HERC presented at Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 14 July 2012

The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) is Europe’s largest, general science meeting and is held in a leading Europe city every two years. ESOF 2012 was hosted in Dublin from July 11th-15th, 2012.

ESOF is an interdisciplinary, pan-European meeting, held under the auspices of Euroscience, which aims to:
- Showcase the latest advances in science and technology;
- Promote a dialogue on the role of science and technology in society and public policy;
- Stimulate and provoke public interest, excitement and debate about science and technology.

As part of the ESOF a seminar entitled "Mind the gap – connecting brain research to educational policy" was held on 14 July 2012 and organised by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research. This seminar explored research in the areas of brain function and development, perception, cognition, learning and behaviour, and collected interplay and resulting performance on the individual. This seminar highlighted the need for new research in these areas focusing on interplay between brain studies and research on learning for knowledge and skills, for personal development and active citizenship.

Professor Bruno della Chiesa, CERI/OECD and University of Harvard, Professor Maria Slowey, Dublin City University, Professor Paul Howard-Jones, Bristol University and Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers, University of South Africa.

HERC's Director, Professor Maria Slowey delivered a presentation entitled "A sociological and equity perspective on the (re)newed focus on neuro- science.

Dr Paul Howard-Jones of the University of Bristol, a leading expert on the role of neuroscience in education, stressed the importance of policy makers basing their decisions on ethics and overall judgments as well as knowledge of the brain's learning capacities.

Professor Bruno della Chiesa, Harvard University Graduate School of Education and founder of an OECD project "Brain Research and Learning Sciences" also presented at the seminar. According to della Chiesa, "our brain is a fabulous life-long learning device. You sometimes hear that if you are too old, you cannot learn another language. But this is totally untrue you never get too old to learn".

Also speaking at the "Mind the gap" seminar were Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers, University of South Africa and Professor Jarl Bengtsson, Aarhus University and previously director of the Centre for Educational Innovation (CERI) of OECD.