Neuroedumyhts: A Contribution from Socioneuroscience to the Right to Education for All

Abstract

Scientific literature about neuromyths has proliferated in the last few years. However, there is a gap of knowledge around neuroedumyths. While neuromyths are based on hoaxes about the brain, neuroedumyths use neuroscientific concepts but state consequences for education that are false. This article presents, for the first time, research about neuroedumyths among teachers. This study has applied the innovative methodology of Public Lectures’ Debates Analytics (PLDA), in its ex-post modality. This has meant the analysis, by the twelve participants interviewed in this research, of the conclusions of public lectures’ debates on neuroscience and education. The results show the presence of four neuroedumyths among teachers: The brain needs to be bored to develop; Violence resides in masculine genes; Brain develops almost completely the first three years of life; and There are right-hemisphere students and left-hemisphere students. While neuromyths have been spread among teachers by trainers specialized in education but lacking scientific information about neuroscience, neuroedumyths have been spread among teachers by neuroscientists lacking scientific information on education. Differently to some previous studies which approached this problem as teachers’ errors or ignorance, the results of our study show that the problem is the errors of some teachers’ trainers.