Christian Jarrett wrote a new book on Great Myths of the Brain and tries to fight neuromyths (just like we do). In this article he explains 10 ways that brain myths are hurting us. Some education-related examples:
For example, if a teacher decides a child is “left-brained” and therefore not inclined to creativity, they will likely divert that child away from beneficial creative activities.
Leonard Sax, a psychologist who ran the organization that used to be known as the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, says that girls and boys should be taught differently and separately because of differences in their brains. I looked at one of the key studiesthat he cites in his book: It’s clear that Sax over-interpreted the tentative results to make groundless claims. In case you’re wondering, a 2014 meta-analysis found no evidence for single-sex education being beneficial for boys or girls.
But also relevant for business people:
Neuro-linguistic programming remains popular even though a recent scholarly review concluded that the movement “represents pseudoscientific rubbish”. Meanwhile, the new fields of “Neuroleadership” and “Neuromanagement” are mostly psychology dressed up as brain science; actual brain-based insights are rare and, so far, usually based on poor research. The risk is that businesses adopt practices that are ineffective or even damaging.