Tenacious educational neuromyths: Prevalence among teachers and an intervention.
Trends Neurosci Educ 2022;
29:100192. [PMID:
36470620 DOI:
10.1016/j.tine.2022.100192]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Several studies have revealed a common high prevalence of educational neuromyths among teachers from different countries. However, only one intervention aimed at reducing these beliefs among in-service teachers has been reported to date, and it was conducted in a non-naturalistic setting.
PROCEDURE
In the present study, we administered a survey to measure the prevalence of common neuromyths in a large sample (n = 807) of primary and secondary teachers from 203 schools across Catalonia (Spain), and then we evaluated the impact that a 15-hour online course on neuroscience had on a sample of them as compared to a control group.
MAIN FINDINGS
Results showed an initial distribution of neuromyth beliefs similar to those of previous studies and a large effect of the intervention on reducing their prevalence shortly after the training and in the long term.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings provide evidence that an intervention addressed to in-service teachers that is low-cost and easy to implement can cast corrective effects that persist over time in neuromyth beliefs.
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