March 2014 – Educational Neuroscience

Workshop on Educational Neuroscience

In March 2014, the CEN held a 1-day workshop on current research in educational neuroscience, aimed primarily at PhD students working in education, psychology, neuroscience, and related areas.

This workshop brought together researchers from the leading UK laboratories working in educational neuroscience in London, Cambridge, and Oxford, to discuss current issues and recent findings in the field. It included a poster session during lunch, and a number of interactive sessions to engage in discussion with the speakers.

Workshop Program

Friday 14th March 2014, Clore Centre, Birkbeck College London

9.45 – 10.15am: Registration and Coffee

10.15am Introduction – Prof. Michael Thomas (Director, CEN). Presentation slides: Introduction 

Session 1:  Mathematics (Chair:   Dr. Chris Donlan, UCL)

10.30am – Chung Looi, University of Oxford: Modulating neuroplasticity to enhance maths learning and cognition: From Lab to School

11.00am  – Amy Devine, University of Cambridge: Testing theories of developmental dyscalculia. Presentation slides: Devine_dyscalculia

11.30am – Discussion

Session 2:  Literacy and Science (Chair:   Dr. Mairéad MacSweeney, UCL)

11.45am – Dr. Chloe Marshall, Institute of Education: “If reading science is so advanced, why do so many people read so poorly?” Presentation slides: Marshall_literacy

12.15pm  – Prof. Denis Mareschal, Birkbeck College London: The neuroscience of science education. Presentation slides: Mareschal_science

12.45pm – Discussion

1pm-2pm LUNCH: Lunch will be provided to enable participation in PhD poster session.

Session 3:  Intervention (Chair:   Prof. Denis Mareschal)

2pm Prof. Michael Thomas, Birkbeck College London: Intervening to alleviate lexical retrieval difficulties in children – challenges of research within an educational neuroscience framework. Presentation slides: Thomas_WFD_intervention

2.30pm Dr. Iroise Dumontheil, Birkbeck College London: Working memory interventions – the added value of a neuroscience perspective. Presentation slides: Dumontheil_WM_intervention

3pm – Panel Discussion. Presentation slides: Discussion

4pm – Close

Posters:

  • Germaine Symons (Birkbeck College): “Source reliability in the development of children’s understanding of causal systems.”
  • Xiaofei Qi, Jacqueline Barnes & Edward Melhuish (Birkbeck College): “The relevance of preschool experiences for cognitive development at school entry in rural China”
  • Jaime Balladares (Institute of Education): “Comparison of reading predictors in young Chilean children from low, mid and high socioeconomic status”
  • Kathryn Mason (UCL): “An Executive Function Intervention With Deaf Children”
  • Anna Fedor (Birkbeck College), Wendy Best (UCL), Jackie Masterson (Institute of Education) & Michael S. C. Thomas (Birkbeck College): “When do behavioural interventions work and why? Towards identifying principles for clinical intervention in developmental language disorders from a neurocomputational perspective”