Key ideas

This paper was discussed in Clare Brett's research group Feb 14, 2011

The paper criticizes facile use of neuroscience to inform teaching strategies, highlighting three fallacies:

• Critical periods
  • yes, some things are learnt more easily when kids are young, but other things are better learnt when they are older, such as critical thinking
  • it is possible to learn to read etc in adulthood as well
• Brain-based education
  • “growing dendrites” - but is number of dendrites the right measure of learning?
  • number of connections between synapses better measurement - seems to be strenghtened by memorization, rather than constructivist approaches
  • both halves are used at the same time, impossible to target one half
• Learning styles
  • is it always good to teach to kids strengths? kids need to challenge their weaknesses