Contributions of Neuroscience Knowledge to Teachers and Their Practice

Abstract

While neuroscience has elucidated the mechanisms underpinning learning and memory, accurate dissemination of this knowledge to teachers and educators has been limited. This review focuses on teacher professional development in neuroscience that harnessed the power of active-learning strategies and best educational practices resulting in increased teacher and student understanding of cognition and brain function. For teachers, the experience of learning a novel subject in an active manner enabled them to subsequently teach using similar strategies. Most important, participants viewed neuroscience as a frame for understanding why active-learning pedagogies work to engage and motivate students. Teachers themselves made connections applying neuroscience concepts to understand why learner-centered pedagogies are effective in promoting higher order thinking and deep learning in their students. Teachers planned and embraced pedagogies involving modeling, experimentation, discussion, analysis, and synthesis, increasing classroom cognitive engagement. Comprehending that everyone is in charge of changing their own brains is a tremendously powerful idea that may motivate science and non-science teachers to provide students opportunities to actively engage with content. Neuroscience courses for preservice and in-service teachers, provided as collaborations between scientists and teacher educators, can result in improved science education, pedagogy, and understanding of neuroscience.

Tiered Neuroscience and Mental Health Professional Development in Liberia Improves Teacher Self-Efficacy, Self-Responsibility, and Motivation

“…This pilot project was designed to train a cadre of Liberian science teachers in the neurobiology of learning and memory, emotional processing and stress, and the etiology of epilepsy and PTSD using best pedagogical practices ( Darling-Hammond et al, 2017 ) and lessons designed for high school classrooms ( Dubinsky et al, 2019 ). In this two tiered plan, a visiting neuroscientist delivered a 2 weeks workshop for Tier I teachers who then adopted the material for the Liberian context, delivered a series of 1 week workshops and trained additional Tier II Liberian teachers.…”

“…Similar training-of-trainers models had been used in prior programs ( Kohrt et al, 2018 ). Tier I training occurred in August 2018, and was comparable to a successful neuroscience teacher PD program in the United States ( MacNabb et al, 2006b ; Roehrig et al, 2012 ; Dubinsky et al, 2019 ; Schwartz et al, 2019 ). Lessons plans and resources used in the workshop were drawn mainly from open internet neuroscience resources ( MacNabb et al, 2006a ; SFN, 2019 ), as recommended for educational improvement in Sub-Saharan Africa ( Wolfenden et al, 2012 ).…”

“…Even a short 90 min exposure to neuroscience ideas may produce changes in teachers’ intended classroom practices ( Howard-Jones et al, 2020 ). Prior data ( Dubinsky et al, 2019 ) suggest teachers’ may also provide students with more social and emotional support following neuroscience professional development (PD), but this has not been studied explicitly. Thus, knowledge of how learning occurs in the brain has the power to influence teachers’ thinking about their students and practices.…”

Teachers learning to apply neuroscience to classroom instruction: case of professional development in British Columbia

“…Currently, there appears to be a paucity of empirical studies examining the complexity of moving between neuroscience and education, and the application of neuroscience theories in formal educational settings (c.f. Dubinsky et al , 2019 for examples of teacher professional development workshops in neuroscience).…”

Continued Educational Neuromyth Belief in Pre- and In-Service Teachers: A Call for De-Implementation Action for School Psychologists

“…For example, Dubinsky and colleagues (2013) created BrainU © , a training program for in-service science teachers. They found that training improved knowledge and confidence in participants’ understanding of neuroscientific information, enhanced their pedagogy, gave them tools to help their students understand their learning, and supported better understanding of the factors that impact their pedagogical practice several years after completing the program (Dubinsky et al, 2019). However, there is still much work needed to develop educational neuroscience training as some have found that while training decreases belief in neuromyths, it does not eliminate them (Macdonald et al, 2017).…”