Field Of Educational Neuroscience Research Articles

The Neuroscience of Emotions and the Role Emotions Play in Learning

The relationship between emotions and learning has always been of great interest in the field of educational neuroscience. Advancements in brain imaging techniques have given us better understanding on the role these affective components have in various cognitive processes including memory, attention, decision-making and social functioning (Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007). As educators and researchers in the field of educational neuroscience, our main objective in this paper is to bridge the gap between education and neuroscience. Applying scientific research to the classroom is not a straightforward process (Shearer, 2020; Howard-Jones, 2014). However, we believe that educators can benefit a lot when exposed to scientific research in order to base their classroom practice on solid grounds. Additionally, educators have a lot to offer from their first-hand experience in schools, especially when it comes to the role of emotions in teaching and learning. A meta-analysis of current research in the field will be presented to highlight the important role of emotions in learning. By understanding this role, we aim to inform and transform educational practices in the local scenario and beyond.

The Current Trend in Educational Neuroscience Research: A Descriptive and Bibliometric Study

In the present study, 36 articles indexed in the Web of Science database were examined in order to reveal the current trend in scientific studies in the field of educational neuroscience. Therefore, the distribution of the articles was examined considering publication years, host journals, the most productive author(s), co-authorship, abstract keywords, collocated keywords, educational attainment of the samples, dependent variables, and the EEG devices used. The data were evaluated with descriptive and bibliometric analysis methods. The findings revealed that the publishing in the field gained an elevation in 2020; the papers were mostly published in Computers & Education; Mayer was the most productive author; Cheng, Lin, Yang, and Huang were those who produced the most collaborative studies in the field. In addition, it was found out that the keyword “cognitive load” was discussed more than the others; it was used with “attention” the most; studies were mostly carried out at university level; cognitive load and attention were the most examined dependent variables; the NeuroSky Mindwave was used in these articles the most. To sum, the present results have the potential to generate an overall perspective to educational neuroscience.

Project Introduction Supporting Materials (PRISM): Transforming Students’ Perceptions Towards Learning Chemistry

It is well known by educators that innovative pedagogical strategies will prompt students to learn better. If students’ learning is well supported by teachers, they will be able to have better perceptions on learning even towards difficult subjects like Chemistry. Project Introduction Supporting Materials (PRISM) was designed to transform students’ perceptions towards learning Chemistry. It was an action research project and grounded theory analysis was applied to investigate the effects of PRISM. It was inspired and built upon research findings in the field of educational neuroscience. At the end of the action research project, the PRISM Group students experienced a transformation in their perceptions towards learning Chemistry. A grounded theory approach was utilised to investigate the effectiveness of PRISM. From the qualitative analysis, three (3) categories emerged – (i). positive academic emotions; (ii). learning responsibility; and (iii). Connectedness. The approach administered the triangulation technique in order to ensure the credibility and validity of the qualitative data.

Measuring Educational Neuromyths: Lessons for Future Research

ABSTRACTEducational neuromyths are incorrect ideas about the brain and learning. These ideas pose a risk if they impact learner outcomes. The concern about neuromyths has spurred global research, including teacher surveys about their identification. If such research leads to corrective strategies, the potential beneficiaries are teachers, students, and the field of educational neuroscience itself. This research relies on accurate neuromyth measures, and yet the topic of measurement has been largely ignored. In this review, we focus on key measurement issues surrounding the assessment of neuromyths, and we consider measurement improvements. We show that the framing of items, both the fact and neuromyth, must be improved in future research. These changes are vital to realize the potential benefit of educational neuromyth research.

Online Learning, Educational Neuroscience and Knowledge Transformation Opportunities for Secondary Education Students

The improvement of digital technologies and the results of research in the field of distance education have strengthened online learning. Although online learning is seen as an alternative, the COVID-19 pandemic has led the global education community to identify it as the best way to continue the educational process. However, the lack of scientific and empirical knowledge in distance education has led to a version of online education. This version has been identified as emergency remote teaching since it does not share principles or educational planning models of distance education. The article attempts to link research findings from the field of educational neuroscience with the principles of online learning. Ways of active involvement of students are suggested according to educational neuroscience which can facilitate learning and inform teachers concerning their educational practices.

