Foreword by Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE. In Neuroscience for Teachers: Applying Research Evidence from Brain Science, Richard Churches, Eleanor Dommett and Ian Devonshire expertly unpack, in an easy-to-read and instantly useable way, what every teacher needs to know about the brain and how we really learn and what that suggests for how they should teach. Everyone is curious about the brain including your learners! Not only can knowing more about the brain be a powerful way to understand what happens when your pupils and, of course, you pick up new knowledge and skills, but it can also offer a theoretical basis for established or new classroom practice. And as the field of neuroscience uncovers more of nature's secrets about the way we learn and further augments what we already know about effective teaching this book advocates more efficient pedagogies rooted in a better understanding and application of neuroscience in education. By surveying a wide range of evidence in specific areas such as metacognition, memory, mood and motivation, the teenage brain and how to cater for individual differences, Neuroscience for Teachers shares relevant, up-to-date information to provide a suitable bridge for teachers to transfer the untapped potential of neuroscientific findings into practical classroom approaches. The key issues, challenges and research are explained in clear language that doesn't assume a prior level of knowledge on the topic that would otherwise make it inaccessible therefore enabling more teachers to better comprehend the lessons from neuroscience while the authors also take care to expose the ways in which 'neuromyths' can arise in education in order to help them avoid these pitfalls. Laid out in an easy-to-use format, each chapter features: 'Research Zones' highlighting particular pieces of research with a supplementary insight into the area being explored; 'Reflection' sections that give you something to think about, or suggest something you might try out in the classroom; and concluding 'Next steps' that outline how teachers might incorporate the findings into their own practice. The authors have also included a glossary of terms covering the book's technical vocabulary to aid the development of teachers' literacy in the field of neuroscience. Packed with examples and research-informed tips on how to enhance personal effectiveness and improve classroom delivery, Neuroscience for Teachers provides accessible, practical guidance supported by the latest research evidence on the things that will help your learners to learn better. Suitable for LSAs, NQTs, teachers, middle leaders, local authority advisers and anyone working with learners.
Information from neuroscience is growing and being properly used, and misused wich makes it imperative that educators receive accurate and practical information. This book provides the accurate and practical information educators (pre-service and in-service) and caregivers serving children birth through age 8 need to know. This volume takes a practical and cautionary stance. It reminds educators to consider the ethical implications of neuroscience when it is applied to education, reviews current findings from neuroscience and reveals the dangers of oversimplification and inappropriate extensions of neuroscience into curricula. It brings together a group of authors with varied expertise writing on an array of inter-related educational topics that will help educators use neuroscience to understand and address the cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral needs of all young children, including those with exceptionalities. They believe neuroscience can be insightful and useful to educators if applied ethically and with care. The book offers strategies educators and caregivers can use to affect children today and the adults they can become.
This practical resource draws on the best of neuroscience to inform decision-making about digital learning. We live in unprecedented times that have pushed schools to make many decisions that have been postponed for years. For the first time since the inception of public education, teachers have been invited to redesign the learning landscape by integrating an intelligent selection of digital educational resources and changing pedagogical approaches based on information from the learning sciences. This handbook will help teachers make the most of this opportunity by showing them how to use digital tools to differentiate learning, employ alternative options to standardized testing, personalize learning, prioritize social-emotional skills, and inspire students to think more critically. The author identifies some gems in quality teaching that are amplified in online contexts, including 40 evidence-informed pedagogies from the learning sciences. This book will help all educators move online teaching and learning to new levels of confidence and success. Book Features: Provides quick references to key planning tools like decision-trees, graphics, app recommendations, and step-by-step directions to help teachers create their own online learning courses.Guides teachers through a 12-step model for instructional design that meets both national and international standards.Shows educators how to use an all-new Digital Resource Taxonomy to select resources, and how to research and keep them up to date.Explains why good instructional design and educational technology are complementary with best practices in learning sciences like Mind, Brain, and Education Science.Shares ways teachers can leverage technology to create more time for the personalized aspects of learning. Shows educators how to design online courses with tools that let all students begin at their own starting points and how to differentiate homework.Offers evidence-informed pedagogies to make online intimate and authentic for students.
"At last, a book that meaningfully links the evidence that we have so far gained from cognitive neuroscience with an understanding of learning and education. This book avoids the usual pitfalls of over-stretched interpretations of the research findings and outdated assumptions about teaching and learning. It is a catalyst for bringing together the expertise and experience of professional educators with that of professional scientists in which Geake has expertly balanced accessibility and rigour." Professor Martin Westwell, Director, Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century, Flinders University, Australia Within education there is a growing interest in neuroscience research and what it can teach us. This book focuses on what neuroscience means for education professionals - in key areas such as learning, memory, intelligence and motivation - and addresses questions such as: How does the brain enable us to learn? Why do some children have learning difficulties, such as ADHD or dyslexia? How can actual scientific research be applied to pedagogy and curriculum design Furthermore, the book explores common 'brain based' learning schemes and exposes the misunderstandings on which these are often based. The author, both an experienced teacher and cognitive neuroscientist, offers teachers advice on how neuroscience can help them in their own teaching. Each chapter includes practical classroom examples and case studies based on real life teaching experiences. This friendly book is jargon-free and no prior scientific knowledge is assumed of the reader. It is thought-provoking reading for practising teachers across all age ranges, trainee teachers, parents, head teachers, educational policymakers, academics and educational psychologists.
