How to build an educational neuroscience? Two approaches with concrete instances.
Educational neuroscience is an emerging discipline, but it is not a uniform endeavor. There are different ways for it to make progress. We describe two broad approaches, which we agnostically label Culture A and Culture B. Culture A is currently the more frequent approach. It relies on individual differences to advance the science with a special emphasis on solving the challenges faced by learners with special needs. Culture B is less common. It examines the effects of contextual variables on typical learners to make headway at solving theoretical problems in education and improving general instruction. Both are valuable and both seek to improve education. By describing their differences, along with concrete examples of their logic, findings, and cultures of work, we hope to help both neuroscientists and educators answer a key question about one another’s work, “Why do they find that worth doing?”
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