I do believe in the idea of short-term or working memory and long-term memory from my own personal experiences. When I put in long hours at work and am sleep deprived, I actually observe myself forgetting things and I feel the effects of the lack of sleep on my memory.

So I agree that understanding the biological basis for learning and memory and how this is affected by stress, sleep, emotions, experiences, exercise, and the food and drugs one eats is relevant for planning lessons and guiding teachers’ pedagogical choices in the context of their classrooms.

Some of the areas of teaching and learning that are related to neuroscience are attention in the classroom, schemas, long-term memory, short-term memory, language comprehension, interference, imagery, forgetting, and advanced organizers.

For sure, it would be difficult to do research in schools from a neuroscience perspective. These days, and rightly so with all that is going on in the world, parent’s permission is required for anything concerning their child. Even taking photographs of students requires permission from parents. For these reasons, research in neuroscience is not usually conducted in schools and classrooms and therefore their application in the classroom can be challenged.

Dubinsky, Roehrig, & Varma (2022) provides a detailed analysis of why knowledge of neuroscience is useful for teachers to guide their lessons planning and in-the-moment pedagogical decisions and as a lens into the students’ capabilities. Also knowledge of neuroscience would be beneficial for teachers in their daily teaching practice by improving teachers efficacies in self-efficacy, motivation, self-regulation, and self-responsibility for student outcomes. In addition to applying knowledge of neuroscience to develop student-centered pedagogical practices.

Every student can learn; just not the same way and not every day.

The authors remind us of a model of teacher’s professional knowledge consisting of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), curricular knowledge, knowledge of students (KoS) and their characteristics, knowledge of educational systems and contexts, and knowledge of educational theories and philosophy. 

Knowledge of students (KoS) refers to knowledge of how learning takes place in the brain and what physiological, affective and motivational states contribute to optimal student learning. Conceptions of KoS vary from KoS as part of learning theories, as a component of PK and as knowledge of how students respond in the classrooms to particular content (PCK).

Dubinsky et al., (2022) discuss a more nuanced view of KoS as the integration of the knowledge of individual student characteristics (KoS) within teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge (PK) and psychological knowledge. These characteristics include students’ cognitive, emotional, and motivational abilities, with the cognitive abilities further broken down into learning, memory, attention, information processing, and cognitive development.

The authors describe a metaphor of a teacher as a tree with roots into the soil of multiple research based disciplines and drawing up nutrients from the various disciplines to feed the teacher’s pedagogy. Neuroscience is a discipline that provides a key nutrient: the mechanistic explanations for the behavioural insights coming from the other disciplines.

Dubinsky et al., (2022) provides more details into various views and the different components of KoS beginning with developmental changes during childhood (development theories) and then behavioural explanations of cognitive growth; neuroscience providing the biological, mechanistic explanations for development and growth. The next component of KoS is preparation for learning which includes understanding the student’s intuitive knowledge, that is, ‘core knowledge’ of the disciplinary concepts plus the prior knowledge students are expected to acquire in earlier grades. Neuroscience provides the explanations that misconceptions are not erased from the brain with the acquisition of new knowledge, rather they are suppressed or inhibited by new synapses or new circuits expressing more sophisticated understanding. This provides an explanation for the observation that students have difficulty discarding their misconceptions they bring to science classrooms. KoS includes culture, ethnicity and language backgrounds which are wired into the brain as a form of prior knowledge. Learners’ different attitudes, motivational levels, confidence, abilities to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies are components of KoS. Low levels of stress produce motivation in students whereas high levels of stress prevent learning by inhibiting synaptic plasticity, the change that occurs during learning.

Dubinsky et al., (2022) discusses a neuroscience-informed KoS focusing on synaptic plasticity as the biological basis for learning and memory; how this is modulated by emotions, stress, sleep, and drugs; biological brain development; and decision-making. Understanding synaptic plasticity and brain growth during childhood and adolescence shapes how teachers view students’ ability to learn and expand their social and emotional skills. Synaptic plasticity provides a justification for differentiation and extending opportunities to students to reach their potentials. This also provides justification for teachers to discard the idea of students instantly absorbing what was taught and replacing it with a view that students learn in different ways and the teacher should provide diverse experiences. Students must have multiple encounters with the same content, a process that takes time and requires a safe space. Psychological issues around emotions and stress affect students’ potential to learn.

Neuroscience-views of students provide explanations of why providing rich learning experiences, student-centered pedagogies, student-centered activities, increased emphasis on higher-order thinking, building deeper knowledge, engaging in more substantive conversations, making more connections to real-world problems are more preferable. Also why focusing on building relationships with students, providing students with social and emotional support, promoting self-regulation by replacing harsh disciplinary procedures with positive reinforcements, and utilizing more student-centered pedagogies are more preferable.

References

Dubinsky, J. M., Roehrig, G., & Varma, S. (2022). A Place for Neuroscience in Teacher Knowledge and Education. Mind, Brain and Education, 16(4), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12334