Brain-Based Ed. Debate Rages in '84

Translating scientific research into practice is controversial business. Proponents of brain-based education are at the intersection of biology and educational practice, and they have frequently navigated this tricky terrain with a strong focus on extrapolating reliable teaching methods from sometimes esoteric scientific findings.

A fascinating exchange between education specialist Richard McQueen and biophysics professor Herman Epstein over brain growth in the February 1984 issue of Educational Leadership reveals the devil in the details. 

Read the articles:

Spurts and Plateaus in Brain Growth: A Critique of the Claims of Herman Epstein (PDF)

Brain Growth and Cognitive Development: A Response to Richard McQueen (PDF)

Central to McQueen and Epstein's exchange is the notion that a child's brain size grows in spurts that coincide with cognitive development. McQueen and others accuse Epstein of making the unwarranted claim that students can learn new skills only during periods of brain growth, with the implications for educators being that they should teach new material only at age-based times of growth and merely reinforce learning during interim periods. Epstein counters that brain growth and mental growth are demonstrably linked but the implications of the connection are nuanced.

More than 20 years later, brain-based education has gained much traction and grown more sophisticated.

Does this early disagreement have any relevance today? What new controversies exist in the field?

Comments

[Dick McQueen]

I'm here at yahoo or by mail or phone if anyone wants to discuss this. It's been 25 yrs since i've had any substantive communication on the subject (except recently with Kurt Fischer) so I'm quite rusty on the details (which hardly matter any more). I do have some additional general thoughts on the subject including personal opinions, though I will not be adding any personal characterizations of Professor Epstein as his recent obituary makes clear he was respected, loved and well intentioned. His, my and others' published and other public words can now speak for themselves on this aspect. My draft monograph cited in Ed Leadership article is a more complete treatment of my reasons, methods, findings, conclusions and opinions at that time, available at Wilson Institute, or I might xerox some requested material from the monograph on specific matters.

Now retired 10 yrs, and spending much of my time recently with toddler grandchildren and on politics, I also find similar such problems in education and other research about which I read, and in many other aspects of life.

Dick McQueen Box 264, Brightwood, OR 97011, 503.622.0162 or 503.666.6630 or

[Jim]

I just recently saw a presentation at the Ohio E-tech conference about a program from the Scientific Learning Company that supported that the brain is "moldable" throughout life. I realize that they are trying to push their product, but their presentation and results were pretty convincing. Has anyone used their program?