Abstract
The development of error monitoring is central to learning and academic achievement. However, few studies exist on the neural correlates of children’s error monitoring, and no studies have examined its susceptibility to educational influences. Pedagogical methods differ on how they teach children to learn from errors. Here, 32 students (aged 8–12 years) from high-quality Swiss traditional or Montessori schools performed a math task with feedback during fMRI. Although the groups’ accuracies were similar, Montessori students skipped fewer trials, responded faster and showed more neural activity in right parietal and frontal regions involved in math processing. While traditionally-schooled students showed greater functional connectivity between the ACC, involved in error monitoring, and hippocampus following correct trials, Montessori students showed greater functional connectivity between the ACC and frontal regions following incorrect trials. The findings suggest that pedagogical experience influences the development of error monitoring and its neural correlates, with implications for neurodevelopment and education.
Highlights
Given the changing landscape of work and the ease of acquiring factual information via technology[1], there is an active debate around how pedagogical approaches can support students not in memorizing facts and becoming proficient at procedures but in developing abilities for evaluating their ongoing learning processes[2]; in essence, for learning how to learn efficiently
Its developmental trajectory is known to depend upon underpinning brain networks, most notably involving the cingulate gyrus, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and developmental changes in both behavior and brain activity have been described[12,15,16]
Though error monitoring is fundamental to learning and develops across childhood and adolescence, to our knowledge, few studies have examined its neural correlates in children[13,14,42] and no study has examined its susceptibility to pedagogical approaches
Summary
Given the changing landscape of work and the ease of acquiring factual information via technology[1], there is an active debate around how pedagogical approaches can support students not in memorizing facts and becoming proficient at procedures but in developing abilities for evaluating their ongoing learning processes[2]; in essence, for learning how to learn efficiently Central to this enterprise is fostering a self-directed, process-oriented approach to learning, in which children learn to recognize and utilize information about incorrect responses to iteratively improve their skills[3,4,5,6]. These include increased capacity to detect errors quickly and self-correct accurately, and corresponding shifts in functional connectivity of the ACC
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