Blind spots in MBE: The need for theories of thinking and learning
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1
Harvard Graduate School of Education, ISB, United States
Forging any new interdisciplinary field is difficult, as Varma and colleagues note [1], because it involves merging not just intellectual disciplines, but professional communities. Recently, a great deal of attention has been paid to integrating the mind, brain and education communities, yet less to the kinds of theories of thinking and learning that can motivate MBE research and engage educators’ concerns. Merging disciplines, not just communities, involves conceptualizing the intellectual common ground from which core questions grow. I aim to illuminate and fill two blind spots in MBE. First, I will argue that the field has not specified cognitive theories that can adequately guide research programs of educators’ concerns. For the field to grow, the heart of MBE must be an intellectual examination of core cognitive theories of thinking and learning. Second, I will present a framework that identifies common ground in MBE. The framework I propose posits three kinds of building blocks that incorporate central constructs from each discipline. I suggest that MBE research will be enriched when existing knowledge of neural processes and cognitive theories are used to examine educators’ questions and concerns. Elucidating these will allow for conceptual flexibility in designing specific research programs that combine the core knowledge of each discipline. Many in the field have made broad calls for bidirectional inquiry, but few have pushed forward specific neurocognitive research questions. To this end, I use a case study of dyslexia to examine how bringing concepts from all three MBE disciplines will advance the study of reading and reading disorder.
References
1. Varma, S, McCandliss, B.D. & Schwartz, D.L. (2008). Scientific and pragmatic challenges for bridging education and neuroscience. Educational Researcher, 37(3), 140-152.
Conference:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education, Zurich, Switzerland, 3 Jun - 5 Jun, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Perspectives on educational neuroscience
Citation:
Cerruti
C
(2010). Blind spots in MBE: The need for theories of thinking and learning.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.11.00014
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Received:
28 May 2010;
Published Online:
28 May 2010.
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Correspondence:
Carlo Cerruti, Harvard Graduate School of Education, ISB, Paris, United States, carlo_cerruti@mail.harvard.edu