Education And The Brain: A Bridge Too Far By John Bruer Critical Analysis

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In the article Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far by John Bruer, the author argues that neuroscience has little to offer teacher in terms of informing classroom practice (Bruer, 1997). Bruer believes that teachers are better off applying existing practices of cognitive science in the classroom than speculative applications of neuroscience (Bruer, 1997).
According to Bruer, educators have become increasingly interested in neuroscientific claims and how it can guide educational practice (Bruer, 1997). In this article, Bruer examines these claims, which he calls the neuroscience and education argument (Bruer, 1997). Bruer claims that the argument fails because its advocates are trying to build a bridge to far (Bruer, 1997). As Bruer …show more content…

The more established first bridge is between education and cognitive psychology and the second bridge between cognitive psychology and neuroscience (Bruer, 1997). The bridge between education and cognitive psychology is already helping to solve educational problems and design instructional tools (Bruer, 1997). Bridge number two is also fundamental to our understanding of how neural structures support and implement cognition functions (Bruer, 1997).
Conclusively, Bruer stresses that educators should be wary of claims derived from the neuroscience and education argument and focus on what behavioral science already tells us about teaching, learning and cognitive development (Bruer, 1997). There should be an attempt to build an interactive, recursive relationship among research programs in education, cognitive psychology, and systems neuroscience, which will allow us to extend and apply our understanding of how mind and brain support learning (Bruer, …show more content…

In order to understand how students learn, it is imperative to understand the neuroscientifc implications involved in the learning process. According to biochemist and teacher James Zull, learning produces physical changes in the brain (Zull, 2004). Unlike previously thought, the brain changes its own wiring continuously throughout life, reshaped and molded by our experiences (Zull, 2004). In fact, a recent neuroscientific study has demonstrated change in the human brain generated by learning (Zull, 2004). Many educators might ask what causes these changes in the brain when we learn. Well, the answer is practice and emotions (Zull, 2004). In order to understand how practice and emotions play a significant role in the learning process, we must understand the neuroscientific basis for both. For example, thanks to neuroscience, we know that the positive emotions in learning are generated in the parts of the brain that are used most heavily when students develop their own ideas (Zull,

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