The greatest and most important difficulty of human science is the nurture and education of children.
Montaigne, Essays (1580)
Pedagogy is like medicine: an art, but one which is based—or should be based—on precise scientific knowledge.
Jean Piaget, “La pédagogie moderne” (1949)
At the end of this journey, I hope to have convinced you that, thanks to recent advances in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and education sciences, we now possess detailed knowledge about how our brain learns. This knowledge is not self-evident, and most of our preconceived ideas about learning need to be rescinded:
No, babies are not blank slates: as early as the first year of life, they possess vast knowledge of objects, numbers, probabilities, space, and people.
No, the child’s brain is not a sponge that obediently absorbs the structure of its environment. Remember Felipe, the blind and tetraplegic Brazilian storyteller, or Nicholas Saunderson, the blind mathematician who held Newton’s chair: such cases show us that sensory inputs can be disrupted or absent without ruining a child’s grasp of abstract ideas.
No, the brain is not just a network of malleable neurons that waits to be shaped by its inputs: all the large fiber bundles are present at birth, and brain plasticity, however indispensable, typically refines only the last millimeters of our connections.
No, learning does not occur passively through simple exposure to data or lectures: on the contrary, cognitive psychology and brain imaging show us that children are budding scientists, constantly generating new hypotheses, and that the brain is an ever-alert organ that learns by testing the models it projects onto the outside world.
No, errors are not the mark of bad students: making mistakes is an integral part of learning, because our brain can adjust its models only when it discovers a discrepancy between what it envisioned and reality.
No, sleep is not just a period of rest: it is an integral part of our learning algorithm, a privileged period during which our brain plays its models in a loop and enhances the experience of the day by a factor of ten to one hundred.
And no, today’s learning machines are nowhere close to surpassing the human brain: our brains remain, for the moment at least, the fastest, most effective, and most energy efficient of all information processing devices. A true probabilistic machine, it successfully extracts the maximum amount of information from each moment of the day and transforms it at night into abstract and general knowledge, in a way that we do not yet know how to reproduce in computers.
In the Promethean battle between the computer chip and the neuron, the machine and the brain, the latter still has the advantage. For sure, in principle, there is nothing in the mechanics of the brain that a machine could not imitate. Indeed, all the ideas I have exposed here are already in the hands of computer scientists whose research is overtly inspired by neuroscience.1 In practice, however, machines still have a long way to go. To improve, they will need many of the ingredients that we reviewed here: an internal language of thought that allows concepts to be flexibly recombined; algorithms that reason with probability distributions; a curiosity function; effective systems for managing attention and memory; and perhaps a sleep/wake algorithm that expands the training set and increases the chances of discovery. Algorithms of this type are beginning to appear, but they remain light years away from the performance of a newborn baby. The brain keeps the upper hand over machines, and I predict that it will for a long time.
The more I study the human brain, the more I am impressed. But I also know that its performance is fragile, as it strongly depends on the environment in which it develops. Too many children do not reach their full potential because their families or schools do not provide them with ideal conditions for learning.
International comparisons are alarming: they show that, over the past fifteen or twenty years, the school results of many Western countries, including my home country, France, have plunged, while those of many Asian countries and cities—such as Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong—have soared.2 In mathematics, which used to be France’s greatest strength, scores fell so sharply between 2003 and 2015 that my country now occupies the last place in Europe in the TIMSS survey, which evaluates the achievements of fifteen-year-old students in math and science.
Faced with such poor results, we are sometimes too quick to point our fingers at teachers. In reality, nobody knows the reasons behind this recent downfall: Are the culprits the parents, the schools, or society as a whole? Should we blame lack of sleep, inattention, or video games? Whatever the reasons may be, I am convinced that recent advances in the science of learning may help reverse this dark trend. We now know a lot more about the conditions that maximize learning and memory. All of us, parents and teachers alike, must learn to implement these conditions in our daily lives, at home and in the classroom.
