The Lure of the Neuromyth

By Carla Aerts, Tmrw Digital

Harking to neuroscience is very enticing for EdTech and teaching. After all, the brain holds a spell and magic as the seat of learning. But, let’s not be fooled. Neuroscience is still in its infancy and whilst we may have about 100 years of research on how the brain learns; we still know very little about how to best translate that to teaching, never mind to EdTech. Our knowledge of the brain may increase rapidly; it remains extremely limited.

Some EdTech can claim evidence-based reliance on high quality brain research and knowledge, unfortunately this is still quite rare. Things are not helped by the proliferation of the neuromyth[1], often highly compelling to support teaching and EdTech and relied on to inform EdTech development or teaching practice. Neuromyths can relate to the brain structure, intelligence, learning environments, human development, brain plasticity to name but a few, and they often appear to have a credible foundation.

Examples of neuromyths include the idea of the left-brain vs the right-brain, analysis or logical argument vs creativity. This myth stems from studies of the hemispheres and perhaps our penchant for dualistic thinking may perpetuate it. The highly popular learning styles; still too often relied on for the development of personalised learning approaches or some adaptive EdTech products and very often referred to by teachers, is another such myth that appears to be rather sticky when it comes to teaching and EdTech.

Learning Styles have not been evidenced, relying on self-reporting and a variety of frameworks advocating numbers of learning styles from four to well above 100. This already tells its own story. More to the point, and this is supported by research, teaching to a learning style or using the concept in an EdTech product, is proving not to serve learning at all. Learners should learn and be taught in different modalities, not a preferred learning style… They are after all, a neuromyth.

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[1] Neuromyth, a common yet false belief about how mind and brain function. Term was first coined by OECD in 2007, in a report on Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science.