Neuroscience meets the classroom: a scoping review of translational research in educational neuroscience (2015–2025)

Translating findings from educational neuroscience (EN) into teaching practice remains a complex task, particularly in authentic school contexts. This scoping review examines how EN research has engaged with real-world school settings between 2015 and 2025, focusing on theoretical foundations, translational processes, researcher-educator collaboration, participant characteristics, and conditions supporting knowledge translation. Following PRISMA-ScR reporting standards and JBI scoping review guidance, searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC, complemented by backward reference list searching. Twenty-four empirical studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. Data were charted across six domains and synthesized through a narrative approach, with methodological quality appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. The synthesis was structured through a multidirectional T1-T4 translational framework, ranging from the development of teaching applications based on basic research to their systemic dissemination within educational policy and practice. School-based EN research is expanding but remains conceptually and methodologically heterogeneous. Most studies occupied hybrid T2-T3 positions, combining the evaluation of EN-informed applications with implementation in school practice, while T4-level translation was not represented as a primary objective. Theoretical approaches were mainly grounded in cognitive neuroscience, especially neuroplasticity, executive functions, and attention, but were often integrated with psychological and educational frameworks. Thirteen studies drew directly on primary neuroscientific evidence, whereas 11 relied mainly on synthesized EN models. Co-design and co-investigation were frequent and tended to co-occur with clearer translational pathways, although collaboration varied in depth and reciprocity. Participant characteristics were inconsistently used to inform design. Structural constraints, limited teacher preparation, conceptual gaps, and weak fidelity monitoring emerged as recurrent barriers, while institutional support, curriculum alignment, conceptual mediation, and iterative feedback loops facilitated translation. Advancing school-based EN will require stronger theoretical transparency, more systematic collaboration reporting, greater attention to learner and school contexts, and clearer pathways toward systemic uptake.