Teachers’ social representations and educational neurosciences: possible links for the Argentine case around the intercultural classroom

The purpose of this article is to introduce a research project in progress that analyzes, from a sociological perspective based in social representations analysis, how discourses on educational neuroscience are articulated with the ways that intercultural relations within the school space are managed. The hypothesis that guides the research suggests that the social representations that members of the educational field construct about the presence and the school performance of children of migrant origin, are influenced by the relevance of the normalizing discourses of the educational neurosciences that are established as new modalities of management, discipline and social control of diversity (migratory) in the school, contributing to the reproduction of exclusion processes. The general objective of the project is to investigate how discourses coming from researches in the field of educational neuroscience, developed from 1990 to the present, influence the social representations of members of primary and secondary schools in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires on migratory diversity. The purpose is to focus on the presence of discourses tending to legitimize stigmatizing pedagogical actions on migrant otherness.

Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Studying Cognitive Development: The Case of Mathematics and Language.

In this review, we aim to highlight the application of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a useful neuroimaging technique for the investigation of cognitive development. We focus on brain activation changes during the development of mathematics and language skills in schoolchildren. We discuss how technical limitations of common neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have resulted in our limited understanding of neural changes during development, while fNIRS would be a suitable and child-friendly method to examine cognitive development. Moreover, this technique enables us to go to schools to collect large samples of data from children in ecologically valid settings. Furthermore, we report findings of fNIRS studies in the fields of mathematics and language, followed by a discussion of the outlook of fNIRS in these fields. We suggest fNIRS as an additional technique to track brain activation changes in the field of educational neuroscience.

Validity, Lasting Outcomes and Fairness of Learner Assessment from the Perspective of Educational Neuroscience

from the standpoint of educational neuroscience are discussed in this article. Learnerassessment performed in any teaching-learning environment should produce valid and lastingoutcomes. The validity of assessment indicates that the results generated represent the learnercharacteristics reliably using any strengths and weaknesses. The lasting feature of assessmententails that the results are associated with learner characteristics rather the environmentalfactors. When learner characteristics are identified in this manner, appropriate measures canbe taken to improve on any weaknesses identified while at the same time relying or stayingmotivated on the strengths. It is imperative that educators make use of the findings from theemerging field of educational neuroscience to design and construct assessment producingvalid and lasting outcomes. In educational neuroscience, how the human brain and relatedstructures engage in learning processes is studied. By incorporating this useful informationinto teaching-learning processes, learners can be put on a path to creating useful, lastingmemories, across disciplinary boundaries, to lead them to higher levels of humandevelopment yielding wisdom and consciousness. When assessments produce valid andlasting outcomes, they essentially become fair for all types of learners including the giftedlearners who demonstrate right cerebral hemisphere oriented visual-spatial characteristics thatinclude higher sensitivities such as emotional sensitivity.

Principles of Curriculum Design and Construction Based on the Concepts of Educational Neuroscience

With the emergence of a wealth of research-based information in the field of educational neuroscience, educators are now able to make more evidence-based decisions in the important area of curriculum design and construction. By viewing from the perspective of educational neuroscience, we can give a more meaningful and lasting purpose of leading to human development with enhanced consciousness or wisdom as the goal of a curriculum. We can better decide on the essential contents of a curriculum that is carried out within a limited time, using the emerging and validating information. Knowledge of educational neuroscience can also be used effectively for instructional design or conveying important messages to learners in the learning support material provided. Further, educators can be better directed in forming appropriate assessment so that learners are prepared for active and deep engagements in the teaching-learning process developing the skills of independence and discovery learning. Educational practitioners, as well as policy-makers, can also promote inclusive practices by directing, designing and constructing a curriculum appropriately especially taking into consideration the characteristics of right cerebral hemispheric oriented visual-spatial or gifted learners. Overall, education professionals can be benefited immensely to take more informed decisions in the process of curriculum design and construction by embracing emerging educational neuroscience principles.

