EDUCATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE: THE RISE OF A NEW RESEARCH FIELD IN EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Educational neuroscience is an emerging research field aiming to bridge neuroscience’s discoveries with educational research and practice. Our paper aims to explore the short history of this new field, to define its disciplinary boundaries and relations with other domains such as educational psychology or cognitive neuroscience, and to identify its potential contribution to the educational theory and practice. A literature review was conducted including the most relevant international academic papers defining educational neuroscience research field. We found that the majority of relevant papers are no older than two decades, given the domain’s relative infancy. In our analysis, this new discipline seems to be rather a bridge between brain research and educational psychology in a quest for better learning, even if there are some other disciplines such as cognitive sciences, ethics or social psychology that are offering consistent input to a larger educational conversation in this context. Concerning the applied nature of this new scientific field, the authors discussing about the foundations of educational neuroscience mainly consider that it is still too early to talk about this but that there are some important initiatives and predictions to be taken into account. Educational neuroscience seems to be a promising source of evidence to feedback educational practice and shape educational policy in the future to come. Therefore, there is a need to delve further into the heated debate and growing conflict on the identification and acknowledgement of problems in this new research field.