The scientific results that I have presented converge toward simple, easily applicable ideas. Let’s review them together:
Do not underestimate children. At birth, infants possess a rich set of core skills and knowledge. Object concepts, number sense, a knack for languages, knowledge of people and their intentions . . . so many brain modules are already present in young children, and these foundational skills will later be recycled in physics, mathematics, language, and philosophy classes. Let us take advantage of children’s early intuitions: each word and symbol that they learn, however abstract, must connect to prior knowledge. This connection is what will give them meaning.
Take advantage of the brain’s sensitive periods. In the first years of life, billions of synapses are created and destroyed every day. This effervescent activity makes the child’s brain particularly receptive, especially for language learning. We should expose children to a second language as early as possible. We should also bear in mind that plasticity extends at least until adolescence. During this entire period, foreign language immersion can transform the brain.
Enrich the environment. Learning wise, the child’s brain is the most powerful of supercomputers. We should respect it by providing it with the right data at an early age: word or construction games, stories, puzzles. . . . Let’s not hesitate to hold serious talks with our children, to answer their questions, even the most difficult, using an elaborate vocabulary, and to explain to them what we understand of the world. By giving our little ones an enriched environment, particularly regarding languages, we maximize their brain growth and prolong their juvenile plasticity.
Rescind the idea that all children are different. The idea that each of us has a distinct learning style is a myth. Brain imaging shows that we all rely on very similar brain circuits and learning rules. The brain circuits for reading and mathematics are the same in each of us, give or take a few millimeters—even in blind children. We all face similar hurdles in learning, and the same teaching methods can surmount them. Individual differences, when they exist, lie more in children’s extant knowledge, motivation, and the rate at which they learn. Let’s carefully determine each child’s current level in order to select the most relevant problems—but above all, let’s ensure that all children acquire the fundamentals of language, literacy, and mathematics that everyone needs.
Pay attention to attention. Attention is the gateway to learning: virtually no information will be memorized if it has not previously been amplified by attention and awareness. Teachers should become masters at capturing their students’ attention and directing it to what matters. This implies carefully getting rid of any source of distraction: overly illustrated textbooks and excessively decorated classrooms only distract children from their primary task and prevent them from concentrating.
Keep children active, curious, engaged, and autonomous. Passive students do not learn much. Make them more active. Engage their intelligence so that their minds sparkle with curiosity and constantly generate new hypotheses. But do not expect them to discover everything on their own: guide them through a structured curriculum.
Make every school day enjoyable. Reward circuits are essential modulators of brain plasticity. Activate them by rewarding every effort and making every hour of class fun. No child is insensitive to material rewards—but their social brains respond equally to smiles and encouragement. The feeling of being appreciated and the awareness of one’s own progress are rewards in and of themselves. Conversely, do away with the anxiety and stress that prevent learning—especially in mathematics.
Encourage efforts. A pleasurable school experience is not synonymous with “effortless.” On the contrary, the most interesting things to learn—reading, math, or playing an instrument—require years of practice. The belief that everything comes easy can lead children to think that they are dunces if they do not succeed. Explain to them that all students must try hard and that, when they do, everyone makes progress. Adopt a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset.
Help students deepen their thinking. The deeper our brain processes information, the better we can remember. Never be content with superficial learning; always aim for deeper understanding. And remember Henry Roediger’s words: “Making learning conditions more difficult, thus requiring students to engage more cognitive effort, often leads to enhanced retention.”
Set clear learning objectives. Students learn best when the purpose of learning is clearly stated to them and when they can see that everything at their disposal converges toward that purpose. Clearly explain what is expected of them, and stay focused on that goal.
Accept and correct mistakes. To update their mental models, our brain areas must exchange error messages. Error is therefore the very condition of learning. Let us not punish errors, but correct them quickly, by giving children detailed but stress-free feedback. According to the Education Endowment Foundation’s synthesis, the quality of the feedback that teachers provide to their students is the most effective lever for academic progress.