Integration of Teaching Processes and Learning Assessment in the Prefrontal Cortex during a Video Game Teaching-learning Task.

Human teaching is a social interaction that supports reciprocal and dynamical feedback between the teacher and the student. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a region of particular interest due to its demonstrated role in social interaction. In the present study, we evaluated the PFC activity simultaneously in two individuals playing the role of a teacher and student in a video game teaching–learning task. For that, we used two wearable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) devices in order to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive interactions between teachers and students. Fifteen teacher–student pairs in total (N = 30) participated in this study. Each teacher was instructed to teach the video game to their student partner, without speaking. The PFC activity was simultaneously evaluated in both participants using a wearable 16-channel NIRS system during the video game teaching–learning task. Two sessions, each including a triplet of a 30-s teaching–learning task, were performed in order to evaluate changes in PFC activity after advancement of teaching–learning state. Changes in the teachers’ left PFC activity between the first and second session positively correlated with those observed in students (r = 0.694, p = 0.004). Moreover, among teachers, multiple regression analysis revealed a correlation between the left PFC activity and the assessment gap between one’s own teaching and the student’s understanding (β = 0.649, p = 0.009). Activity in the left PFC changed synchronously in both teachers and students after advancement of the teaching–learning state. The left PFC of teachers may be involved in integrating information regarding one’s own teaching process and the student’s learning state. The present observations indicate that simultaneous recording and analysis of brain activity data during teacher–student interactions may be useful in the field of educational neuroscience.

Towards a model of how learners process feedback: A deeper look at learning

It is well known that learners using intelligent learning environments make different use of the feedback provided by the intelligent learning environment and exhibit different patterns of behaviour. Traditional approaches to measuring such behaviour have focused on observational methods, think-aloud protocols, ratings and log data. More recently, the field of educational neuroscience has placed greater emphasis on real-time measures using eye tracking, electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our work fits into the latter vein. Drawing on a literature review from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and education, we describe our Learner Processing of Feedback in Intelligent Learning Environments model of how learners process feedback. We also present findings from a pilot study as a preliminary test of the model. Seventeen learners participated in an experiment using the intelligent learning environment known as Crystal Island. A range of data was collected, including a pre-test measuring prior knowledge, think-alouds, log data, video recordings, biometrics and post-task questionnaires. We discuss these findings and steps forward to further validate the model using physiological measures.

Neuroscience and education: Mind the gap

Although significant advances have been made in our understanding of the neural basis of learning and memory over the past hundred years, the translation of these neuroscientific insights into classroom teaching practice has been very limited. In this review, we discuss the historical development of pedagogy, cognitive psychology, and the neuroscience of learning over the past century, and how these separate disciplines are now combining in the new field of educational neuroscience. We examine the successes and promises of this emerging field, but also discuss the considerable practical and conceptual difficulties that face educational neuroscientists who have to be constantly vigilant to “mind the gap.”

From “Somatic Scandals” to “a Constant Potential for Violence”? The Culture of Dissection, Brain-Based Learning, and the Rewriting/Rewiring of “the Child”

