Towards the idea of a natural education From a brain that works to an education that works: the role of perceptual-motor language

Abstract

The hypothesis I propose consistently with the European Benchmarks 2020, is a contribution to the debate on the new models of training based on last two decades’ researches in Cognitive Neuroscience. The idea is that Educational Sciences should base their epistemology and methodology on the model of brain functioning, and it should take into account the manner in which the human brain is formed, both from a phylogenetic and ontogenetic point of view. More specifically, if the scientists now agree that the linguistic interaction has permitted the
development of fundamental and universal human cognitive abilities, then the Science of Education and Training should be aware of how this process has been developed in order to use the language, not simply as a means of transmitting knowledge, but as a tool that, by its very nature, “shapes the mind.” If the trainer is aware both of the crucial role of the language in “minds training” and the motor and pragmatic nature of knowledge, his/her imperative should be to look for the way in which language, through action-recruiting to which it reports, transforms the
action into knowledge, and knowledge into action again (enaction).