Practice regularly. One-shot learning is not enough—children need to consolidate what they have learned to render it automatic, unconscious, and reflexive. Such routinization frees up our prefrontal and parietal circuits, allowing them to attend to other activities. The most effective strategy is to space out learning: a little bit every day. Spacing out practice or study sessions allows information to be permanently imprinted to memory.
Let students sleep. Sleep is an essential ingredient of our learning algorithm. Our brain benefits each time we sleep, even when we nap. So, let us make sure that our children sleep long and deep. To get the most out of our brain’s unconscious night work, studying a lesson or rereading a problem just before falling asleep can be a nifty trick. And because adolescents’ sleep cycle is shifted, let’s not wake them up too early!
Only by getting to know ourselves better can we make the most of the powerful algorithms with which our brains are equipped. All children would probably benefit from knowing the four pillars of learning: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation. Four slogans effectively summarize them: “Fully concentrate,” “participate in class,” “learn from your mistakes,” and “practice every day, take advantage of every night.” These are very simple messages that we should all heed.
How can we harmonize our school system with the discoveries of cognitive and brain sciences? A new alliance is needed. Just like medicine relies on a whole pyramid of biological and drug-design research, I believe that in the future, education will increasingly rely on evidence-based research, including fundamental laboratory experiments, as well as classroom-scale trials and deployment studies. Only by combining the distinct forces of teachers, parents, and scientists will we attain the worthy goal of reviving the curiosity and joy of learning in all children, in order to help them optimize their cognitive potential.
Experts of the classroom, teachers are entrusted with the priceless task of educating our children, who will soon have the future of this world in their hands. Yet we often leave teachers with very minimal resources to accomplish this goal. They deserve much greater respect and investment. Teachers today face increasingly severe challenges, including diminishing resources, expanding class sizes, growing violence, and the relentless tyranny of the curriculum. Amazingly, most teachers receive little or no professional training in the science of learning. My feeling is that we should urgently change this state of affairs, because we now possess considerable scientific knowledge about the brain’s learning algorithms and the pedagogies that are the most efficient. I hope that this book can provide a small step toward a global revision of teacher training programs, in order to offer them the best tools from cognitive science, in line with their commitment to our children.
I hope that teachers will also agree that their pedagogical freedom should in no way be restricted by the growing science of the learning brain. On the contrary, one goal of this book is to allow them to better exercise this freedom. “I think of a hero,” said Bob Dylan, “as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.” Genuine pedagogical creativity can only come from full awareness of the range of available strategies and the ability to choose carefully from them, with full knowledge of their impact on students. The principles I have articulated throughout this book are compatible with multiple pedagogical approaches, and much can be done to put them into practice in the classroom. I expect a lot from teachers’ inventiveness, because I think it is essential to children’s enthusiasm.
In my opinion, the schools of the future should also have a much more important place for parents. They are the primary actors in a child’s development, whose actions precede and prolong school. Home is where children have a chance to expand, through work and games, the knowledge that they acquired in class. Family is open seven days a week and, thus, can, better than school, take full advantage of each alternation of wakefulness and sleep, of learning and consolidation. Schools should devote more time to parent training, because this is one of the most effective interventions: well-trained parents can be invaluable teammates for teachers and astute observers of their children’s difficulties.
Finally, scientists must engage with teachers and schools in order to consolidate the growing field of education science. Compared with the huge progress of the past thirty years in cognitive and brain sciences, educational research remains a relatively neglected area of study. Research organizations should encourage scientists to conduct major research programs in all areas of learning sciences, from neuroscience and brain imaging to the neuropsychology of developmental disorders, cognitive psychology, and educational sociology. Scaling up from the laboratory to the classroom is not as easy as it sounds, and we are in great need of full-scale experiments in schools. Cognitive science can help design and evaluate innovative educational tools.
Just as medicine is based on biology, the field of education must be grounded in a systematic and rigorous research ecosystem that brings together teachers, patients, and researchers, in a ceaseless search for more effective, evidence-based learning strategies.