Editorial Special Topic: Neuroscience, Learning, and Educational Practice—Challenges, Promises, and Applications

Abstract

There is growing interest in the contributions of neuroscience to educational practice; however, to date, neuroscience seems to have had little impact on education. Nonetheless, neuroscience has potential value for education on several fronts, as illustrated by the articles in this Special Topic. These articles provide excellent examples for how neuroscientific approaches can complement behavioral work, and they demonstrate how understanding the neural level can help researchers develop richer models of learning and development. These articles further show that, ideally, research efforts in neuroscience and education should be reciprocal. Specifically, education should encourage psychology and neuroscience to develop learning theories that are relevant in the real world and further improve our understanding of how specific instructional practices affect learning and achievement; in turn, psychology and neuroscience can provide insights into underlying neural and cognitive mechanisms of learning, with the overall goal to maximize human potential and learning for all.