An Educational Psychologist's Perspective on Cognitive Neuroscience

Byrnes and Fox present a thoughtful article on a neglected but important topic for educational psychologists. Some major contributions are their emphasis on the need for consistency in educational theory and neuroscience research, the lack of automatic correspondence between neuroscience research and educational applications, the need for educator awareness of neuroscience research, the importance of development, and the influence of early education. Limitations of the neuroscience perspective for education include inadequate examination of contemporary theories of learning and motivation, the generality of cognitive processes, the influence of student beliefs, and the role of self-regulation. Suggestions for future research are given.     

Does the Brain Have a Place in Educational Psychology?

Byrnes and Fox (1998) present the case for the relevance of cognitive neuroscience in educational psychology, including both logical and empirical arguments. In this commentary, I begin by briefly reviewing the history of the case for including the brain in educational psychology: Early educational psychology—as reflected in Thorndike's (1926) educational psychology textbook—emphasized the neuronal basis of learning; contemporary educational psychology—as reflected in educational publications—tends to ignore the brain; and future educational psychology will need to overcome the pitfalls encountered in previous misuses of brain research. Next, I examine two logical arguments for Byrnes and Fox's case, namely, that including cognitive neuroscience research makes educational psychology more complete and more plausible. Then, I examine the empirical argument of Byrnes and Fox by focusing on the value of cognitive neuroscience research in attention and memory as well as in reading and arithmetic. Finally, I suggest criteria for evaluating the contributions of cognitive neuroscience research in educational psychology, including the need for research on educationally relevant tasks and issues.     

Comment on “The Educational Relevance of Research in Cognitive Neuroscience”

Byrnes and Fox present a sophisticated approach to the development of useful relations between cognitive neuroscience and education. Their approach, which is similar to approaches advocated by other educational psychologists, emphasizes the importance of findings in cognitive neuroscience to the building of educationally useful models of learning. In contrast to that defensible approach is a popular but simplistic approach that tries to relate the results of individual cognitive neuroscience studies directly to the improvement of teaching. The advantages of the sophisticated approach presented by Byrnes and Fox are discussed and supported for their important roles in the development of productive relations between cognitive neuroscience and education.     

大脑的学习机制及其对教育的启示

认知神经科学通过将脑成像技术和认知心理学的实验范式结合起来,探索人类的行为的深层机制.大脑作为学习的主要器官,是认识神经科学的主要研究对象.认知神经科学关注学习所激活的脑区、神经回路以及激活的时程,从神经活动的层面上阐述学习的机制.大脑学习机制的阐明可以帮助教育工作者改进教学方法,为教育学奠定科学的基础.认知神经科学还...     

Learning Neuroscience: An Interactive Case-Based Online Network (ICON)

We have developed an interactive case-based online network (ICON) that provides a new learning environment and integrates the student's thinking across the different concentration tracks of one of Harvard's interfaculty science initiatives. ICON takes advantage of this cross-disciplinary, undergraduate curriculum as a model system to bring a compelling, integrative focus to bear on reshaping how Harvard students learn neuroscience. ICON contains 9 learning modules specific to each case: Case, Working Papers, Blackboard, Neuroimaging, Research Programs and Trials, Decision Tree, Learning Objectives, Virtual Contact, and Brainstorm. Modules allow the student to get away from interpreting vast amounts of available information, move toward selecting useful information, recognize discriminating findings, and build a conceptual understanding of real and meaningful problems in neuroscience. The result is that ICON introduces a new landscape within the academic curriculum where the active participation of faculty and students effectively intersects and captures an immediate, integrative learning experience for the student. The benchmark of ICON is the time spent by students and faculty to create a user-defined learning network that engages faculty to participate in the students' learning and transforms the way the student thinks.     

On the Relevance of Research Findings in Cognitive Neuroscience to Educational Practice

In their target article, Byrnes and Fox (1998) argue that many of the recent findings from the field of cognitive neuroscience have particular importance for education. In our commentary, we lend support to their contention by reporting on some of our work that has potential relevance to the proposed interface between cognitive neuroscience and education. Specifically, we discuss the findings from several studies investigating the neuropsychology of intellectual giftedness, and sex differences in the brain, each of which suggest a unique functional organization that differentiates gifted from average ability adolescents, as well as males from females. We further propose that the translation of cognitive neuroscience findings into specialized classroom instructional methods which capitalize on the plasticity of the brain, as well as the apparent individual differences in its functional organization, may be the most significant challenge facing those in the front-lines of educational practice.     

