Neuroscience is the study of the human nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, nerve roots and peripheral nerves. It blends several disciplines such as medicine, biology, psychology, linguistics and engineering and is still at its inception stage. Major developments in neuroscience began in the mid-nineteenth century. With respect to its convergence with education, neuroscience can investigate how the nervous system intervenes in the learning process. The study of the mechanisms and processes involved in the learning process is an intricate and cross-disciplinary endeavor, which inevitably leads us to contemplate the contributions and approaches of other disciplines besides neuroscience, including educational and cognitive psychology, linguistics, psychometrics, developmental and evolutionary psychology, anthropology, pedagogy and specialized hands-on investigation into instructional techniques. Of all those areas of research, the neuroscientific study of learning aims to address brain activity from experimental techniques, such as functional neuroimaging in human subjects, particularly during the need for the learning, use and mastery of cognitive and sensorimotor skills, which are thought to depend on different types of neural plasticity involving long-term synaptic or intrinsic excitability changes. To better understand how the brain is capable of performing these seemingly insurmountable tasks, it is essential that advances in development and cognitive psychology, psychometrics and other research areas be integrated with those from neuroscience. Indeed, only by adequately chartering the fields of brain activity that provide the basis for effective learning can we then put forward susceptibility paradigms for casuistic or more general use, in order to improve brain's plasticity enhancement protocols. Neuroscience contemplates that learning is built through the activity of the body in the environment, with the person, with others and with the world around them. Those experiences are then mapped in the brain, since this is a building of maps of relations. The latest technologies available that have allowed brain activity in learning experiences to be studied have consolidated these ideas. Neuroscience is one of the most-used research fields to support science education developments. Studies using basic and applied knowledge from neuroscience are designed to support content development, learning methodologies, student motivation, and many other topics from a cognitive and behavioral point of view. Science education is indeed a priority matter in the attention areas of neuroscience as studies on brain systems related to learning are enabling researchers to build up a vast amount of new knowledge on the process of learning and its neurophysiological mechanisms. This chapter explores the relevance of neuroscience in science teaching and learning and thus illustrates the bridge between neuroscience and science education.

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Relevance of Neuroscience in Science Education

  • Ben Akpan

摘要

Neuroscience is the study of the human nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, nerve roots and peripheral nerves. It blends several disciplines such as medicine, biology, psychology, linguistics and engineering and is still at its inception stage. Major developments in neuroscience began in the mid-nineteenth century. With respect to its convergence with education, neuroscience can investigate how the nervous system intervenes in the learning process. The study of the mechanisms and processes involved in the learning process is an intricate and cross-disciplinary endeavor, which inevitably leads us to contemplate the contributions and approaches of other disciplines besides neuroscience, including educational and cognitive psychology, linguistics, psychometrics, developmental and evolutionary psychology, anthropology, pedagogy and specialized hands-on investigation into instructional techniques. Of all those areas of research, the neuroscientific study of learning aims to address brain activity from experimental techniques, such as functional neuroimaging in human subjects, particularly during the need for the learning, use and mastery of cognitive and sensorimotor skills, which are thought to depend on different types of neural plasticity involving long-term synaptic or intrinsic excitability changes. To better understand how the brain is capable of performing these seemingly insurmountable tasks, it is essential that advances in development and cognitive psychology, psychometrics and other research areas be integrated with those from neuroscience. Indeed, only by adequately chartering the fields of brain activity that provide the basis for effective learning can we then put forward susceptibility paradigms for casuistic or more general use, in order to improve brain's plasticity enhancement protocols. Neuroscience contemplates that learning is built through the activity of the body in the environment, with the person, with others and with the world around them. Those experiences are then mapped in the brain, since this is a building of maps of relations. The latest technologies available that have allowed brain activity in learning experiences to be studied have consolidated these ideas. Neuroscience is one of the most-used research fields to support science education developments. Studies using basic and applied knowledge from neuroscience are designed to support content development, learning methodologies, student motivation, and many other topics from a cognitive and behavioral point of view. Science education is indeed a priority matter in the attention areas of neuroscience as studies on brain systems related to learning are enabling researchers to build up a vast amount of new knowledge on the process of learning and its neurophysiological mechanisms. This chapter explores the relevance of neuroscience in science teaching and learning and thus illustrates the bridge between neuroscience and science education.