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Educational Neuroscience and Physics Teaching and Learning

Educational neuroscience is a new interdisciplinary research field, where traditional methods of educational research are combined with neuroscience techniques. Neuroimaging methods, such as electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), provide tools for the measurement of the brain activity of participants while they are performing a task relevant to education. Neuroscience research offers an important insight into the brain development and function. Many studies are focused on developmental disorders, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. On the other hand, there is a wide research area on basic learning mechanisms of normally developing children and adults. Two illustrative examples of neuroimaging studies, relevant for physics teaching and learning, will be presented. In one study, fMRI was used to determine what changes occur in the brain as the result of learning Newtonian mechanics. Different patterns of brain activation were found for the physics students and non-physics students, which provided evidence for the effects of education on the brain. Furthermore, the data indicated that the physics students inhibited their naïve thinking theory while activating Newtonian knowledge. In the second study, EEG was employed to explore proportional reasoning in adults. Proportional reasoning is an important logical skill required in physics problem solving. The results suggested that higher frequency oscillations in frontal and parietal regions are particularly important for proportional reasoning. Repeated performance of the task led to the change in brain activity pattern, suggesting that repetition led to a more automatic task performance. Despite intriguing results from educational neuroscience, it is still not clear how to translate neuroscience research into educational practice. For sure, it is important to introduce the teaching of new findings from educational neuroscience into teacher training. On the other hand, researchers, who are typically isolated from the classroom realities, should communicate more with teachers during planning and conducting new studies. Overall, educational neuroscience is a very promising research area, in which collaboration between teachers and neuroscientists will be essential.

Educational neuroscience; Neuroimaging methods; Newtonian mechanics; Proportional reasoning; Learning effects on the brain activity

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