Tenacious educational neuromyths: Prevalence among teachers and an intervention

Background

Several studies have revealed a common high prevalence of educational neuromyths among teachers from different countries. However, only one intervention aimed at reducing these beliefs among in-service teachers has been reported to date, and it was conducted in a non-naturalistic setting.

Procedure

In the present study, we administered a survey to measure the prevalence of common neuromyths in a large sample (n = 807) of primary and secondary teachers from 203 schools across Catalonia (Spain), and then we evaluated the impact that a 15-hour online course on neuroscience had on a sample of them as compared to a control group.

Main findings

Results showed an initial distribution of neuromyth beliefs similar to those of previous studies and a large effect of the intervention on reducing their prevalence shortly after the training and in the long term.

Conclusions

These findings provide evidence that an intervention addressed to in-service teachers that is low-cost and easy to implement can cast corrective effects that persist over time in neuromyth beliefs.