Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology (FORLIPSI), University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, 50135 Florence, Italy.
Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
Trends Neurosci Educ. 2024 Mar;34:100219. doi: 10.1016/j.tine.2023.100219. Epub 2023 Nov 23.
Neuromyths are commonly held misconceptions about the brain, often generated by a misunderstanding of scientifically established facts. To date, limited research has explored the pervalence of neuromyths about neurodevelopmental disorders in the teacher population.
The current study investigated the prevalence of teachers' general and neurodevelopmental neuromyths among 820 Italian teachers.
Italian teachers correctly identified 73% of general neuromyths and 70% of neurodevelopmental neuromyths. The difference between general and neurodevelopmental neuromyths endorsement was significant. Frequency of accessing relevant information emerged as a protective factor. A mediation analysis showed that higher need for cognition was significantly associated with a higher frequency of accessing relevant information about the brain, which in turn led to lower endorsement of neuromyths.
In line with our findings, we suggest that teachers can benefit from neuroeducation initiatives aimed to enhance neuroscience literacy in both the initial education and continuous professional development of teachers.
神经神话是人们对大脑的常见误解，通常是由于对科学确立的事实的误解而产生的。迄今为止，有限的研究探讨了教师群体中神经发育障碍的神经神话的流行程度。
本研究调查了 820 名意大利教师中普遍存在的神经神话和神经发育性神经神话的流行程度。
意大利教师正确识别了 73%的一般神经神话和 70%的神经发育性神经神话。一般神经神话和神经发育性神经神话的认可度存在显著差异。获取相关信息的频率是一个保护因素。中介分析表明，更高的认知需求与更高频率地获取有关大脑的相关信息显著相关，而这反过来又导致对神经神话的认可度降低。
根据我们的发现，我们建议教师可以从旨在提高教师初始教育和持续专业发展中神经科学素养的神经教育计划中受益。