Within educational research across Europe and the US, one of the most rapidly traveling discourses and highly funded pursuits of the moment is brain-based learning (BBL). BBL is an approach to curriculum and pedagogical decision-making that is located within the new field of educational neuroscience. In some strands of BBL research the structure and function of the brain is located causally, as providing the sole and/or most important basis for making decisions about what and how to teach children. This article analyzes the “messy and numberless beginnings” of the hope placed upon neurological foundationalism to provide a solution to the “problem” of differences between students and to the achievement of educational goals. Rather than arguing for or against educational neuroscience, the article moves through five levels to examine the conditions of possibility for subscribing to the brain as a causal organological locus of learning. It maps pertinent historical conditions, including the relationship between technologies of self, histories and cultures of dissection, and arcs of discourse from soul-body to mind-body relations, as well as surveys more recent and pivotal examples of the movement from squeezing to scanning in modern mind-brain relation debates that have redefined “the ideal child.” A range of contemporary fantasies, projections, and contestations of some of the central assumptions within “Western” conceptions of Being that sustain the conditions of possibility for BBL research are outlined. This includes the thorny problem of human-centrism even in those accounts that claim to question scientific materialist approaches to the nature of reality.

Educational neuroscience, constructivism, and the mediation of learning and creativity in the 21st century.

Educational neuroscience, constructivism, and the mediation of learning and creativity in the 21st century.

Effects of problem size and arithmetic operation on brain activation during calculation in children with varying levels of arithmetical fluency

Most studies on mathematics learning in the field of educational neuroscience have focused on the neural correlates of very elementary numerical processing skills in children. Little is known about more complex mathematical skills that are formally taught in school, such as arithmetic. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study investigated how brain activation during single-digit addition and subtraction is modulated by problem size and arithmetic operation in 28 children aged 10-12 years with different levels of arithmetical fluency. Commensurate with adult data, large problems and subtractions activated a fronto-parietal network, including the intraparietal sulci, the latter of which indicates the influence of quantity-based processes during procedural strategy execution. Different from adults, the present findings revealed that particularly the left hippocampus was active during the solution of those problems that are expected to be solved by means of fact retrieval (i.e. small problems and addition), suggesting a specific role of the hippocampus in the early stages of learning arithmetic facts. Children with low levels of arithmetical fluency showed higher activation in the right intraparietal sulcus during the solution of problems with a relatively small problem size, indicating that they continued to rely to a greater extent on quantity-based strategies on those problems that the children with relatively higher arithmetical fluency already retrieved from memory. This might represent a neural correlate of fact retrieval impairments in children with mathematical difficulties.

Multiple Mediation Analysis and the Path Processes between Stress and Learning: A Methodological Contribution to an Emerging Field

Event Abstract Back to Event Multiple Mediation Analysis and the Path Processes between Stress and Learning: A Methodological Contribution to an Emerging Field John Taverniers1, 2*, Joris V. Ruysseveldt1 and Jasper V. Grumbkow1 1 Open University of the Netherlands, Faculty of Psychology, Netherlands 2 Royal Military Academy, Department of Behavioural Sciences, Belgium Many studies in the broad field of behavioral neurosciences depend for their statistical analyses upon basic two-variable relationships. Significant two-variable relationships, however, remain a methodologically necessary though insufficient condition to establish causality. Restricting analyses to bivariate correlations may even restrain the field to identify processes, to gain knowledge, and to refine theoretical paradigms. Moreover, from an advanced scientific point of view it is often even more important to explain via which paths processes such as learning occur. This implies the idea of (multiple) mediation analyses; techniques that go beyond mere description because they establish process identification. Or, as Rosenberg [(1968, p. 63). The logic of survey analysis. New York: Basic Books] already stated: "In the absence of such mediating or intervening mechanisms, one ends up with facts, but with incomplete understanding". The current study balances on the intersection between stress research, behavioral neuroscience, and cognitive psychology (memory and learning), and puts forward a strategy for more sophisticated statistical designs. Via an illustrative example – derived from psychoneuroendocrinological stress research, it subsequently demonstrates how traditional bivariate analyses can be extended through multiple mediation designs that involve asymptotic and resampling strategies. In doing so, the current statistical analysis is the first to provide arithmetic support for the generally accepted thesis in psychoneuroendocrinology that cortisol secretion in itself, rather than subjective strain or the experimental treatment, affects cognitive performance. Given that understanding path processes and methodological sophistication are fundamental to the advancement of any psychological field, the authors sincerely believe that strategies for multiple mediation analyses may contribute to the "emerging" field of educational neuroscience. Conference: EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education, Zurich, Switzerland, 3 Jun - 5 Jun, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Motivation and emotion Citation: Taverniers J, Ruysseveldt JV and Grumbkow JV (2010). Multiple Mediation Analysis and the Path Processes between Stress and Learning: A Methodological Contribution to an Emerging Field. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.11.00021 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 May 2010; Published Online: 28 May 2010. * Correspondence: John Taverniers, Open University of the Netherlands, Faculty of Psychology, Heerlen, Netherlands, john.taverniers@ou.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers John Taverniers Joris V Ruysseveldt Jasper V Grumbkow Google John Taverniers Joris V Ruysseveldt Jasper V Grumbkow Google Scholar John Taverniers Joris V Ruysseveldt Jasper V Grumbkow PubMed John Taverniers Joris V Ruysseveldt Jasper V Grumbkow Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Exciting Times Call for Collaboration

