“Educational neuroscience, neurotechnology, and the translation of ‘learning brains’ Ben Williamson

“Educational neuroscience, neurotechnology, and the translation of ‘learning brains’ into policy and practice”. Webinar presented by Dr Ben Williamson Ben Williamson is a senior lecturer and co-director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and an editor of the journal Learning, Media and Technology. He recently completed a research project investigating the emergence of the “bio-edu-data sciences,” funded by the Leverhulme Trust. “Educational neuroscience has become an increasingly authoritative source of knowledge in education. In this presentation I offer insights from the social sciences into how scientific knowledge about the “learning brain” is translated into ideas and proposals for education policy and teaching. Based on a project studying the growing influence of the genetic and brain sciences in education, I unpack two sets of translations: First, how the different ways scientists translate digital data collected using “neurotechnology” create different kinds of insights into the ‘learning brain’. This analysis shows how scientific and technical “set-ups” of research, together with the social and political concerns of education, are mediating factors that shape how scientists explain the learning brain and what kinds of policy problems and priorities are addressed with neuroscience”. .