A taxonomy of emotion and cognition for student reflection: introducing emo-cog

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice can support student learning by enabling praxis: the bridging of the theory of the classroom with the students’ learning experience. Students’ written reflections are the most common mode for practising and documenting reflection. Available typologies for coding the level of student written reflections focus on the cognitive domain. The coding of student reflection data from four locations (Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea; n?=?760) revealed that the focus on the cognitive domain could not capture the role and contribution of the affective domain of reflection for learning. This study conceptualises and presents our new two-domain emo-cog taxonomy, together with empirical evidence to substantiate a new way of thinking about reflection for learning. Emo-cog identifies multiple levels of affective responses along with traditional cognitive reflections. Emotions are found to make a significant contribution to student reflections. Learning is clearly a matter of head and heart.     

The Role of Positive Emotions in Education: A Neuroscience Perspective

Humans are inherently emotional creatures due to our social nature, and emotions are able to influence how well we learn and even affect academic outcomes. Emotions are rarely a chief concern in educational settings, and we will discuss the mechanisms underlying how emotions are processed in the brain and how they influence the key aspects of learning—attention, memory, and motivation. The brain mechanisms of emotional and cognitive relationships are then detailed in order to provide some context within the modern developments of neuroscience. This will help to clarify the relationship between emotions and cognition, and hope to put forward a theoretical map based on neuroscience that helps us to better understand the pivotal role of emotions in students' cognitive activities and ultimately their performance. Various strategies, based on research findings, aimed at creating more positive learning environments are then put forward.     

THEORY,METHOD AND PRACTICE OF NEUROSCIENTIFIC FINDINGS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

This report provides an overview of neuroscience research that is applicable for science educators. It first offers a brief analysis of empirical studies in educational neuroscience literature, followed by six science concept learning constructs based on the whole brain theory: gaining an understanding of brain function; pattern recognition and consciousness; mind maps, mnemonics and other learning devices; concrete multisensory experience; higher-order creative reasoning via a multimedia-infused environment and positive emotion in educational settings. It is vital to the future of results-based education that discoveries regarding the cognitive learning process are taken into consideration when designing instruction. This research offers science educators neuroscience-backed information as a foundation to develop results-oriented curricula and teaching methods. Future research could further extend an empirically driven education system.     

发展认知神经科学视野中的学前第二语言教学

幼儿园外语教学热方兴未艾.本文从发展认知神经科学的角度出发,通过利用脑成像技术得到的研究成果,分析了学前儿童语言习得的特点及第二语言学习和脑的关系,进而分析了发展认知神经科学对学前第二语言教学的启示.     

A multidimensional approach to examine student interdisciplinary learning in science and engineering in higher education

Preparing science and engineering students to work in interdisciplinary teams necessitates research on teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking. A multidimensional approach was taken to examine student interdisciplinary learning in a master course on food quality management. The collected 615 student experiences were analysed for the cognitive, emotional, and social learning dimensions using the learning theory of Illeris. Of these 615 experiences, the analysis showed that students reported 214, 194, and 207 times on, respectively, the emotional, the cognitive, and the social dimension. Per learning dimension, key learning experiences featuring interdisciplinary learning were identified such as ‘frustrations in selecting and matching disciplinary knowledge to complex problems’ (emotional), ‘understanding how to apply theoretical models or concepts to real-world situations’ (cognitive), and ‘socially engaging with peers to recognise similarities in perceptions and experiences’ (social). Furthermore, the results showed that students appreciated the cognitive dimension relatively more than the emotional and social dimensions.     

Student teachers’ knowledge integration across conceptual borders: the role of study approaches,learning strategies,beliefs, and motivation

There is widespread agreement that student teachers need to construct an integrated knowledge base across multiple domains. This study examined the contributions of intraindividual factors of self-regulated learning to explaining student teachers’ (a) integration of knowledge across topics and domains (i.e., integrative learning) and (b) disjointed processing of potentially domain-specific learning content (i.e., separative learning). The factors considered were study approaches; cognitive, metacognitive, and resource-related learning strategy use; epistemological and pedagogical beliefs; and career choice motivation. The study applied a cross-sectional survey design and examined separative and integrative learning in N = 103 student teachers by way of multiple regression analyses with backward eliminations. A key finding is that deep and strategic study approaches and certain cognitive learning strategies contributed significantly to explaining integrative learning in student teachers. Epistemological and pedagogical beliefs were not able to predict integrative learning. Regarding separative learning, the study identified the surface study approach, specific epistemological and pedagogical beliefs, and the “usefulness” motive for career choice as positive predictors and critical thinking as a negative predictor. The study demonstrates differences in how integrative and separative learning are shaped by distinct intraindividual factors. Implications are discussed with regard to student teachers’ self-regulated learning and pre-service teacher education.

