About this Research Topic
Educators are tasked with the ever-increasing demands of providing high-quality, individualized instruction for all types of learners in their classrooms. Educational neuroscience has recently gained importance, but it is imperative that there are researchers and professionals who can understand both cognitive neuroscience research and the challenging, complex contexts of schools.
Teachers have a great desire to better support their students according to the needs and diversity of their classrooms, and many of them think that understanding educational neuroscience can support this process. However, while educators have expressed interest in understanding the neuroscience of learning, they have often had limited opportunities to do so through reputable sources. As a result, endorsement of neuromyths has become an intractable problem.
Despite significant research debunking neuromyths, research has found that they continued to be used. Current thought in the field suggests that the interdisciplinary field of educational research requires a bridge to help each side understand the research of the other and to increase bidirectional conversation. While researchers have continued to report the need for bidirectional communication between education and neuroscience research and knowledge mobilization, little progress has been made in actually engaging in this bidirectional work. Educational psychologists have the potential to bridge the knowledge gap between neuroscience and education, given our training in basic neuroscience, neurobiology, educational psychology, consultation, and academic skill development, making us a “multilingual” resource who can speak the languages of education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. As practitioner-scholars with advanced training in the intersecting fields of education, psychology, and basic neuroscience, educational psychologists are optimally positioned to facilitate the translation of neuroscientific information to practice, including filtering false information and installing a sense of the current limits of the direct implementation of neuroscience in education. In our absence as bridge builders, teachers are independently seeking out information about how neuroscience can inform their practice, and, unfortunately, there are many who are willing to provide them with non-evidence-based information that teachers then use in their classrooms, too often without success.
Through this Research Topic, we aim to answer questions about how educational psychology can actively support the bidirectional research and collaboration that is needed to effectively use cognitive neuroscience findings to inform educational practices. We welcome manuscripts of original research wherein educational psychology research serves to bridge neuroscience and education or in training educators in using educational neuroscience to inform their teaching practices. We also welcome opinion pieces describing ways that educational psychology can more effectively serve as a bridge between neuroscience and education.
Teachers have a great desire to better support their students according to the needs and diversity of their classrooms, and many of them think that understanding educational neuroscience can support this process. However, while educators have expressed interest in understanding the neuroscience of learning, they have often had limited opportunities to do so through reputable sources. As a result, endorsement of neuromyths has become an intractable problem.
Despite significant research debunking neuromyths, research has found that they continued to be used. Current thought in the field suggests that the interdisciplinary field of educational research requires a bridge to help each side understand the research of the other and to increase bidirectional conversation. While researchers have continued to report the need for bidirectional communication between education and neuroscience research and knowledge mobilization, little progress has been made in actually engaging in this bidirectional work. Educational psychologists have the potential to bridge the knowledge gap between neuroscience and education, given our training in basic neuroscience, neurobiology, educational psychology, consultation, and academic skill development, making us a “multilingual” resource who can speak the languages of education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. As practitioner-scholars with advanced training in the intersecting fields of education, psychology, and basic neuroscience, educational psychologists are optimally positioned to facilitate the translation of neuroscientific information to practice, including filtering false information and installing a sense of the current limits of the direct implementation of neuroscience in education. In our absence as bridge builders, teachers are independently seeking out information about how neuroscience can inform their practice, and, unfortunately, there are many who are willing to provide them with non-evidence-based information that teachers then use in their classrooms, too often without success.
Through this Research Topic, we aim to answer questions about how educational psychology can actively support the bidirectional research and collaboration that is needed to effectively use cognitive neuroscience findings to inform educational practices. We welcome manuscripts of original research wherein educational psychology research serves to bridge neuroscience and education or in training educators in using educational neuroscience to inform their teaching practices. We also welcome opinion pieces describing ways that educational psychology can more effectively serve as a bridge between neuroscience and education.
Keywords: Educational Psychology, Neuroscience, Interdisciplinary, Education
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
