Cognitive research and mathematics education—How can basic research reach the classroom?

Numeracy is critically associated with personal and vocational life-prospects (Evans et al., 2017; Grotlüschen et al., 2019); yet, many adults and children lack a basic level of proficiency (Jonas, 2018). At the same time, research interest in numerical cognition, and its neuro-cognitive foundations (e.g., Cohen Kadosh and Dowker, 2015), as well as in mathematics education (e.g., Dennis et al., 2016) continues to grow. In this opinion, we argue that more intensive discussion across the disciplines is necessary to answer the question how results from basic research can make it to the classroom, how classroom practices can be validated by research, and discuss a theoretical framework for guiding future transfer endeavors. Transferring basic research results to educational praxis is not a new challenge. As early as 1899, James (1958) noted the difficulty of directly deriving suggestions for pedagogical practice from psychological research. Even when successful, research in psychology might not be enough to derive effective suggestions or direct conclusions for educational practice without considering environmental challenges and requirements of teaching. Clearly not all basic research aims at informing educational practice; however, failure of important results from research to successfully impact practice reflects missed opportunities at some point during dissemination—as is failing to validate effective existing practices through research to allow for what may be called practicebased evidence.