Neuroscience, Education and Social Policy
13/03/07 ISS, The University of Nottingham
Recent findings and ideas in the brain sciences are starting to influence public policy, professional practice and popular ideas about child and adolescent development in a number of important areas. These are informing debates about childrearing, education and anti-social behaviour, and are drawing on the notion that the developing brain is much more malleable than had previously been thought. In particular, research on brain plasticity and epigenetics is starting to illuminate how brain structure, connectivity and gene expression are shaped in fundamental ways by social and environmental factors.
In the field of education, neuroscience research is shedding new light on some of the neural processes involved in learning how to read and write, as well as the deficits that underlie dyslexia and a number of learning disorders. However, relatively little of this research has been validated in the classroom or translated into evidence-based policy and practice. Despite this, a large number of ‘brain-based' learning products are being actively marketed to teachers, and a number of schools are starting to include these in their curriculum. This has raised concern in the scientific community about the prevalence of a number of common ‘neuromyths' about education that are not supported by solid scientific research.
In the broader area of child development over the last decade, there have been a number of important government initiatives, such as Sure Start, that aim to provide better outcomes for children and parents by increasing the availability of childcare for all children and improving health and emotional development for young children. More recently, the Prime Minister expressed his support for the further development of similar initiatives based on so-called ‘early intervention', such as Nurse Family Partnerships. Evidence from longitudinal US studies suggests that very early preventative intervention in childrearing targeted at the most vulnerable families can be effective in improving long term health and educational attainment, and decreasing behavioural problems. A large scale pilot project of this sort is currently being established by the Department of Health. Moreover, the neuroscientific basis for child outcomes is now being actively explored and is helping to shed light on key developmental processes and the importance of family interaction in the early years. In addition, new ideas about child rearing that claim to be based on neuroscience and stress the key role of processes such as attachment are being popularised in magazines and books such as ‘Why Love Matters'.
This seminar aims to explore the way in which neuroscientific ideas are influencing and framing policy, professional practice and public understanding in the broad area of education, childcare and social policy. In particular, it will address a number of key questions:
• In the field of education, what does neuroscience tell us about learning that we don't already know from established educational research? What might it tell us in the future? What standard of evidence should be used and how should knowledge be transferred from research into practice? Do we need to regulate commercial learning products that claim to be based on scientific evidence? What impact are these developments having on how teachers, parents and children think about education?
• With respect to ‘early intervention' how is neuroscience research changing ideas about normal and abnormal child development? To what extent are these shifts influencing government policy, professional work and how parents bring up their children?
• More generally, what should the role of the state be in promoting science-based social policy interventions aimed at improving the development of particular groups of children? How can consent be ensured and coercion avoided? How should the use of neuroscientific ideas, evidence and technologies be governed?
This seminar aims to bring together leading researchers from the biological sciences, education, child development, social and public policy, law and sociology to explore the role of science in social policy.
Speakers :
Professor Jay Belsky (Professor of Psychology and Director of Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Birkbeck College University of London )
Professor John Geake (Professor of Education at the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University )
Professor Tomas Paus ( Professor of Psychology and Mental Health and Director of the Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham )
The meeting will be introduced by Dr Paul Martin (ISS) and Professor Nikolas Rose (BIOS)