The need for studentsOCO understanding of the value of the neurosciencesOCoand the damaging effects of illicit drug use, the mechanisms of addiction, and the scientific and ethical basis of animal-based drug abuse researchOCois critical to creating a better future for our children (from the Introduction). This innovative middle school curriculum presents 10 comprehensive, ready-to-use lessons about contemporary real-world issues involved in drug use and abuse."
Neuroscience research deals with the physiology, biochemistry, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons and neural circuits and especially their association with behavior and learning. Of late, neuroscience research is playing a pivotal role in industry, science writing, government program management, science advocacy, and education. In the process of learning as experiencing knowledge, the human brain plays a vital role as the central governing system to map the images of learning in the human brain which may be called educational neuroscience. It provides means to develop a common language and bridge the gulf between educators, psychologists and neuroscientists. The emerging field of educational neuroscience presents opportunities as well as challenges for education, especially when it comes to assess the learning disorders and learning intentions of the students. The most effective learning involves recruiting multiple regions of the brain for the learning task. These regions are associated with such functions as memory, the various senses, volitional control, and higher levels of cognitive functioning. By considering biological factors, research has advanced the understanding of specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. Likewise, neuroscience is uncovering why certain types of learning are more rewarding than others. Of late, a lot of research has gone in the field of neural networks and deep learning. It is worthwhile to consider these research areas in investigating the interplay between the human brain and human formal/natural learning. This book is intended to bring together the recent advances in neuroscience research and their influence on the evolving learning systems with special emphasis on the evolution of a learner-centric framework in outcome based education by taking into cognizance the learning abilities and intentions of the learners.
This volume makes a philosophical contribution to the application of neuroscience in education. It frames neuroscience research in novel ways around educational conceptualizing and practices, while also taking a critical look at conceptual problems in neuroeducation and at the economic reasons driving the mind-brain education movement. It offers alternative approaches for situating neuroscience in educational research and practice, including non-reductionist models drawing from Dewey and phenomenological philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. The volume gathers together an international bevy of leading philosophers of education who are in a unique position to contribute conceptually rich and theoretically framed insight on these new developments. The essays form an emerging dialogue to be used within philosophy of education as well as neuroeducation, educational psychology, teacher education and curriculum studies.
The advent of educational neuroscience, a transdisciplinary exercise emerging from cognitive neuroscience and educational psychology, is the examination of physiological processes that undermine, support, and enhance the capacities to learn and create. The physiological underpinnings of learning and creativity each impact human ability and performance and mediate the processes of becoming educated, expert, and valued. Evidence of learning provides support to an ongoing canon, process, system, field or domain, while evidence of creativity results in an elaboration or departure from an ongoing canon, process, system, field, or domain. Educational neuroscience extends a challenge to scholars from multiple contexts to engage in the characterization and exploration of human ability and performance in these realms. The role of context, both environmental and interoceptive, is an integral part of efforts in educational neuroscience and in theories of constructivist learning to contribute ecologically valid insight to the pragmatic processes of learning and creativity. Examination at this level of specificity is vital to our ability to educate and support human potential in the 21st century. This Research Topic examines the neural basis of cognitive states and processes that influence knowledge and skill acquisition tied to the demonstration of human ability and performance across individual differences and in multiple contexts including STEM learning and the arts.
A psychology professor and author investigates the different ways the human brain learns best at every age and uses social neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology to demonstrate what good teachers do to maximize brain stimulation in difficult students.
“Teachers hold the potential to provide a student with frustration or opportunity every day—and those states are closer together than you might think.” When students repeatedly lose track of directions or take a long time to solve problems, it’s easy for teachers to see the distracted or off-task behavior, but not always to see the root of the problem. Quite often the same child who has an underdeveloped skill may have an opposing but hidden strength: a slow processor of information may also be a deep thinker. Teaching to Every Kid’s Potential is an invitation to teachers to improve the learning in their classrooms, one student at a time, using practical, evidence-based strategies. Focusing on four big concepts from neuroscience—flexibility, readiness, connection, and masking—the author shows how to apply them to build on the strengths of students. Each chapter unpacks the science; shows how talents can compensate for neural processing issues and suggests small but powerful adjustments to classroom practice that can allow kids’ gifts to emerge.
Successful teaching techniques informed by the latest research about how kids’ brains work. Teachers are forever searching for ways to help students raise test scores or improve memory and organizational skills. Brain research is finally beginning to show them how they can shape their daily teaching practices to best meet these kinds of needs, and more, in their students. But how is a teacher to make sense of all the studies, research reports, and papers? How can you know what will actually work in the classroom? In this book, Kimberly Carraway, a leading educator and “teacher of teachers,” not only summarizes the most essential principles of how the brain learns, but also unpacks hundreds of ready-to-use applications of research in the classroom, translating the science into teaching strategies and learning activities that optimize student outcomes. Transforming Your Teaching is not about doing more. It’s about doing things more effectively. With brain-based tips for instructional design, knowledge assessment, and the enhancement of learning skills like time management, note-taking, attention, reading comprehension, organization, and memory, this user-friendly book will empower teachers, administrators, and parents to maximize retention and classroom success for their K-12 students.