     

教育神经科学的未来:建构学习发展路径的工具

在教育神经科学领域,我们需要可靠的脑科学知识为学与教奠定坚实的基础。在教学实践中,应该尊重学生的兴趣以及他们独特的学习通路。在教育神经科学中,我们已经创建了一种通用的量表来评估孩子们的认知发展以及他们在校学习,这种评价重视对学生学习的支持与促进。在教育神经科学的研究中,重要的是,科学家与教育工作者相互合作,建立研究型学校,将心智、脑与教育领域的知识联系起来,以支持并促进学生的学习。     

Playlinks: a theatre-for-young audiences artist-in-the-classroom project

ABSTRACT

Playlinks, the project documented in this paper, contributed a theatre-based artist-in-the-classroom study to the Community Arts Zone initiative. Playlinks involved 248 elementary school classrooms in pre- and post-production workshops connected to live theatre that visited their schools. Data sources included researcher field notes, teacher evaluation forms, and interviews with both teachers and theatre personnel. Findings focus on teacher perceptions of three topics: (a) student engagement, (b) learning across cognitive and affective domains, and (c) benefits for teachers. The discussion section addresses implementation problems related to artist-in-the-classroom projects.     

A study of the relationship between learning styles and cognitive abilities in engineering students

Learning preferences have been indirectly linked to student success in engineering programmes, without a significant body of research to connect learning preferences with cognitive abilities. A better understanding of the relationship between learning styles and cognitive abilities will allow educators to optimise the classroom experience for students. The goal of this study was to determine whether relationships exist between student learning styles, as determined by the Felder-Soloman Inventory of Learning Styles (FSILS), and their cognitive performance. Three tests were used to assess student's cognitive abilities: a matrix reasoning task, a Tower of London task, and a mental rotation task. Statistical t-tests and correlation coefficients were used to quantify the results. Results indicated that the global–sequential, active–referential, and visual–verbal FSILS learning styles scales are related to performance on cognitive tasks. Most of these relationships were found in response times, not accuracy. Differences in task performance between gender groups (male and female) were more notable than differences between learning styles groups.     

The Invisible Link: Using State Space Representations to Investigate the Connection Between Variables and Their Referents

The ability to represent numerical quantities in symbolic form is a necessary foundation for mathematical competence. Variables are particularly important symbolic representations for learning algebra and succeeding in higher mathematics, but the mechanisms of how students link a variable to what it represents are not well understood. Research using cognitive neuroscience methods may be able to shed light on this process by building on related work involving number symbols. Utilizing state space representations, this article presents a first effort to consider what might constitute educationally relevant stimuli for future research on student understanding of the concept of variable. Might algebra problems elicit a symbolization process that can be captured using cognitive neuroscience methods? Results suggest it depends on the role of the variable in a given problem and the structure of that problem. Suggestions for potential research avenues are also discussed.     

The use of clickers in Instrumentation and Control Engineering education: a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper presents results from a small-scale study of third-year Instrumentation and Control Engineering (n?=?37) at the University of Plymouth. The aim of the study was to enhance student learning and increase participation via the use of clickers. Clickers allow for student participation anonymously. The lecture content was modified to embed clicker questions at regular intervals to test knowledge, understanding and cognitive skills. Largely, the students preferred interactive lectures to traditional didactic lectures and using clickers increased student engagement and participation. Interestingly, compared to assessment results from the previous year, the increased level of engagement did seem to lead to an overall improvement in grades of approximately 10% in the subject of Control Engineering. However, in Instrumentation, the average fell by approximately 20%. One possible contributory factor of this drop could be the changed exam format for Instrumentation only. This year, the multiple choice section was removed from the Instrumentation examination paper. Furthermore, an analysis of variance showed that in addition to using clickers in the lectures, attendance plays a key role. Results of this small-scale study show that for a more complex subject like Control, student learning, engagement and attainment can increase by the use of clickers.     

A model for bridging the gap between neuroscience and education

As the brain sciences make advances in our understanding of how the human brain functions, many educators are looking to findings from the neurosciences to inform classroom teaching methodologies. This paper takes the view that the neurosciences are an excellent source of knowledge regarding learning processes, but also provides a warning regarding the idea that findings from the laboratory can be directly transposed into the classroom. The article proposes a model of five levels which describe different types of knowledge that must all contribute to new teaching methodologies. These include the levels of neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, educational theory and testing, and finally the classroom.     

The Human Nervous System: A Framework for Teaching and the Teaching Brain

The teaching brain is a new concept that mirrors the complex, dynamic, and context‐dependent nature of the learning brain. In this article, I use the structure of the human nervous system and its sensing, processing, and responding components as a framework for a re‐conceptualized teaching system. This teaching system is capable of responses on an instinctual level (e.g., spinal cord teaching) as well as higher order student‐centered teaching and even more complex teaching brain teaching. At the most complex level the teacher and student engage in a synchronistic teaching flow that achieves the optimal teaching and learning experience.