Dear All,
*We are seeking a postdoctoral scientist *to contribute to the UnLoCKE
Project (Understanding Learning of Counterintuitive Concepts through
Knowledge Interference Control in Science and Mathematics Education;
www.unlocke.org) recently funded by the Wellcome Trust and Educational
Endowment Foundation. The postdoctoral scientist will be a member of the
CEN and based in CBCD, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck. The
development of inhibition and control of interference has long been
established as a central limiting factor in cognitive development. Children
have the capacity to make inhibitory responses from infancy, but only
gradually get better at using this ability. A central factor in mathematics
and science education is the need for children to inhibit pre-existing
beliefs or superficial perception in order to engage in acquiring and
applying new and counterintuitive knowledge. In science education, this
“conceptual change” is a formidable obstacle in acquiring knowledge that
goes beyond popular belief or perception. In mathematics, the child needs
to go beyond the perceptually obvious solutions to understand and apply
formal logical solutions to a problem. Children’s ability to inhibit direct
perceptual evidence or pre-existing beliefs in favour of counterintuitive,
but correct, concepts, is thought to contribute to their science and maths
performance. These ideas are being rolled out in a nationwide randomised
control trial involving 6,000 children.
*The current position is linked to a more focussed behavioural and
neuroimaging component of this larger project and will involve leading the
testing and fMRI scanning of primary school aged children.*
*More details can be found at: *
https://tinyurl.com/y83brkgq;
Please forward to anyone you think may be interested in the position.
Best regards,
Denis Mareschal
--
Professor Denis Mareschal
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
School of Psychology
Birkbeck College
University of London
Malet St., London
WC1E 7HX, UK
tel +44 (0)20 7079-0751/7631-6582 reception: 7631-6207
fax +44 (0)20 7631-6312
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/psyc/staff/academic/dmareschal
<http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118725891.html>
Educational Neuroscience Book
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/e/xp/122/1/1/
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