Neuroscience Concepts Changed Teachers’ Views of Pedagogy and Students

Abstract

Advances in neuroscience reveal how individual brains change as learning occurs. Translating this neuroscience into practice has largely been unidirectional, from researchers to teachers. However, how teachers view and incorporate neuroscience ideas in their classroom practices remains relatively unexplored. Previously fourteen non-science teachers participated in a 3-week three credit graduate course focusing on foundational ideas in neuroscience. The current work was undertaken to gain insight into if and how individual teachers choose to later apply the proposed set of educational neuroscience concepts (ENCs) in their classrooms. This qualitative follow-up study examined commonalities in how teachers of diverse ages and subjects utilized their new neuroscience understandings. To this end, a year after the course, all participants assessed their perceived usefulness of the ENCs in a survey. Six of those teachers permitted classroom observations and participated in interviews that focused on how the ENCs may have influenced their lesson planning and teaching. The survey revealed that irrespective of subject areas or grade levels taught, teachers found the ENCs useful as organizing principles for their pedagogy now and in the future. Overall teachers estimated that the ENCs’ influence on lesson design had increased from 51% prior to the course to an estimated 90% for future lessons. A cross-case analysis of classroom observations and interviews revealed how teachers used ENCs to inform their pedagogical decisions, organize actions in their classroom, influence their understanding of students, and respond to individual contexts. Teachers recognized the importance of student agency for engaging them in the learning process. The ENCs also offered teachers explanations that affirmed known practices or helped justify exploring untried techniques. The foundational neuroscience concepts offered a small group of teachers a lens to reconsider, re-envision and re-design their lessons. Some teachers applied these ideas more broadly or frequently than others. This case study provided insights into how teachers can directly apply neuroscience knowledge to their practice and views of students.

Interventions to Dispel Neuromyths in Educational Settings—A Review

“…Aside from research on surveying and dispelling neuromyths, a whole research area focuses on non-prescriptive ways to instill knowledge about the neuroscience of learning into teachers' practices. These innovative approaches, developed in the last 15 years, are mainly based on teacher professional development seminars and workshop: the "Brain Science on the Move" program (MacNabb et al, 2006), the "BrainU" summer workshops (Dubinsky, 2010;Roehrig et al, 2012;Dubinsky et al, 2013); "The Neuroscience of Learning and Memory" and other workshops (Dommett et al, 2011), "Learning and the Brain" conferences (Hook and Farah, 2013), and more recently a 36-h "Neuroscience for Educators" course (Schwartz et al, 2019;Chang et al, 2021). Rather than being trained on researcherinitiated neuroscience applications, teachers are granted agency on how to use acquired neuroscience knowledge in their practice, with the aim of promoting teacher-initiated applications: Within a constructivist setting, teachers may make personal meaning by combining the neuroscience and their own insights to the relevant contexts of their classrooms (Chang et al, 2021, p. 2).…”

“…Having taken several brain-related or neuroscience courses at the undergrad level provides educators with some, but "modest" protection against neuromyths (Macdonald et al, 2017). Unlike neuroscience training at the undergrad level, training in the context of teacher professional development (workshops, seminars) looks promising (e.g., Dubinsky, 2010;Hook and Farah, 2013;Chang et al, 2021). Although effects of attending these workshops/seminars on neuromyth beliefs are unknown, positive effects on teachers' pedagogical choices have been evidenced from direct classroom behavioral observations.…”

A Place for Neuroscience in Teacher Knowledge and Education

“…Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that neuroscience knowledge is useful for teachers, justifying its application in education (Dubinsky et al, 2013; Owens & Tanner, 2017). Teachers utilized neuroscience as a framework to guide both planned and in‐the‐moment pedagogical decisions and as a lens on student capabilities (Brick et al, 2021b; Chang, Schwartz, Hinesley, & Dubinsky, 2021; Friedman, Grobgeld, & Teichman‐Weinberg, 2019; Tan & Amiel, 2019). PD experiences around neuroscience also improve teacher competencies of self‐efficacy, motivation, self‐regulation, and self‐responsibility for student outcomes (Brick et al, 2021b), as well as positively impacting teachers' student‐centered pedagogical practices (MacNabb et al, 2006; Roehrig, Michlin, Schmitt, MacNabb, & Dubinsky, 2012; Schwartz, Hinesley, Chang, & Dubinsky, 2019).…”

“…Synaptic plasticity provides a justification for extending opportunities to students to reach their potentials. Embracing this idea, teachers discarded the idea of students instantly absorbing everything that was said, replacing it with a view of students who learn variably from many diverse experiences that should be provided by the teachers (Chang et al, 2021). Teachers have expressed that to learn, students must interact over multiple encounters with content, a process that takes time, requires a safe space, and develops critical thinking skills (Schwartz et al, 2019).…”

Higher-Order Executive Function in Middle School: Training Teachers to Enhance Cognition in Young Adolescents

“…Recent evidence suggests that professional developments that focus on neuroscience have the capacity to build education self-efficacy, motivation, and personal responsibility ( Brick et al, 2021b ). Chang and colleagues demonstrated that teachers who participated in a graduate-level professional development course that explored educational neuroscience concepts, shifted their focus from content and classroom management issues to their students’ needs, recognizing the importance of their students’ experiences and desire to be agents of their own learning ( Chang et al, 2021 ).…”