Neuroeducation: learning based on neurosciences

In biology and neuropsychology laboratories it is possible to investigate the way in which basic mental processes work: the memory, decision making, discrimination between different stimuli, etc.

All these psychological functions tell us about the way in which our brain adapts to the environment and allows us to learn from our experiences. But... What if the way our brain learns was investigated beyond the laboratories? This is what neuroeducation is.

What is neuroeducation?

Neuroeducation is, in short, a bridge discipline between neurology and educational sciences, in which the educational psychology has a key role.

It is a scientific development project in which they want to combine the knowledge that we have about how the brain works with what is known about educational processes about the land. Usually, the area in which neuroeducation focuses is education in school and academic settings.

The learning brain

The foundation of neuroeducation is a concept called brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to physically change to adapt to stimuli and habits in a useful way for the individual. Every time we consolidate a form of learning, it leaves an imprint on the way in which neurons in the brain connect to each other.

Neuroeducation serves to examine the traces that educational processes leave in our brain and draws relationships between this data and the way in which the individual behaves. In this way, the learning process is studied from the behavioral aspect and from the one that corresponds to neurobiology.

Learning and emotion in neuroeducation

One of the great discoveries that has been made through neuroeducation is that learning and emotion are not two separate worlds. We do not learn by coldly storing data like a robot would, but memories and emotion go hand in hand in our nervous system. In this way, the significant learning it becomes a fundamental aspect in education, since it links important data with sensations and feelings related to pleasure that make us internalize them earlier.

In this way, neuroeducation emphasizes the need to use an emotional approach both in the classroom and in any context of education in informal contexts in which we learn: family environment, workshops, work groups, sports teams, etc.

Ultimately, the engine of learning is curiosity, something deeply emotional and linked to subjective concerns.

Neuroeducation and care

Another of the main psychological aspects that are studied from neuroeducation are attentional times, that is, the periods for which a person can focus attention on an information channel without being distracted or fatigued.

The maximum time that most people can focus on a task is considered to be 40 to 45 minutes. Therefore, the master classes that exceed this limit of minutes (most of them, incidentally) are not very efficient, since several minutes are wasted.

Attention problems, linked to disorders such as ADHD, are also very relevant, since they affect many people and that, with relatively simple strategies, this part of the population could be helped to use its potential correctly by directing it towards educational goals, especially during childhood (which is a key life stage in the psychological).

Thus, neuroeducation must also respond to people with certain diagnoses that reflect difficulties when it comes to learning certain skills, and attention problems are one of those fronts of battle.

The future development of this area

As a bridge discipline, neuroeducation still has a long way to go, as well as new discoveries can be made from the neurosciences and educational sciences.

In addition, it is not always easy to combine the knowledge that is reached by both routes, so the Progress that can be made through neuroeducation is not always agile or easy to perform. That is why it is considered that the potential of neuroeducation is yet to be exploited.

On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the cultural and social context always has an impact about the way we talk and the content we memorize and integrate into our vision of the world. That means that to research on learning you can't give up analyzing the environment and the way we relate to it.

As a consequence, neuroeducation cannot concentrate its efforts solely on purely biological elements, but must take into account consideration also how the economy influences us, the type of people with whom we interact, the cultural and ideological elements that result dominant, etc.