Trends in Neuroscience and Education最新文献

Background

Neuromyths may negatively influence teacher practice. Knowing where people learned misinformation can prevent its propagation and improve teacher training.

Objective

To investigate the prevalence of neuromyths, their sources, and whether they influence teacher practice.

Method

157 participants (teachers, pre-service teachers, and the general public), assessed four neuromyths statements on a 4-point Likert scale. They indicate their sources, and if they were educators, whether they influenced their teacher practice.

Results

Participants showed over 50 % agreement in neuromyths, and approximately 30 % of teachers reported using teaching strategies based on these misconceptions. Information sources included social media, instructional materials, books, as well as interactions with peers.

Conclusion

These results underscore the need to avoid the spread of neuromyths, especially the learning styles myth, targeting training courses and educational materials. Most teachers remember where they learned about neuromyths, which may help to identify the sources

In technology education, there has been a paradigmatic shift towards student-centered approaches such as learning by doing, constructionism, and experiential learning. Educational robotics allows students to experiment with building and interacting with their creations while also fostering collaborative work. However, understanding the student's response to these approaches is crucial to adapting them during the teaching-learning process. In this sense, neuroscientific tools such as Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Eye-tracker could be useful, allowing the investigation of relevant states experienced by students. Although they have already been used in educational research, their practical relevance in the teaching-learning process has not been extensively investigated. In this perspective article expressing our position, we bring four examples of learning experiences in a robotics class with children, in which we illustrate the usefulness of these tools.

Background

Educational neuroscience research, which investigates the neurobiological mechanisms of learning, has historically incorporated samples drawn mostly from white, middle-class, and/or suburban populations. However, sampling in research without attending to representation can lead to biased interpretations and results that are less generalizable to an intended target population. Prior research revealing differences in neurocognitive outcomes both within- and across-groups further suggests that such practices may obscure significant effects with practical implications.

Barriers

Negative attitudes among historically marginalized communities, stemming from historical mistreatment, biased research outcomes, and implicit or explicit attitudes among research teams, can hinder diverse participation. Qualities of the research process including language requirements, study locations, and time demands create additional barriers.

Solutions

Flexible data collection approaches, community engaugement, and transparent reporting could build trust and enhance sampling diversity. Longer-term solutions include prioritizing research questions relevant to marginalized communities, increasing workforce diversity, and detailed reporting of sample demographics. Such concerted efforts are essential for robust educational neuroscience research to maximize positive impacts broadly across learners.

Recent insights from Science of Learning (SoL) are informing instruction, training, and curriculum. Here, we present a project on promoting SoL-related content through co-creating online asynchronous learning resources. By building a 7-person cross-institution team, we strategically harnessed (1) student-faculty partnerships as a mechanism to promote training and professional development, (2) co-creation as a model to curricula development, (3) blended asynchronous learning as a modality for content delivery, and (4) internationalization as a strategy to embrace globalization. This co-creation of curricula project included three stages—literature review, design and production, and evaluation. The project evaluation deployed a mixed methods approach with 6 student evaluators across both participating institutions, who explored the effectiveness of the learning resources. In addition, student partners contributed reflective statements on their co-creation experience. This paper reports on the procedural pipeline to co-creation and the project evaluation, as well as on new insights emerging for curriculum development. We conclude that project's co-created learning resources may enhance effectiveness of instructional design and students’ learning experience. Further, we demonstrate that student partners acquire new knowledge and research, design and delivery skills, futureproofing their academic progression.

Aim

K-12 educators are susceptible to “neuromyths” or misconceptions about the brain and learning, yet how these beliefs relate to practice is not yet understood. This exploratory pilot study investigated how knowledge and beliefs about the brain and learning relate to knowledge of evidence-based teaching and learning principles.

Methods

Preservice teachers (N = 29) completed an online survey that measured their knowledge and beliefs about the brain and learning, including belief in neuromyths, and their knowledge of evidence-based teaching and learning principles.

Results

Pre-service teachers commonly endorsed several neuromyths, consistent with prior research. There was a strong positive correlation between participants’ knowledge and beliefs about the brain and learning, and knowledge of evidence-based teaching and learning principles.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that new teachers with better knowledge of the brain and learning may also have more knowledge of evidence-based principles, though more research is needed to determine their impact on teaching.

