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    The principles and practices of educational neuroscience: commentary on Bowers (2016)

    Howard-Jones, P. and Varma, S. and Ansari, D. and Butterworth, B. and De Smedt, B. and Goswami, U. and Laurillard, D. and Thomas, Michael S.C. (2016) The principles and practices of educational neuroscience: commentary on Bowers (2016). Psychological Review 123 (5), pp. 620-627. ISSN 0033-295X.

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    Abstract

    In his recent critique of Educational Neuroscience, Bowers argues that neuroscience has no role to play in informing education, which he equates with classroom teaching. Neuroscience, he suggests, adds nothing to what we can learn from psychology. In this commentary, we argue that Bowers’ assertions misrepresent the nature and aims of the work in this new field. We suggest that, by contrast, psychological and neural levels of explanation complement rather than compete with each other. Bowers’ analysis also fails to include a role for educational expertise – a guiding principle of our new field. On this basis, we conclude that his critique is potentially misleading. We set out the well-documented goals of research in Educational Neuroscience, and show how, in collaboration with educators, significant progress has already been achieved, with the prospect of even greater progress in the future.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Birkbeck Knowledge Lab, Educational Neuroscience, Centre for
    Depositing User: Michael Thomas
    Date Deposited: 26 Jan 2017 14:27
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:25
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/15870

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