D.C. School Superintendent Paul L. Vance often says he plans to revamp early childhood education with the "latest brain research." The only problem: Top brain researchers say it can't be done.

"You can't go from neuroscience to the classroom, because we don't know enough neuroscience," said Kurt W. Fischer, director of the Mind, Brain and Education program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

Brain science, to be sure, has in recent years revealed fascinating insights that will help revolutionize human understanding of the species. One day, its findings may have broad applications for education, and there is evidence that it can help students with specific learning disabilities today.

But it cannot yet tell most teachers what or when to teach or how to organize their curriculum, many experts say.

"There really is no research that links learning strategies or classroom methods to changes in brain structure," said John T. Bruer, president of the McDonnell Foundation in St. Louis and author of "The Myth of the First Three Years," which debunked the notion that all is lost if a child does not receive proper stimuli by age 3. "Educators are making a very big mistake by wasting their time on 'brain-based' curricula."

That hasn't stopped a growing number of educators from believing that the world of education can be reborn via neuroscience and by buying what Sam Wineburg, professor at the College of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, calls "snake oil."

Companies sell learning kits "based on the latest brain research," and professional development consultants peddle the concept to teachers. Teachers set up "left hemisphere-right hemisphere" classrooms based on bad interpretation of research attributing learning style to the dominance of one side of the brain. Others decorate their rooms in pastels or use round flashcards because that is supposedly what brains prefer.

There is, to be sure, a wealth of knowledge about human development learned over time by behavioral and social scientists and others, said Jack Shonkoff, dean of the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University.

And the growing prominence of neuroscience has led to increased cooperation among fields, which Ken Whang, a program director for the National Science Foundation's Research on Learning and Education program, said is the key to progress in improving education.

But policymakers and educators often ignore or misinterpret what is known to be effective in learning, Shonkoff and others said.

For example, a new report analyzing hundreds of studies from various disciplines in early childhood development concluded that the key to healthy early development and learning is maintaining nurturing and stable relationships -- not Mozart for infants or flashcards for 3-year-olds. Environment matters, the National Research Council report said, though educators and legislators stress test scores and other things that do nothing to create such bonds.

Vance has said he wants to revamp early childhood education based on brain-based research suggesting that language development ought to begin as early as age 3. Experts say early musical and language stimulation is important. But the report, titled "From Neurons to Neighborhoods," says there is "no sharp break at age 3 (or 5)."

Neuroscience both confirms and contradicts common beliefs about learning and memory.

It was once thought that humans learn far more in the early years than in adulthood, partly because brain neurons and synapses were thought to be created only in utero and during the first year of life. It was recently discovered that they grow throughout life, supporting lifelong learning. That notion, however, has long been advanced by psychologists and others; there are hundreds of learning institutes for the elderly in the United States.

Research has also shown the brain to be flexible. The phenomenon, called "plasticity," occurs when the organ changes structure depending on what activity a person is performing, said the University of Chicago's Peter Huttenlocher, a leading brain expert.

For example, British researchers showed that London taxi drivers -- who do extensive training before hitting the streets -- have larger hippocampuses, the part of the brain involved in spatial learning, than non-taxi drivers. Size depended on how long they had been driving taxis.

But specific applications to teaching are unclear, said Janellen Huttenlocher, a researcher at the University of Chicago who is married to Peter Huttenlocher.

John Ratey, a Harvard University psychiatrist and author of "A User's Guide to the Brain," said children who learn musical instruments before reading and math have an advantage because that part of their brain is already built up. But other scientists disagree.

Researchers are investigating the controversial idea of critical periods in human development -- that the brain can receive information only at a certain age -- and sensitive periods when the brain is more open to learning certain things.

Experts, not surprisingly, disagree.

The Huttenlochers said tentative evidence suggests such a phenomenon only in very specific areas. For example, studies suggest that acquisition of absolute pitch happens before age 10. But that does not mean that those who are older can't learn to play the flute well.

It is also commonly believed that second languages should be taught to preschool children because they are more receptive than adults. Experts see evidence that there is a benefit to learning languages early, but that doesn't mean older people can't learn them well.

But Fischer said there are times when new cognitive capacities and brain connections are growing suddenly -- at about 4 months, 8 months, 12 months, 2 years, 4 years, 7 years, 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years (and probably at a few more times in the first few months of life and at least one more at 25).

Where researchers do seem to agree is that brain research will first help students with specific learning disabilities.

One company, the Scientific Learning Co. in California, sells a program called Fast ForWord that helps children who have difficulty distinguishing certain sounds and linking written words with sounds. Educators say it works. It is the first remediation strategy for children with reading difficulties based on research about how the brain adapts to its environment during learning, said Steven Quartz, of the California Institute of Technology.

But much work remains to be done.

"There is an enormous body of brain research, but with the brain being easily the most complicated thing we know about in the universe, we really still understand very little about it," said Bryan D. Fantie, director of the Human Neuropsychology Laboratory and Behavioral Neurosciences Doctoral Program at American University.

Reprinted from the 3/13/01 Washington Post with permission of the author