Overview

Mind, brain, and education initiatives should build bridges between educators and behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological scientists. Some bridges are robust, and others are problematic. Links of cognitive development to education can be straightforward and useful. For example, children with low socioeconomic status typically show delays in the normal acquisition of arithmetic skills and concepts. When these children have access to intensive training, such as the program “Right Start,” they overcome the obstacles and improve their level of performance. Some other bridges are not so well founded. In particular, the over-emphasis on sensitive periods for learning connected with brain maturation has led to a restrictive concept of “windows of opportunity” for learning, which is not supported by research on learning. In fact, some research invalidates the common view that high synaptic density is needed for learning. The link from neuroscience to education needs to include assessment of the target behaviors, such as learning arithmetic and reading, and not assume that brain findings link in obvious ways. Other chapters in this book highlight areas where links between brain research and educationally relevant behaviors are being made fruitfully and with appropriate scientific caution, especially for language and arithmetic.

The Editors

In Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far (Bruer, 1997) I expressed concerns about supposed implications of developmental neuroscience for teaching and learning. I also argued positively that currently cognitive psychology is a better source for educationally relevant basic research than is developmental neuroscience.