Collaborative Center for Literacy Development

The publishing company Blackwell-Wiley has podcasted an interview with CCLD’s executive director George Hruby on how neuroscience should inform educational research, theory and practice. The podcast is a follow-up to the recent publication of Hruby’s Annual Review paper for the British Journal of Educational Psychology.

Hruby argues that educational neuroscience has suffered through some growing pains, and gives examples of lapses in coherent reasoning, adequate reliance on educational expertise, and sensitivity to ethical concerns in education. Drawing from his own background in reading education, Hruby uses several examples of how neuroscience has been misapplied in reading education and dyslexia advocacy and commercial marketing.

“Given the recent push in the legislature for dyslexia services,” Hruby notes, “it is crucial we use well-focused and limited definitions of disability. Otherwise, we’ll be off on another expensive boondoggle with no demonstrated benefit to students.”

Link for podcast:

http://www.slideshare.net/Wiley-Blackwell/bjep-annual-review-george-hruby

Link for article:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2012.02068.x/full