Main description:

This book aims to present theoretical and practical innovations in the cognitive sciences and education fields focusing on studies and research conducted with non-WEIRD (i.e., western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic) populations, especially from Latin America. Cognitive sciences and neuroscience have increased exponentially their knowledge in the last three decades, and today there is a corpus of knowledge about our central nervous system and its functioning that (adequately understood) has promising contributions for the educational field. Most of this knowledge, however, comes from central countries (North America, Europe) and is based on studies conducted on what has been called WEIRD populations. Much less is known about how the integration of cognitive sciences and neuroscience could impact education in non-WEIRD populations, which represent the great majority of the world's population and have quite diverse cultural and social characteristics. So, the main aim of this book is to present a non-WEIRD scientific approach to problems in the cognitive sciences, neuroscience and education fields.

Research presented in this contributed volume takes advantage of the diverse populations that characterize developing countries to explore how underrepresented populations learn, what works and what does not for cognitive science and education not only for the developing world, but also for understanding diversity in the whole world. Departing from this focus on diversity, chapters in this book present studies on theories, beliefs and misconceptions about the relationship between cognitive sciences and education; child and adolescent cognitive development; mathematics and language academic performance; and cognitive interventions to improve educational practice.

Cognitive Sciences and Education in Non-WEIRD Populations: A Latin American Perspective will be a useful resource for both cognitive scientists and educational researchers interested in developing a more culturally sensitive approach to basic and applied research on cognitive sciences of education.

Contents:

Part I - Cognitive Sciences and Education: Theories, Beliefs and Misconceptions

1. The importance of bringing the Latin American perspective to cognitive science and education

2. Neuroscience and Vygotsky: putting together contemporary evidence and Cultural-Historical Psychology.

3. Dialogue with Latin American teachers - beliefs about neuroscience and education

Part II - Factors influencing child and adolescent development

4. Attention and academic performance: from early childhood to adolescence.

5. Child cognitive development in Latin American rural poverty: what do researchers should consider for conducting fieldwork

6. Concepts, language, and early socialization in indigenous Wichi perspective: towards a Relational-Ecological Paradigm

7. The role of local violence on children's affective decision-making

8. The role of peer pressure in adolescents' risky behaviors

9. The implications of exposure to neurotoxic metals for cognitive development of children and adolescents

Part III - Academic performance

10. Bilingualism, foreign language learning, and cognition: Insights for education

11. Development of mathematical cognition: the role of technology in low SES populations

12. Number processing and low arithmetic achievement in Cuban and Chilean children: from neurocognitive theories to educational practice

13. The perfect hurricane in Latin America: school start time, chronotype, sleep, and academic performance during adolescence

14. Stereotype threat and professional motivation: Assessing career expectations of undergraduate and graduate female students

Part IV - Educational practices and interventions

15. Retrieval practice as a learning strategy for diverse populations

16. Consideration of individual differences in cognitive interventions for children at risk for poverty

17. Technology on our side: using technology for transferring Cognitive Science to Education

18. Early language intervention in school settings: what works for whom?

19. Developing higher order thinking in elementary school science: A narrative around a research group quest

Part V - Future perspectives

20. Latin American perspectives in the study of childhood and adolescence poverty through the lenses of neural sciences