儿童阅读障碍神经科学研究对早期教育的启示

对儿童阅读障碍的研究逐渐从心理发展和认知加工角度转向利用神经科学方法来对阅读障碍的神经机制(包括脑区定位和时间进程等)进行研究。在评析阅读障碍神经机制研究的基础上分析了儿童阅读障碍研究对早期教育的启示:应重视阅读障碍对儿童发展和学业成绩的影响;应及早发现阅读障碍并利用神经可塑性研究成果制定出相关矫治计划;利用脑成像技术可检测阅读障碍矫正效果。同时,本文对汉语阅读障碍提出预防措施。     

Neuroscience and Education: Promises and Pitfalls

Recent findings on the anatomical, physiological, and functional properties of the brain have stimulated debates on whether such findings provide meaningful contribution to education. In this article, I examine one aspect of the interface between neuroscience and education: “brain‐compatible” strategies. Although some of these strategies such as providing a balanced diet in a child's early years are based on sound empirical data, others are based on shakier grounds. In particular, strategies regarding environmental enrichment and stress reduction in the classroom are based on questionable interpretations of the data. Because research in neuroscience is still in its infancy, it is not surprising some early attempts in translating research to practice involve a degree of over‐generalisation. At this stage, it may be more beneficial to focus on neuroscience findings that relate to educationally relevant processes. Attention, learning, and memory are all fundamental processes studied in both disciplines. Research in neuroscience offers not only additional knowledge about such processes but also tools and methods that will allow us to refine our theories and, eventually, practice.     

Educators' Views on the Role of Neuroscience in Education: Findings From a Study of UK and International Perspectives

ABSTRACT— This report summarizes findings from a study of educators' views on the role of the brain in education. Responses were sought using questionnaires ( n = 189), followed by a smaller number of in-depth interviews ( n = 11). Results show a high level of enthusiasm for attempts to interrelate neuroscience and education, although conceptualizations about what this entails differ widely. Findings suggest that communication with practitioners may become a key factor influencing the success of attempts to enrich classroom practice with scientific understanding about the brain and mind.     

Early Language Learning and Literacy: Neuroscience Implications for Education

The last decade has produced an explosion in neuroscience research examining young children's early processing of language that has implications for education. Noninvasive, safe functional brain measurements have now been proven feasible for use with children starting at birth. In the arena of language, the neural signatures of learning can be documented at a remarkably early point in development, and these early measures predict performance in children's language and pre‐reading abilities in the second, third, and fifth year of life, a finding with theoretical and educational import. There is evidence that children's early mastery of language requires learning in a social context, and this finding also has important implications for education. Evidence relating socioeconomic status (SES) to brain function for language suggests that SES should be considered a proxy for the opportunity to learn and that the complexity of language input is a significant factor in developing brain areas related to language. The data indicate that the opportunity to learn from complex stimuli and events are vital early in life, and that success in school begins in infancy.     

Discovering Expert Perspectives on Dispositions and Remediation: A Qualitative Study

The authors used a qualitative approach to discover the perceptions of 19 experts on dispositions and remediation for counseling students. Analysis revealed 4 dispositional domains related to context, severity, amenability to change, and cultural sensitivity. Counselor educators should consider dispositions at admission and examine their program’s ability to remediate severe tenacious dispositions.     

Neuroscience and Education: Blind Spots in a Strange Relationship

This article—mainly referring to the situation in Germany—consists of three parts. In a first section the current presence of neurosciences in the public discourse will be described in order to illuminate the background which is relevant for contemporary educational thinking. The prefix ‘neuro‐’ is ubiquitous today and therefore concepts like ‘neuropedagogy’ or ‘neurodidactics’ seem to be in the mainstream of modern thinking. In the second part of the article the perspective changes from the public discourse to the disciplinary discourse; a brief excursus into developmental psychiatry, neuropsychology and modern psychoanalysis will be made in order to demonstrate how the results of neuroscientific research are integrated in their theoretical frameworks. These three disciplines have no difficulty in integrating neuroscientific findings because each of them possesses a systematic core composed of ‘native concepts’. In contrast to them, educational theory has much more difficulty with such integration, as will be shown in the third part of the essay. On the one hand, neuroscientific thinking seems to be able to dominate education rather easily and without great resistance, especially in the fields of early childhood education, instruction and learning—mainly by simplifying educational processes and by reducing the complexity of the educational task to a mere ‘relationship problem’. On the other hand, this attraction of neuroscience in education might be understood as the reflection of a theoretical deficit in educational theory itself, with the significance of affect and emotion not receiving proper attention.     

Reflections on Neuroscience in Teacher Education

The majority of teacher preparation programs do not address neuroscience in their curricula. This is curious, as learning occurs in the brain in context and teachers fundamentally foster and facilitate learning. On the one hand, merging neuroscience knowledge into teacher training programs is fraught with challenges, such as reconciling how scientific evidence is viewed and used in education, overcoming neuromyths, acknowledging the lack of direct connection between laboratory findings and classroom practices, and coordinating across different levels of analysis in neuroscience and educational practice. On the other hand, there are marked benefits to such a merger, such as deepening pedagogical content knowledge from multiple perspectives; understanding neuroplasticity and its educational implications; recognizing the power of the environment to affect neurobiology, learning, and development; and contributing to engaged, reflective practice and informed inquiry in teaching. Particularly in terms of learning equity for students and the development of a learning education culture in teacher education programs, the benefits of including neuroscience knowledge in teacher training would seem to outweigh the challenges.     

Research in Religious Education: Perspectives for the Future

The impact of committed guests in Religious Education at school is focused in this study. Ten pupils (age 17) were sampled to contribute as informants in semi-structured interviews. The data consist of eight texts (interview excerpts), which are interpreted within a hermeneutic approach, specifically by taking the formal features into consideration (cf. Ricoeur), for example, the occurrence of negations. Some of the texts illuminate I–Thou relations (Buber), whereas other texts are interpreted in relation to the effect histories of certain conceptions (Gadamer).     

Dyslexia in Higher Education: an abuse of the system?

Following on from a previous article which examined concerns regarding the growing demand for public examination concessions on the basis of specific learning difficulties, this article further argues against the much used one‐off psychometric assessment procedure. The appropriateness is queried of a process which does not take into account such other factors as anxiety and emotional disturbance, inappropriate teaching, parental pressure, and socio‐cultural opportunity, all of which can produce a very similar pattern of failure. The nature of specific learning difficulties is also examined, plus a comment on differing assessment techniques. It was concluded that the ‘specific’ needs to be put back into an assessment of ‘specific learning difficulty’. So‐called dyslexia should be identified as the student's major special educational need and not merely as part of a more general learning problem. To do otherwise leaves the system open to abuse, and the long‐term interests of the students concerned will not be best served. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of Carolyn Blyth's employing authority.