Learning, Knowledge and Human Development MOOC’s Updates

Potential strengths and weaknesses of neuroscience

Neuroscience is the study of what the brain is and how it works in order to understand how learning happens. A benefit of focusing on how people learn is that it helps bring order to a seeming cacophony of choices. There is no universal best teaching practice. Focusing on how people learn will also help teachers move beyond either-or dichotomies that have plagued the field of education. Students’ abilities to acquire organized sets of facts and skills are actually enhanced when they are connected to meaningful problem-solving activi­ties, and when students are helped to understand why, when, and how those facts and skills are relevant. One fundamental problem that limits the evidentiary utility of neuroscience-based claims is reverse inference and group-to-individual inference, which leads to reasoning errors and brain overclaim syndrome.

 

  • Brandy Barclay
  • Cindy Bratcher