Mapping the Use of Neurotechnology in Education from an Ethical Perspective

Abstract

Neurotechnology has a long tradition in the clinical field. However, it is increasingly present in the field of education. This review aims to provide an overview of research based on educational neurotechnology that considers the ethical component in its design and implementation. For this purpose, the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the databases Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC and Science Direct were followed. After the double review process with the inclusion and exclusion criteria considered, the review sample was set at 12 articles. The main findings found support the effectiveness of using neurotechnology in the field of education, especially for students with special educational needs. It also shows its usefulness in the acquisition of instrumental learning and for obtaining improvements in different areas of development such as attention, memory and motivation. However, in addition to their implicit benefits, the inclusion of educational neurotechnology implies a number of challenges for both teachers and educational institutions, related to training, ethics and the administrative and economic management of these resources and tools. Similarly, despite the existence of different theoretical studies, there is a call for more empirical studies on this topic.

Keywords

• Educational neurotechnology; ethics; individualized instruction; education; systematic review; teaching and training.