The intention behind the ENH is to connect educators and parents with the most recent evidence-based practices and scientific research to improve pedagogy, strategies, and intervention in schools, and at home. The aim is to create more awareness and a better understanding of the development of the brain within the context of teaching and learning.
It is a research-based centre in which a diverse faculty of brain, cognitive, and social science researchers, child development experts, and educators present innovative research and pioneering ideas. Peer-reviewed articles or other recent neuroscience news will also be included.
How do children’s and young people’s brains develop when they learn? How can children’s social and emotional development be enhanced? How can emotions be regulated and how can resilience be built? Which intervention programmes and technologies should be pursued throughout a child’s or an adolescent’s life? How can memory skills be improved? These are questions, amongst many others, that the ENH seeks to answer, aware that the findings and insights of these questions must be shared, discussed, and transformed into pedagogy, thus providing the tools and the techniques educators and parents need to navigate seamlessly between the emotional, cognitive, behavioural and intellectual dimensions.
The ENH blog is designed as a digital platform for the exchange of ideas and opinions, and to strengthen the collaboration between scientific researchers, and educators/parents. However, online and face-to-face webinars, as well as seminars, workshops, and talks are planned to be organised for educators and parents in order to share academic progress and growth, and with the hope that these scientific strategies would eventually be implemented and integrated within our local educational system, which can lead to positive outcomes for all.
The science of teaching and learning helps educators to develop and increase their understanding of early and adolescent brain development, and how these brain changes might relate to learning processes. It provides and helps educators form insight and strategies that play to a student’s strengths. Teachers will also be able to distinguish those practices that are least effective and provide the evidence-based interventions that can significantly help students with their cognitive, social, emotional and behavioural performance.
The ENH targets not only educators or any other significant professional working with children, but also parents who are usually the source of their children’s earliest and ongoing experiences throughout life, and those who are likely to influence brain development. In addition, parents provide a protective barrier between the outside world and young children’s brain development. When parents are able to cope with the stresses the world throws at them, then children may be better equipped to do the same. Parents’ influence on children’s brain development is a compelling and fresh case for supporting parenting. It calls for actions that will support and safeguard parents. As a society, if we value children, we should value their parents as well.
The following website www.howthebrainworks.science would serve well as foundational knowledge for the upcoming blogs and webinars related to the science of teaching and learning. This was created recently by Prof Michael Thomas (Director of the Centre of Educational Neuroscience, London) for parents and teachers explaining in accessible terms how the brain works, and how this is important for understanding the mind.
The start of the ENH initiative is the collaboration with the Faculty of Education (UM) and the Centre for Educational Neuroscience at the University College London/Birbeck to promote and disseminate ways in which educational neuroscience can inform classroom instruction among the local educators and schools. Our first step consists of two webinars aimed toward an understanding of educational neuroscience and its potential application to understand and improve student learning. Below is more information about the webinars and speakers.
EDUCATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE – Webinar 1
Date: Wednesday 11th May 2022
Time: noon to 2 pm
Registration is free using the link below:
https://universityofmalta.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYtdeGpqDspGdFyQDkP9YERuR0vZTTVztEM
In his talk, Prof Michael Thomas will explain how educational neuroscience is an interdisciplinary research field that seeks to translate research findings on neural mechanisms of learning to educational practice and policy and to understand the effects of education on the brain. Neuroscience and education can interact directly, by virtue of considering the brain as a biological organ that needs to be in the optimal condition to learn (‘brain health’); or indirectly, as neuroscience shapes psychological theory and psychology influences education. He will use his talk to trace the origins of educational neuroscience, its main areas of research activity and the principal challenges it faces as a translational field.
About the Speaker
Since 2010, Prof Michael Thomas has been Director of the University of London Centre for Educational Neuroscience, a cross-institutional research centre that aims to advance translational research between neuroscience and education and develop practical applications within education. In 2003, Michael established the Developmental Neurocognition Laboratory within Birkbeck’s world-leading Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development. The focus of his laboratory is to use multi-disciplinary methods to understand the brain and cognitive bases of cognitive variability, including intelligence and developmental disorders. Within educational neuroscience, his work includes understanding the role of inhibitory control in children’s science and math learning; investigating the influence of cell phone use on adolescent brain development; linking findings on sensitive periods in brain development to their educational implications; and building links between genetics, environment, and education in children’s developmental outcomes. In 2006, his research lab was the co-recipient of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, for the project “Neuropsychological work with the very young: understanding brain function and cognitive development”. Michael is a Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
EDUCATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE – Webinar 2
Date: Wednesday 18th May 2022
Time: 2 pm to 4 pm
Registration is free using the link below:
https://universityofmalta.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwtduGpqjIiHte_lWeE3Qf1bxD3pJ_5HPRt
In his talk, Prof Andy Tolmie will refer to how children’s ability to understand counter-intuitive concepts in Science and Maths is often limited by their ability to inhibit either direct perceptual evidence or pre-existing beliefs, impeding their learning. Using evidence from educational neuroscience, this session will examine why this is so and explore how to address these challenges, drawing out more general messages about the ways in which neuroscience can inform classroom interventions.
About the Speaker
Prof Andy Tolmie is Chair of Psychology and Human Development at the UCL Institute of Education, where he has been based since 2007. He is also Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience, and Chair of the British Psychological Society Research Board. Andy is a developmental psychologist with longstanding interest in the neurocognitive and social factors underpinning the growth of children’s conceptual representations and behavioural skills in real-world settings, particularly in the primary school age range. Most of his work has focused on educationally-relevant topics and settings, with a substantial emphasis on primary school science, but also on the acquisition of road-crossing skills among children, the use of educational technology to support learning, and most recently the role of motor control in the development of executive function. His research has made extensive use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. He was Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology from 2007-12, is currently an Associate Editor for Brain Sciences and Frontiers in Psychology (Cognitive Science) and was Chair of the BPS Journals’ Editorial Advisory Group from 2010 to 2018. Andy was a member of a Royal Society working group in 2010, reporting on science and mathematics education 5-14; and of a UNESCO Expert Group on Girls’ Education in Science and Mathematics in 2016.
Hope to see you there!