Paul A. Howard Jones in ”Neuroscience and Education: Myths and Messages” describes the neuromyths that have leaked into teacher education schools and the teaching corps.. (Neuromyth: “a misconception generated by a misunderstanding, a misreading or a misquoting of facts scientifically established [by brain research] to make a case for use of brain research in education and other contexts.”) Dr. Howard further describes neuromyths as stemming from “uninformed interpretations of genuine scientific facts [that] are promoted by victims of their own wishful thinking.”
The paper gets pretty technical, but relevant here is the prevalence of neuromyths among teachers. The paper includes a chart of the percentage of teachers from the U.K., the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, and China who believe in these misconceptions of the way students learn. It’s a pretty fair guess that these that many U.S. teachers, as well as much of the public, fall for these myths too.
Here’s a few education neuromyths:
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You left out a big one:
The typical 'plastic' brain, whose synaptic networks are constantly adapting to accommodate anticipated workload, can SIMULTANEOUSLY become more effective at both critical thinking (i.e., slow, content-rich reading followed by contemplative and complex thought) and hyper-digital activity (i.e., bombardment with many relatively shallow messages of uncertain quality delivered over multiple media).
Oh, by the way, this neuromyth---our students can have it all, simultaneously---underpins the CCSS.
Well, the researchers left out a big one. I was just listing their findings. But well-played, sir.
Recommended reading: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr