During the past few decades, researchers have made important steps forward in understanding the neurobiological basis of functions that are relevant to education, such as learning, memory, attention, emotion and social cognition; see, for example, the article by Raz and Buhle on attentional networks on page 367 of this issue. Teachers, meanwhile, are faced with the everyday challenges of trying to develop these skills in children. Understandably, they are keen to make use of research findings to enhance learning in the classroom.
Nevertheless, although many research findings from neuroscience are relevant, their application to education is yet to be exploited and there is a gulf between the two communities. Instead, teachers are bombarded with so-called 'brain-based learning' packages — commercially driven programmes that purport to improve children's capacity to learn. These packages have found widespread acceptance in education circles. In a Science and Society article on page 406, Goswami provides a fascinating insight into some of the more dominant and worrying assertions being marketed to teachers, which are frequently based on myth rather than science: for example, one programme promotes exercises that involve pressing 'brain buttons' below the ribcage to stimulate a child's learning potential.
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