Brain Development and Education

Abstract

Considerations on the optimization of educational strategies should take into account knowledge on brain development and learning mechanisms that has been accumulated by neurobiological research over the past decades. The vast amount of data precludes a comprehensive overview of potentially relevant aspects here. Therefore, emphasis will be on general aspects of knowledge acquisition and representation. In this context the following questions are of particular importance: First, how knowledge is represented in the brain. Second, whether, at birth, brains already possess knowledge about the world in which they are going to evolve, or whether they should be considered as a freely programmable tabula rasa. Third, whether and how experience and education interfere with brain development. Fourth, to what extent the developing brain has control over the processes that mediate its development and knowledge acquisition. Fifth, whether, and if so, how learning processes in the developing brain differ from those in the mature organism.