On May 14, the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted a one day symposium on neuroscience and education: “This day-long symposium, co-sponsored by AAAS and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, exposed the AAAS Fellows, and other attendees, to the emerging field of Educational Neuroscience (also known as Mind Brain and Education or Neuroeducation) and how new research in neuroscience and psychology can make a difference in how we teach and learn. Neuroscience and its relationship to policy has also been a popular topic in the media recently, as seen by the multiple articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, Science, etc. following President Obama’s announcement of the BRAIN Initiative.”

The keynote presentation was given by Mariale Hardimanand speakers included Laura-Ann Petitto, Guinevere Eden, Brett Miller, Laurie Cutting, Robert Slavin, and Layne Kalbfleisch.

The program for the symposium can be found here, and materials from the symposium, including videos and slide presentations, can be found here.

CEN researchers Iroise Dumontheil and Michael Thomas are part of a team which this week launched a study to investigate the effects of mobile phone use in teenagers. The study, led by Imperial College, was commissioned by the Department of Health and funded by Government and industry. It will will investigate whether mobile phones and wireless technologies affect children’s cognitive development. The study will track 2,500 11- and 12-year-olds from September, examining their cognitive ability – thinking skills, memory and attention – and then repeat the tests in 2017. See here for BBC coverage of the study launch.

Professor Dorothy Bishop at the University of Oxford writes a much-followed blog on psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Recently she wrote about her scepticism with respect to claims made for educational neuroscience. See her blog here. Read the comments underneath her blog for responses from researchers working within educational neuroscience, including among others Daniel Ansari, Chloe Marshall, and Michael Thomas, as well as psychologists such as Frank Ramus, and authors who have written on education such as Daniel Willingham.

Here is the cartoon Dorothy used to accompany her piece!

Postgraduate students in educational neuroscience studying at Bristol have set up a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/neuroed.postgrad