Resources on the Brain and Education

Neuroscience for Kids

This home page has been created for all students and teachers who would like to learn more about the nervous system. Enjoy the activities and experiments on your way to learning more about the brain and spinal cord.

John Bruuer, president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation of St. Louis. Brain research is fascinating, he says, and eventually may have applications for education, but as of now, it "has little to offer teachers in terms of informing classroom practice." He explains his thinking in this article, In Search of ...Brain-Based Education.

When surveying the spectrum from pop psych to neurology in works addressed to general readers, one is struck by how few major figures there have been - certainly when cognitive neuro is compared to a far smaller field (1), evolutionary biology, where real literary talents like Loren Eiseley once flourished, where "media dons" like Richard Dawkins regularly clarify our thinking, where there are sustained efforts like those of Stephen Jay Gould (fifteen major essays a year, plus scholarly books, spanning three decades) which have influenced millions to read more. Many writers in the cognitive spectrum have occasionally written an influential book or two, but few could fill the largest available campus auditorium on name recognition alone, even without announcing a topic for the lecture - or have their name be the answer to a column in a crossword puzzle.

I don't have any answers for why this is so (though I'll presently quote Jacob Bronowski on the subject), but all those empty niches
certainly indicate an opportunity for anyone hoping to contribute to the popularization of cognitive neuro. A niche, in ecology, is all that
a species needs to function: the right food, climate, protection from predators, nesting sites, migration routes, and so forth. An empty
niche is a proven niche going unused. I argue that the popularization successes in an adjacent field, evolutionary biology, suggest that a
similar niche is there for popularizing cognitive neuro. I will name these empty niches for suitable role models elsewhere ("The Lewis
Thomas Niche").

How Can Research on the Brain Inform Education?  

In recent years educators have explored links between classroom teaching and emerging theories about how people learn. Exciting
discoveries in neuroscience and continued developments in cognitive psychology have presented new ways of thinking about the
brain works have used metaphors that vary from the computer (an information processor, creating, storing, and manipulating data) to a
jungle (a somewhat chaotic, layered world of interwoven, interdependent neurological connections).

Scientists caution that the brain is complex and, while research has revealed some significant findings, there is no widespread agreement about their applicability to the general population or to education in particular. Nevertheless, brain research provides rich possibilities for education and reports of studies from this field have become popular topics in some educational journals. Enterprising organizations are translating these findings into professional development workshops and instructional programs to help teachers apply lessons from the research to classroom settings.

JSMF primarily funds biomedical and behavioral sciences research and related educational innovations. This web site contains program information, application guidelines, a listing of the most recent grants and awards made by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and the financial reports for the year ending December 31, 1996. This web is designed to facilitate JSMF's communications with advisors, grantees, and potential grantees.

The Brain Based Network is an outgrowth of the Integrated Thematic Instruction Programs. The Network will serve as a method of follow up to enable classroom teachers, parents and administrators to build capacity to improve instruction based on the latest brain research.

This site provides a practical link between current psychological research and education.

New brain-imaging technology is giving us incredible insights into how the brain processes information and stores it. Instructional methods can become more effective using this new information and insights into memory systems, brain down-shifting, classroom environmental effects, and learning styles.

The ideas and methods here reflect the teaching experiences and current research efforts of Gene Van Tassell and Kathie Nunley of Salt Lake City, Utah.

A virtual learning community supporting an expanded view of learning.

Research has been conducted to determine the value of providing activities or strategies to assist in providing students with ways to activate their prior knowledge base. Studies looked at three possibilities: (1) building readers' background knowledge; (2) activating readers' existing background knowledge and attention focusing BEFORE reading; and (3) guiding readers DURING reading and providing review AFTER reading.

It appears that when readers lack the prior knowledge necessary to read, three major instructional interventions need to be considered: (1) teach vocabulary as a prereading step; (2) provide experiences; and (3) introduce a conceptual framework that will enable students to build appropriate background for themselves.