To understand the relevance of cognitive psychology, students in a cognitive psychology course were required to complete a detailed plan for a public service announcement focusing on environmental issues. The final exam was a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation incorporating at least eight concepts from the course. Students in the course…

Cognitive neuroscience aims to improve our understanding of aspects of human learning and performance by combining data acquired with the new brain imaging technologies with data acquired in cognitive psychology paradigms. Both neuroscience and psychology use the philosophical assumptions underpinning the natural sciences, namely the scientific…

Many educationally significant, even profound, brain-based discoveries have occurred in recent years, such as that of neurogenesis, the production of new neurons in the human brain. It is highly likely that these discoveries would have been ignored if the education profession hadn't been primed, alerted, and actively monitoring cognitive…

It is often argued that neuroscience can be expected to provide insights of significance for education. Advocates of this view are sometimes committed to "brainism", the view (a) that an individual's mental life is constituted by states, events and processes in her brain, and (b) that psychological attributes may legitimately be ascribed to the…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Making Schools Safer for LGBT Youth: Despite Signs of Progress, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students Say Harassment Persists (Michael Sadowski);…