EDST 138: Neuroscience and Education: Foundations, Development, and Applications

The field of neuroscience can deliver a biological level of description to better understand how students learn. It can offer an alternative perspective on learning principles, skill development, and learning differences including their underlying etiologies. However, the role of this body of knowledge for developing pedagogical principles, interventions, or public policy, has been debated. Furthermore, this knowledge is often translated into educational contexts, inefficaciously leading to overgeneralizations, myths, and ineffective practices harming students. In this course, students will be introduced to the brain’s structure and function, how the it brain changes over time, and the methods used to study the brain and its development and plasticity. Students will further identify and dispel common brain myths in educational contexts and learn to evaluate scientific evidence and approaches related to brain development and ‘brain training’ programs. Students will then learn about specific domains of development critical in educational contexts, including the acquisition of language, reading and math skills, attention, emotions, social interactions, and how environmental factors can alter developmental trajectories. Students will review both the typical developmental pattern experienced by most children and specific developmental differences and disabilities relevant in educational contexts. The course has a strong translational component and includes specific practical applications of the course content to challenges and demands in educational contexts and policy, which is reflected in the assessments. Class activities will consist of both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities led by the instructor.