ABSTRACT
Educational neuroscience is not all about brains. Any attempt to improve learning will be doomed if it fails to consider the multiple factors, operating at many levels, which affect learning outcomes. There are individual-level factors: physical health, nutrition, sleep, exercise. There are family-level factors: what support and resources do children have at home? Access to technology? Do they live with stress or violence? There are classroom factors: what is the skill of the teacher? Is the classroom environment conducive to learning? What is air quality like? How do school policies impact learning? And, finally, there are the broader cultural factors which affect the whole educational enterprise: what is valued in the education system? Is education free and available to all? What resources are there? What is the cultural consensus on diversity and inclusion? This final chapter situates learning in its broadest context. This perspective makes clear that the educational neuroscience endeavour only makes sense if it is truly, madly, deeply interdisciplinary.
