ON THE RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH FINDINGS IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE TO EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE

In their target article, Byrnes and Fox (1998) argue that many of the recent findings from the field of cognitive neuroscience have particul ar importance for education. In our commentary we lend support to thei r contention by reporting on some of our work that has potential relev ance to the proposed interface between cognitive neuroscience and educ ation. Specifically, we discuss the findings from several studies inve stigating the neuropsychology of intellectual giftedness, and sex diff erences in the brain, each of which suggest a unique functional organi zation that differentiates gifted from average ability adolescents, as well as males from females. We further propose that the translation o f cognitive neuroscience findings into specialized classroom instructi onal methods which capitalize on the plasticity of the brain, as well as the apparent individual differences in ifs functional organization, may be the most significant challenge facing those in the front-lines of educational practice.