ABSTRACT
In this final chapter we turn our attention to critically examining what is being claimed from recent studies into what happens in the brain during learning. In doing this we examine the significance of the findings for children’s learning and consider the reasons why educationalists seek to have a scientific explanation for what is meant by learning itself. We revisit some of the themes of this book – the importance of play, the issue of enriched environments and the prevailing myths about what constitutes quality in terms of parenting, learning, homes and childhoods. And finally we return to views of childhood in order to critically examine the impact of these on the childhoods of our twenty-first-century children.
