How do children’s and young people’s brains develop when they learn? 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 educational neuroscience (EN) seeks to answer. And the result findings and insights are then shared, discussed, and transformed into pedagogy, thus providing educators and parents the tools and strategies they need to transition effortlessly between learners’ emotional, cognitive, behavioural and intellectual dimensions.
Anything that affects ability for learning ultimately involves the brain.
EN is an emerging field that is changing the way we think about teaching and learning, by applying scientific evidence based on the human brain to teaching pedagogy, as part of what has become known as the science of teaching and learning.
The science of teaching and learning helps educators 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 instead provide the evidence-based interventions that can significantly help students with their cognitive, social, emotional and behavioural performance.
EN is still an innovative scientific field but it is flourishing on an international basis. Internationally, more policy makers and educators are becoming aware of EN and revising their curriculums, instruction, and assessments to reflect the new research.
Several universities and colleges have established programmes dedicated to this effort, all aimed at alerting pre-service and professional development sessions for educators of this innovative area about how we learn.
On the local scene, EN is still very much in its infancy, and has not yet reached educators who should be actively involved with the practical applications of EN. Schools need to be encouraged to build an evidence-based system for teacher preparation so teachers can select instructional strategies more likely to succeed with today’s students based on the science of learning.
If school leaders and educators, whether in child-care centres, play schools, primary and secondary schools, colleges, as well as further and higher education institutions, are slow in recognising and acting on the important findings from EN, their students will not have the advantage of learning from the most recently updated teaching strategies delivered using an EN-informed curriculum.
Policymakers also bear the responsibility of ensuring that educational practices in schools align with these evidence-based strategies.
Our key objective is to connect policy makers, educators and parents with the most recent evidence-based practices and scientific research to improve pedagogy, strategies, and intervention in schools, and at home to create more awareness and a better understanding of the development of the brain within the context of teaching and learning.
Sharing academic progress and growth in this area to inform all stakeholders involved in the education of our children will result in the implementation and integration of strategies within our local educational system which can lead to positive outcomes.
The establishment of the field of EN marks the arrival of an era that focuses on human brain learning models and mechanisms, and how these interact with higher level cognitive and socio-cultural processes, which gives researchers, leaders, and practitioners specific opportunities to re-examine educational practice and research.
Teachers, who use a scientifically-informed approach to evaluate educational programmes, will be able to help their students learn more effectively. EN offers teachers explanations that affirm known practices or help justify exploring untried strategies. The foundational neuroscience concepts offer a lens to reconsider, re-envision and re-design their lessons.
The aim of EN is to improve learning based on scientific evidence. It is not a cure-all for educational issues, but it does promise to find out how we can best support ALL learners!
The author is founder and director of the Educational Neuroscience Hub Europe (Malta). The Educational Neuroscience Hub aims to forefront awareness of evidence-based strategies, with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process, placing our students at the centre of their education. To contact her, email erikagalea@educationalneurosciencehub.com