselves a matter of some debate, Volkow et al., 2001 ) or the drug-related behaviours associated with it. Further involvement of teachers with this knowledge would support more multimodal approaches that are known to be more effect than drugs alone. Other ongoing developments include large-scale trials of omega-3 nutritional supplements in schools and the imminent licensing of smart pills (cognitive enhancers). Informed appraisal of such socio-scientific developments may require closer collaboration with neuroscience.

8. Collaborative Frameworks: Looking ahead

The next seminar event “Recent scientific insights: new implications for education“ is on 25th January at Bristol University and this will be looking at some of the issues and

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opportunities that may be arising in the future within this interdisciplinary field. It will review some of the latest advances in our knowledge of the brain, indicating practical ways in which these findings may influence and inspire our approaches to education in the future. It will also raise everyday issues faced by teachers in trying to improve learning, suggesting new areas where brain-based understanding may soon impact beneficially. Speakers include:

Professor Manfred Spitzer (Transfer Centre for Neuroscience and Learning, Germany)Jill Wilson (Oathill Community College, Chair of the National Teacher Research Panel)Professor John Gruzelier (Dept of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College London)Dr Aaron Williamon (Royal College of Music)Professor Christine Howe (Psychology, University of Strathclyde)

Members of other TLRP projects are particularly welcome and given priority when places are allocated. Please make sure you are on the information mailing list ([email protected]) to receive details.

References

Astington, J.W., & Pelletier, J. (1996) The language of mind: its role in learning and teaching. In D.R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.) The handbook of education and human development: new models of learning, teaching and schooling (pp 593-619). Oxford, England: Blackwell.

Baker, S.A., Kovelman, I., Bialystok, E. and Petitto, L.A. (2003, November). Bilingual children’s complex linguistic experience yields a cognitive advantage. Published Abstracts of the Society for Neuroscience, 1506.

Barkley, R.A. (1997). Behavioural inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Review, 121, 65-94.

BBC (March, 2004) news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3485918.stm

Beck, J (1996). A meeting of minds between neuroscientists and educators is first step in improving America's schools. Chicago Tribune Section 1, p. 23.

Berninger, V.W. and Corina, D. (1998) making cognitive neuroscience educationally relevant: Creating bi-directional collaborations between educational psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Educational Psychology Review, 10: 343-354.

Blakemore, S.J. and Frith, U. (2000) The Report on the implications of recent developments in neuroscience for research on teaching and learning - a consultation paper commissioned by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme, ESRC.

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Appendix 1 Programme for the Series

Collaborative Frameworks for Neuroscience and Education

A new TLRP-ESRC Seminar Series for 2005-2006

Our burgeoning knowledge of the brain is set to radically influence educational thinking in the future.

What are the opportunities and issues and how should we approach them?

This seminar series will bring together world experts in education and neuroscience to help guide the development of this new interdisciplinary area in the UK.

Planning Group

Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCLProfessor Usha Goswami Centre for Neuroscience in Education, CambridgeProfessor Guy Claxton Graduate School of Education, Univ. of BristolDr Anne Cook Co-ordinator of the Bristol Neuroscience NetworkProfessor Uta Frith Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCLProfessor John Geake Westminster Inst of Education, Oxford-Brookes Univ.Dr Paul Howard-Jones (co-ord) Graduate School of Education, Univ. of BristolProfessor Christine Howe Psychology, University of StrathclydeDr Ute Leonards Experimental Psychology, Univ. of BristolProfessor Claire O'Malley Psychology, University of NottinghamDr Sue Pickering Graduate School of Education, Univ. of BristolDr Richard Cox School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences, Univ. of SussexProfessor Pat Mahony School of Education, Roehampton UniversityDr Aaron Williamon Royal College of MusicProfessor Iram Siraj-Blatchford Institute of Education, University of LondonProf. Carole McGuinness School of Psychology, Queen’s University, Belfast

PROGRAMME

Educational practice informed by neuroscience: the present evidence20th April 2005, University College London

Dr Madeleine Portwood, Senior Educational Psychologist with Durham LEADr Liane Kaufmann, Innsbruck University Children’s HospitalProf Anthony Bailey, University of Oxford

This inaugural seminar will review examples of how neuroscience has already informed educational theory and practice. It will also outline our present understanding of the limitations and constraints that arise when seeking to apply such knowledge.

Education and Brain Research Conference 200525th – 27th July 2005, Cambridge University

This conference is for teachers around the UK, with talks illustrating how neuroscience might be relevant for and beneficial to education. Speakers include:

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Professor Usha Goswami, Prof Mark Johnson, Prof John Bruer, Prof Kurt Fischer, Professor John Duncan, Prof Uta Frith, Professor Guinevere Eden, Dr Sarah Jayne Blakemore, Dr Mairead MacSweeney, Professor Eric Taylor, Professor Guy Claxton, Professor John Geake

Neuroscience in education: Pitfalls, possibilities and perceptions (informed by plenary discussions of the Cambridge forum)

12th October Westminster Institute of Education

Prof John Bransford (Learning Technology Centre, Vanderbilt University, US)Professor John Geake (Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University)Professor Brian Butterworth (Psychology, University College London)Dr Sue Pickering (Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol)

This seminar will review perceptions of what neuroscience may offer education and draw upon the discussions at the Cambridge forum. It will reflect upon and evaluate the validity of different approaches to developing and applying a brain-basis for learning.

Recent scientific insights: new implications for education25th January 2006, University of Bristol

Professor Manfred Spitzer (Transfer Centre for Neuroscience and Learning, Germany)Jill Wilson (Oathill Community College and Chair of the National Teacher Research Panel)Professor John Gruzelier (Dept of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College London)Aaron Williamon (Royal College of Music)Christine Howe (Psychology, University of Strathclyde) This seminar will review the latest advances in our knowledge of the brain, indicating practical ways in which these findings may influence and inspire our approaches to education in the future. It will also raise everyday issues faced by teachers in trying to improve learning, suggesting new areas where brain-based understanding may soon impact beneficially.

Conjoining theoretical perspectives26th April 2006, Nottingham University

Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Institute for Child Health, Great Ormond St Hospital)Professor Guy Claxton (Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol)Professor John Morton (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London)Dr Paul Howard-Jones (Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol)

This seminar will consider the theoretical perspectives underlying neurocognitive approaches to learning that extend beyond neural precedence, including neuroconstructivist theory. It will identify parallels between underlying neural perspectives and current ideas in education, indicating how neuroscience can complement existing educational theoretical perspectives.

Horizons: Issues & interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities21st June 2006, University of Bristol

Professor Usha Goswami (Cambridge University)Anne Diack (Director of the Innovation Unit, Dept for Education and Skills)

This final seminar will conclude the series by identifying a number of specific research areas and questions suitable for collaborative investigation, identifying barriers to progress and seeking out possible solutions. It will identify issues most likely to influence the prominence, or otherwise, of neuroscience in future educational research policy.

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