Thematic Review: Cognitive neuroscience and education: two-way traffic or one-way street?

Abstract

The 1990s were labeled 'the decade of the brain', at least in the USA. While the focus of much of the brain research was medical, driven by the hoped-for but unachieved goal of an effective intervention against dementia, a few educationists and neuroscientists proposed that some of this research on perception, learning and memory might be informative for education. These three books on how educational practice might be informed by cognitive neuroscience are all published in the USA. No publications on this theme have yet to come out of the UK. The common 2002 publication date is indicative of a recent avalanche of books, websites, courses, conferences, email lists and dedicated research centres on education and cognitive neuroscience, again nearly all American in origin, and aimed at classroom teachers rather than academic educationists. Undoubtedly this is another example of trans-Atlantic enthusiasm for new intellectual explorations running years ahead of English reserve.