The questions Piaget raised, and his concepts and observations for addressing them, have shaped virtually all research and theory in cognitive development over the last 50 years. Even those who rejected Piaget's conclusions shaped their work in terms of his questions. Some approaches built upon his work directly whereas others sought to oppose it. The focus of this chapter is primarily on the former - research and theory that has built directly on Piaget to address new, revised, and expanded questions.

The primary question raised in neo-Piagetian work is variability: the dynamic ways that people's actions differ and change. At all ages and in all cultures, people's actions vary dramatically across contexts, tasks, and emotional states. For example, in class Christina, a fifth-grade student, can read and explain a paragraph about how the eye works, but she cannot give the same explanation at home on her own. Seth, a high school freshman, can solve a math problem about the cost of schoolbooks when he does it with his mother's support, but in class the next day he is unable to solve the same problem. On the other hand, for a similar problem about the cost of new jeans, he solves it easily across all situations. This sort of variation can be frustrating, but it is normal, and it happens every day with everyone. Modern neo-Piagetian research and theory embrace this variability, using it to create better explanations of the complexity and diversity of human knowledge and action.

Overview

Since the seminal work of Jean Piaget on the relation between knowledge and general biology, researchers have started to understand the basic neurocognitive processes in the unfolding of human development. In particular, recent dynamic growth models illuminate the complex, interrelated changes that take place during brain growth, cognitive development, and learning. Neurocognitive development should be conceived not as a ladder of successive stages but as a complex network of interactions and attractors, convergent and divergent paths, nested cycles, stabilities and instabilities, progressions and regressions, clusters of discontinuities and stable levels of performance. Cycles of cortical development and cycles of cognitive performance seem to be related. In particular the relationship becomes most visible with optimal functioning of the cognitive system, such as when a good teacher or textbook supports a student's performance. A series of discontinuities in optimal cognitive growth define a ten-level developmental scale, which has many potential educational implications. More generally, the systematic growth cycles of cognition and brain have many implications for education, which are sometimes not straightforward. It is essential to the future of education that teachers become involved in neurocognitive research and neuroscientists discover the great theoretical and practical challenge of working in schools.

The Editors

Most scientists and teachers find it obvious that cognitive development and brain development go together, and the enterprise of connecting mind, brain, and education starts with that assumption, as evident in most chapters of this book.

Many scientists and educators feel that we are advancing toward new ways of connecting mind, brain, and education (MBE). This feeling arises, in part, because the disciplines related to the cognitive sciences, neurobiology, and education have made considerable advances during the last two decades, and scholars in the disciplines are beginning to seek interactions with each other (Fischer, Bernstein, & Immordino-Yang, 2006). Moreover, the increased connectivity among these disciplines has been enhanced by the growth of communication and information in the globalized world. The “digital environment” of our planet is a new phenomenon in evolution and in history (Battro, 2004), as Rita Levi-Montalcini describes in the preface to this book. We are lucky to live in a time when changes in education can rapidly reach and enrich the lives of millions. This opportunity invites us to foster the coordinated work of scientists, teachers, and students of many nations, races, and religions in the new transdisciplinary field of mind, brain, and education (Léna, 2002, and Koizumi, this volume).

One name for this effort is neuroeducation (Bruer, this volume), which emphasizes the educational focus of the transdisciplinary connection.

In his address of November 10, 2003 to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences gathered in Rome to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Accademia dei Lincei, origin of the Academy, and in reference to our meeting on Mind, Brain, and Education, which is the source of this book, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, said:

We will always remember the support of His Holiness for the challenging work of the neurocognitive scientists engaged in the field of education, a most humane and humanitarian endeavor.

The editors of this book are pleased and honored to present the work of the distinguished scientists who were invited to discuss their research at the workshop on Mind, Brain, and Education held at the Vatican (November 7–8, 2003). This volume has been edited from the papers presented by the authors and organized in a book that will be of interest not only to experts but also to a larger audience of educators and teachers.