Can neuroscience solve the mystery of how students learn?

Educational neuroscience burst onto the scene with the hope of explaining how we learn. But the jury is still out on whether it's useful for classroom practice

No one knows how much knowledge students take home with them after a day at school. Tests, homework and inspections give a snapshot of learning but ultimately it's something that you cannot see; it's invisible and personal.

The educational researcher Graham Nuthall spent 40 years trying to understand how we learn. He wired classrooms in New Zealand for sound, installed video cameras, sat in on lessons and interviewed hundreds of students. But despite crunching mountains of data, he was not able to draw any conclusions.