EACH of three respondents to my article found some value in educational neuroscience, and none of them found any factual errors. Our differences are to be found in points of emphasis and degrees of caution. I am grateful for each response and value comments. Robert Sternberg raised excellent points. One was or we are asking right questions in education. I respect his right to question very issues we are raising in education. He has invested much of his career in an important pursuit--understanding, defining, and applying new ways of thinking about intelligence in a less biased and far more practical way. I am always going to support that effort. He's right, too, that intelligence can and should be measured in a much better fashion than it now is. On my top-three list of important priorities, I would certainly include assessment. Sternberg's second issue with brain-based education is there are any educational implications to research but whether [educators] can take such research and derive educational implications. If not, then we have metaphor, but we do really have At least, he continues, not kind of science that prescriptively is going to help us design educational interventions. Because Sternberg believes that it is unclear there are implications of brain research for education, he argues that we would do better to focus lion's share of our attention on many pressing issues that demand immediate solutions. He concludes by suggesting that it may be better to leave the brain issue as one to be dealt with later, in longer term. That kind of thinking I do have a problem with. Brain research isn't going away; it's increasing and will continue to do so. So we educators need better tools to deal with it. The research coming out is no trickle; it's a flood. For educators to ignore research on brain would be like ignoring melting of polar ice caps because we've got to deal with famines and wars first. After all, one could argue, we have research on practical and prescriptive interventions for starvation and war. Yet research on global warming is still fairly new and far from perfect. Nevertheless, I would argue, along with thousands of climate scientists, that global warming evidence is strong enough to allow us to move forward--even though it's unequivocal. Brain research, too, faces many unsolved mysteries. We all acknowledge that we have far to go, but we do know enough to move forward. Sternberg wants unequivocal findings, but we may never have them. Nearly every study, in nearly every discipline, from physics to sociology to nutrition to neuroscience, has been overturned, broadened, narrowed, made irrelevant, dismissed, politicized, or redefined in last 100 years. That's nature of science. In medicine, only a few years ago, it was standard procedure to give many heart patients a stent to help widen passage of blood through arteries. A few years ago, stent implant procedures were considered so solid that Vice President Dick Cheney's heart operation was labeled routine. Now, new evidence suggests that those with stents may live no longer than those who don't get one, but they pay much more and face higher risks. Were original findings about using stents unequivocal? In field of educational neuroscience, there have been countless errors of enthusiasm made in interpretation of research and its development into classroom applications. But unlike mainstream medical profession, which claims to act on unequivocal findings, we are putting thousands of lives in jeopardy every year when we act on findings that are equivocal. I don't worry about those with questions; I worry about those who know all answers. Neuroscientist Teri Jernigan of University of California, San Diego, sees nothing wrong with trying out new ideas, as long as there's no downside risk to them. …