Neuroscientist and NCTQ Advisory Board member Dan Willingham is doing his part to help teachers and school districts steer clear of educational snake oil. He's recently put out a neat 8-minute YouTube clip on "brain based education" saying, in effect, there ain't hardly any.

It's possible to apply neuroscientific findings to education, he argues; it's just very, very hard. Why? Because to get something useful for teaching, the gaps between information about the brain and information about behavior must be bridged, along with gaps between cognitive processes and children's minds. Until the bridging is done, it's the study of behavior and how children's minds work that usefully informs classroom practice. Not neuroscience.

So, a new day of teaching has not dawned, despite the 18 or so books Willingham displays in his video. Rather than buy the books or invite the speaker on brain based education, Willingham advises, "you can save your money."