El sujeto neuronal: Aportaciones para una pedagogía de la posibilidad

Abstract

Research on brain functioning and development is contributing for the emergence of new understandings of cognition and learning. The understanding of the neural mechanisms determining cognition and learning and underlying consciousness formation, the relation between cognition and emotions, genetic and environment, have important implications for education (OECD, 2002, 2007; Gonçalves, 2009).  This emergent body of knowledge refers to a new perspective about the human subject which may allow us to surpass old dichotomies: reason/emotions; nature/nurture; body/mind; genetics/environment. The subject is bio-psycho-social, he is a bio-anthropological construction:  he is bimodal (Asensio, García Carrasco, Núñez Cubero, 2006; García Carrasco, 2007) or multimodal (Smith, 2005), Sapiens and Demens (Morin, 1999). As stated by Nunes  (2002), he is what is in between. In this paper I will analyse the implications of emergent theories in educational neurosciences for the understanding of the subject of education. The human subject will be characterized considering: his plasticity, his multidimensionality and his narrative capacity. I will analyse the educational implications of this perspective within the framework of a pedagogy of possibility (Gonçalves, 2008), supported in a complexity theory approach.