Teaching how to learn to reduce educational inequality

This is the title of Grégoire Borst's panel presentation for the webinar

Strengthening educational foundations: Implications of neuroscience research for curriculum, education, and learning

You can follow the webinar on Zoom, 17 May 2022 (4:00-5:45 PM CET Geneva) after registering here :

Pannel Abstracts

From reinforcement learning to theory of mind: Developing a mechanistic understanding in children and adults

Jean-Claude Dreher, Research director, CNRS, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Lyon

Learning by trial and error and learning from social interactions have important implications for education and learning in general, outside of the classroom. There are multiple brain systems to detect one’s errors and to correct them, either when learning by oneself or via social interactions. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the way Reinforcement Learning - an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment to maximize cumulative rewards in the future- has been used in Decision Neuroscience/ Neuroeconomics to investigate associative learning and social learning using a mechanistic (computational) approach. I will also present recent results from my lab using Reinforcement Learning and other types of computational models to account for Theory of Mind (ToM) in children and adults.

Preschool education to promote brain can cognitive development

Marcela Peña, Pontificia Universidad Católica de chile

Infant and young children care recommendations and preschool education offer a unique opportunity to promote later development. Not only because they improve the opportunities to learn but also because they shape the brain, which is rapidly developing to build foundational skills for future learning. It is known that the early steps of the brain and cognitive development depends on diverse factors such as genes, nutrition, sleep or exposure to stimuli. However, new approaches focused on training social interactions, playing with interactive technologies, applying rhythmic stimulation are some promising initiatives aimed at improving school readiness, and academic achievement from primary school. Indeed, some brain data indicate that practices like those can benefit learning, particularly in children who rise up in poverty or deprived environment. Infants and young children are amazing learners and parents, educators and other caregivers are called to provide high quality conditions to promote their healthy and successful development.

Teaching how to learn to reduce educational inequality

Grégoire Borst, Professeur de psychologie du développement et de neurosciences cognitives de l'éducation (Université de Paris)

Directeur du Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l'éducation de l'enfant (LaPsyDÉ - CNRS)

The sciences of learning including neurosciences have made tremendous progress in understanding the laws of the learning brain. While such laws do not dictate the content of the curricula they provide critical information on how to adapt pedagogical resources to allow all students to learn more efficiently with the promise of reducing educational inequality. Thus, teachers need to be familiarized with the laws of the learning brain but it is critical that students as well as parents have a better understanding of how the brain learn in the classroom and outside of the classroom. I will present a series of data from studies conducted in my lab in which we tested various intervention aiming at fostering domain general abilities involved in learning ,such as cognitive control and metacognitive strategies.