The Need for
Neuroeducational
Research
Dr Paul Howard-Jones
Reader in Neuroscience and Education
University of Bristol
Graduate School of Education
Neuroscience is informing our understanding of learning
• Attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Dyslexia, dyscalculia
• Reward
• Memory, stress
• How learners visualize & imitate
• Adolescence (EF, risk, brain awareness)
• Cognitive enhancers • …and much more…
Teachers completing training…
• Short bouts of co‐ordination exercises improve integration of left/right hemispheric function (64 % agree)
• Differences in hemispheric dominance (left brain, right brain) helps explain individual learning differences (60% agree)
• Exercises that rehearse co‐ordination of motor‐perception skills can improve literacy (35% agree, most don’t know)
• Drinking less than 6‐8 glasses of water a day can cause the brain to shrink (34 % not sure, 18% agree)
(H-J et al., BERA 2009)
Subtle Myths
Question to teachers:
how do factors
contribute to
educational outcome?
Those who rated genes highly also believed more strongly
in a biological limit to achievement
What do we have to do?
A new “neuroeducational” field with 2 research goals:
1. To further educational understanding
2. To further scientific understanding of the mind, brain and learning interrelationship, through natural science investigation of educational contexts/issues.
validity + relevance = +ve educational impact
Mind the gap
The role of evidence‐ to communicate position, purpose, policy or to test a hypothesis and build a progressive body of knowledge? Methods/epistemology: natural versus social science? Ethics: consensus on physical safety, but social risk? Professional aims: “change now” versus publications of abstract fundamental knowledge
Language, terms and concepts: E.g. “learning”, “motivation”, “attention”
Communication and the media: “some neuroscientists are doing trials on our children”
Funding Body Issues: Can a panel assess an application appropriately using independent reviews from discipline‐
centric experts? Ongoing process of careful, sceptical, positive co‐construction
Evidence for educational significance? Classroom salience?
Develop practice
Develop resources
Scientific studies
Bridging studies
Practice-based studies
Teacher understanding and implementation
Uptake through policy
Educational Impact
COMMUNICATION
Neuroscience research
From neuroscience to “ZTP” app –
Bristol Case Study
Games stimulate the brain’s reward system
•Rapid schedule of rewards stimulates midbrain regions (Koepp et al., 1998)
•Rewards are uncertain
•Significant dopamine release comparable to the effects of psychostimulant drugs (Weinstein, 2010)
•If you apply DSM addiction criteria, 1 in 5 teens addicted in ’98 (Griffiths et al., 1998)
From neuroscience to “ZTP” app –
Bristol Case Study
When reward is 50:50 uncertain, it generates maximum dopamine in the reward system:
C. D. Fiorillo et al,(2003).
From neuroscience to “ZTP” app –
Bristol Case Study
“zondle Team Play” – used understanding of the brain’s response to reward to develop an approach to teaching through gaming
• fMRI/physiological/behavioural experimental studies
• Classroom bridging studies
• Discussion with policy‐makers, developers, teachers, learners
• Free Resources: Teacher video/text guides, “app”, “lesson‐ready” games
• Launched Sept (used 15K times in 20 countries)
Types of research
Bridging study: skin (emotional) response
Gaming transforms emotionality of learning
Scientific Study: Neurocomputational modelling
Our competitor’s losses are our rewards
F1R: Shall we play again?
F1L: So annoying….
F1R: Don’t mind ….shall we?
F1L: Yeah, roll the dice…
Bridging study: Discourse analysis
Practice-based studies: Action research
Pedagogic guidelines
Motivational sport-talk, losses as fair
Reward and whole‐class gaming
Neuroscience research
Evidence for educational significance? Classroom salience? (e.g. bridging studies)
Develop practice
Develop resources
www.zondle.com
Teacher understanding and implementation
Uptake through policy
Educational Impact
Longer approach has indirect benefits Find useful questions for the future
Neuroscience research
Evidence for educational significance? Classroom salience? (e.g. bridging studies)
Develop practice
Develop resources
Language/concepts
for communication
Experimental platforms
Teacher understanding and implementation
Uptake through policy
Educational Impact
Notice other classroom effects , theorise
Empowers teachers for future research
Discover political neuromyths
Outcomes of other pathways to impact……
Example 1: Learning Styles (VAK)
82% of
teachers
believe in
teaching to
learning styles
Like MI theory, strongly associated with neuroscience, often a
distinctly biological justification: ‘at least three fifths of
style is biologically imposed’ (Rita Dunn et al., 1990, p. 86),
No psychological, educational or neuroscientific evidence for
the effectiveness of the approach
Learning Styles (VAK)
Neuroscience research
Evidence for educational significance? Classroom salience? (e.g. bridging studies)
Develop practice
Develop resources
Teacher understanding and implementation
Uptake through policy
Educational Impact
Example 2: Human Capital–When to Invest?
“Learning begets learning”
Heckman, J. J. (2008). Schools, skills, and synapses. Economic
Inquiry, 46(3), 289-324.
Heckman suggested instead that educational investment was
similar to capital accumulation within a limited time frame:
1. Return on investment occurs within limited lifespan
2. “learning beget learning” - learning helps you learn
The economic analogy:
If the interest rate on a £1 investment was a product of
how much capital you already have….
This concept of human capital has significant
implications re: timing of investment!
‐> Invest early
But also...
‐>Invest in the advantaged
Some early interventions very effective
‐ but timing makes no simple prediction
Head Start, Early Head Start (budget 8.2 bpa) show gains dissipating within 2‐3 years(Barnett, 2011)
Adolescent mentoring shows, after 18 months, reduced substance abuse and violence plus improved academic performance, attitudes and family relationships (Tierney & Grossman, 1995). Recent “Science” review : existing early interventions cannot tell us best methods or timing for optimal return(Mervis, 2011)
Neuroscience does not support a simple “learning begets learning” model
• The model does not differentiate between typical and atypical development, experience and genetic background. • The model assumes a single type of accumulating cognitive ability, but human development and learning is not unitary, or continuous. More recent model (Cunha, Heckman, Schennach, 2010) .2 types of ability -> invest early in the disadvantaged
Despite representing an assumption, the
graphical display of the model is often
used as evidence for “earlier is better”
For example, in the OECD’s Economic Survey of the UK:
“In the current UK debate, it is sometimes argued that
funding higher education by individual loans rather than
taxes could discourage students from poor families
….These arguments miss the point that social gradients in
access to higher education, and equity in educational
attainment more generally, are primarily determined by
cognitive developments in early childhood and the
foundation laid during school (Carneiro & Heckman, 2003).”
“The Heckman curve to which Allen himself refers shows that investment early in life produces better returns…..”
Howard-Jones, P. A., Washbrook, E. V., & Meadows, S. (2012). The timing of
educational investment: A neuroscientific perspective. Developmental Cognitive
Neuroscience, 2, Supplement 1(0), S18-S29.
Example 2: Human Capital–When to Invest?
Evidence for educational significance? Classroom salience? (e.g. bridging studies)
Develop practice
Develop resources
Teacher understanding and implementation
Uptake through policy
Educational Impact
Economics
Neuroscience research
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“Introducing Neuroeducational Research”
ISBN: 978‐0‐415‐47201‐2
Paperback
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Published by: Routledge
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available in Spanish, soon Chinese and Korean
Try “Zondle Team Play” on
www.zondle.com
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Thanks for listening! ☺
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