LONDON: Leading brain scientists have called for the growing knowledge of neuroscience to play a greater role in education and provide a scientific basis for developing new and more effective ways of teaching.
A group of British neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists and education specialists said an emerging research field known as “educational neuroscience” could transform the way people are taught and could in future have a huge impact on education systems across the world. “Every day we are discovering more and more about how the brain works and if this information can help us to learn more effectively or hone the skills of the workforce, then we should be using it,” said Uta Frith, head of a working group at Britain’s Royal Society Academy of Science, which published a report on neuroscience and education.
“Education is concerned with enhancing learning and neuroscience is concerned with understanding the brain-based mechanisms that underpin learning. It seems only logical that the one should inform the other.”
Educational neuroscience involves the study of some of the basic processes involved in learning to become literate and numerate, and also allows scientists to unpick the way in which the brain learns to learn. REUTERS