Background

Much of modern mathematics education prioritizes symbolic formalism even at the expense of non-symbolic intuition, we contextualize our study in the ongoing debates on the balance between symbolic and non-symbolic reasoning. We explore the dissociation of oscillatory dynamics between algebraic (symbolic) and geometric (non-symbolic) processing in advanced mathematical reasoning during a naturalistic design.

Method

Employing mobile EEG technology, we investigated students' beta and gamma wave patterns over frontal and parietal regions while they engaged with mathematical demonstrations in symbolic and non-symbolic formats within a tutor-student framework. We used extended, naturalistic stimuli to approximate an authentic educational setting.

Conclusion

Our findings reveal nuanced distinctions in neural processing, particularly in terms of gamma waves and activity in parietal regions. Furthermore, no clear overall format preference emerged from the neuroscientific perspective despite students rating symbolic demonstrations higher for understanding and familiarity.

Background

This study examined the effects of (1) combined early numeracy and fundamental motor skills (MovEN), (2) early numeracy, and (3) fundamental motor skills intervention programs on children's early mathematical and fundamental motor skills, and how individual background variables affect the effectiveness of these interventions.

Procedure

Together 50 preschoolers participated in the interventions (16 × 45 min sessions). Children's early numeracy, mathematical problem-solving, and fundamental motor skills were measured once before and twice after the interventions.

Main findings

The results showed that the MovEN and early numeracy -interventions were effective in improving children's early numeracy, and mathematical problem-solving. Whereas the MovEN and fundamental motor skills interventions improved children's fundamental motor skills. From individual factors, only updating ability predicted the intervention's effectiveness over and above prior performance.

Conclusion

The results suggest that children's early mathematical and fundamental motor skills can be supported effectively at the same time with the MovEN -intervention.

Background: Individual differences in commitment to lifelong learning, a process aimed at seizing opportunities for self-development, have not been extensively studied. Objective: Our aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the decision-making mechanisms involved in pursuing learning for self-development. Method: We conducted a literature review on the taxing nature of cognitive exertion and its impact on the inclination to engage in cognitively demanding tasks for learning, as well as individual differences in sensitivity to aversive or rewarding outcomes inherent in the learning process. Results: Our findings indicate that the Expected Value of Control (EVC) theory can elucidate the former, while research on approach-avoidance motivation can shed light on the latter. Conclusion: We propose and develop an integrated framework that incorporates both lines of research. This framework holds relevance for neuropsychology, experimental psychology, and education psychology, offering theoretical guidance for tailoring learning experiences to enhance engagement and commitment to self-development.

Background

Prior research has documented the pervasive influence that peers can exert on adolescents’ lives. However, knowledge on whether adolescents’ perceptions of the quality of the teacher's instruction are also prone to peer influences is lacking.

Method

This study (N = 248 German adolescents) used longitudinal social network analysis to investigate whether (a) friends become more similar in their teaching quality perceptions (influence effects) and/or whether (b) students with initially more similar perceptions of teaching quality were more likely to become friends (selection effects). We also explored whether (c) students with more positive teaching quality perceptions were better integrated socially.

Results

We did not find support for influence or selection effects. However, students who rated their teacher's instruction more positively were better integrated socially.

Conclusions

Our work adds to research on the role of peers in adolescence and enhances our understanding of peer influences on students’ perceptions of instruction.

Aim

We examined age-related differences in valuation and cognitive control circuits during value-based decision-making.

Methods

13-year-olds (N = 25) and 17-year-olds (N = 22) made a metacognitive choice to be tested or not on an upcoming learning task, based on reward and difficulty associated with word-pairs. To investigate whether these determinants of subjective value are differently processed at different ages, we performed region-of-interest(ROI)-based analyses of task-related and functional connectivity data.

Results: We observed age-related differences in responsiveness of valuation structures (amygdala, ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and caudate nucleus, with activity modulated by reward in 13-year-olds, while in 17-year-olds activity being responsive to difficulty. These accompanied age-related differences in functional connectivity between medial prefrontal and striatal/amygdala seeds.

Discussion

These results are in line with current views that sensitivity changes for reward and difficulty during adolescence are the result of a maturational switch in effort-related signalling in the cognitive control circuit, which increasingly regulates value-signalling structures.