An avant-garde professorship of neurobiology in education: Christofredo Jakob (1866-1956) and the 1920s lead of the National University of La Plata, Argentina

Abstract

The interdisciplinary trend in "Mind, Brain, and Education" has witnessed dynamic international growth in recent years. Yet, it remains little known that the National University of La Plata in Argentina probably holds the historical precedent as the world's first institution of higher education that formally included neurobiology in the curriculum of an educational department, having done so as early as 1922. The responsibility of teaching neurobiology to educators was assigned to Professor Christofredo Jakob (1866-1956). In the present article, we highlight Jakob's emphasis on interdisciplinarity and, in particular, on the neuroscientific foundations of education, including special education.