Are people confusing brain science with cognitive science?
I’ve heard teachers, for instance, talk about Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences as if it is neurologically-based. JB: Yes, there is that confusion. It’s true, for instance, that Gardner’s first insights came out of his experiences at a neurological clinic, where he saw that patients had “intelligences” that were fully intact even when they had significant kinds of brain damage. But in no way and I think Howard would agree with this is his theory of Multiple Intelligences a brain-based theory at all. The problem is that there is now this huge cottage industry of brain-based education. It consists of a mixture of very basic but quite dated results from cognitive science and experimental psychology mixed in with really bad brain science. Too many consultants are now putting together what they know about the brain with what they learned at education graduate school into a kind of plausible story they pass onto teachers. Consequently, I’ll talk to teachers about what a study
