Jonathan Beale, Researcher-in-Residence, Eton College @drjonathanbeale
The recently published ‘BrainCanDo’ Handbook of Teaching and Learning: Practical Strategies to Bring Psychology and Neuroscience into the Classroom outlines some of the research undertaken at BrainCanDo, an educational neuroscience research centre at Queen Anne’s School, and offers practical strategies for its application in secondary schools. The centre takes an evidence-informed approach to improving teaching and learning by conducting research on educational neuroscience in collaboration with university experts and applying it in the classroom.
This book’s eleven chapters are divided into five sections. This blog post provides an overview, with each sub-heading covering a section.
1: Controversies and applications
In Chapter 1, Jonathan Beale discusses the greatest problem facing educational neuroscience: how to move from neuroscientific evidence to its application in education. Beale argues that making this move without due attention to certain methodological hazards leaves educational neuroscience open to the accusation of ‘scientism’: excessive belief in the power or value of science. Beale offers suggestions on how to avoid scientism in educational neuroscience.
In Chapter 2, Gill Little shares ways that Queen Anne’s has attempted to bridge the gap between educational neuroscience and educational practice. Little offers school leaders strategies to support the introduction of an evidence-informed teaching and learning culture in their own educational contexts.
2: Becoming a successful learner
In Chapter 3, Iro Konstantinou and Jonnie Noakes argue that for schools to equip pupils with the skills to become engaged citizens who can thrive in a diverse society, character education needs to be embedded within a school’s curriculum, co-curriculum and wider culture. They outline evidence-informed practices that can foster some of the most important character skills for a changing world.
In Chapter 4, Amy Fancourt and Joni Holmes consider the extent to which working memory underpins many aspects of learning. They review research on the development of working memory and ways to use this research to support all learners, through recognising individual differences in working memory capacity.
3: Motivation
This section approaches motivation through three psychological concepts: motivational contagion, mindset and executive functioning. In Chapter 5, Laura Burgess, Patricia Riddell and Kou Murayama offer practical strategies for harnessing the advantages of motivational contagion in the classroom. They explore the mechanisms underlying the transfer of attitude and motivation within classroom contexts, and offer recommendations on how teachers can use this knowledge to foster academic motivation.
In Chapter 6, Catherine Lutz investigates the relationship between mindsets and motivation. Research shows that an individual’s mindset and personal motivations are important variables that influence attainment and enjoyment. Lutz investigates how these may influence academic achievement and professional satisfaction in the classroom. Lutz offers practical applications to support the development of growth mindset and motivation.
In Chapter 7, Laurie Faith, Bettina Hohnen, Victoria Bagnall and Imogen Moore-Shelley offer an account of how an approach towards teaching and learning centred around executive functioning skills can develop self-regulation, metacognition and motivation. The chapter provides an overview of the development of executive functioning skills in primary and secondary school-aged children and outlines an approach for building executive functioning skills which is currently being used in primary and secondary schools.
4: Wellbeing
In Chapter 8, Frances Le Cornu Knight explains the vital role of sleep in creating optimal conditions for learning and healthy development throughout adolescence. Through discussion of current research on sleep, Knight outlines the reasons for sleep deprivation in the adolescent population today. The chapter offers recommendations for schools to promote the vital role of sleep to learning and well-being and strategies that can improve sleep hygiene. Knight recommends that we seriously consider the potential value of introducing a later school start time.
Gratitude has been shown to be important for improving well-being, and recent neuroscientific research suggests that feelings of gratitude are linked with the activation of brain areas associated with thinking about others, judging subjective value, emotion, motivation and reward. Chapter 9 explores the impact that gratitude can have on adolescents’ subjective social well-being and social cohesion. Sarah Buckingham and Joseph Buckingham draw upon current research on gratitude to show the connection between expressions of gratitude and pro-social behaviour. They argue that a great deal of life satisfaction is connected to the amount of gratitude experienced. The chapter offers practical suggestions for schools to develop pupils’ gratitude.
5: Subject-specific research
The final section covers studies that apply educational neuroscience to mathematics, science and music. In Chapter 10, Annie Brookman-Byrne and Iroise Dumontheil provide an overview of the neural changes during adolescence and consider how knowledge of these can be used to enhance teaching and learning. They consider the role of inhibitory control in the acquisition of counterintuitive concepts that are typically found in science and mathematics. The chapter outlines ways to encourage adolescents to employ more widespread use of inhibitory control mechanisms to strengthen this executive function.
In Chapter 11, Daniel Müllensiefen and Peter Harrison explore how music can influence adolescents’ cognitive and socio-emotional development and how music, as a model of brain plasticity, could form an effective teaching intervention. The authors report results from a new study that tracks the development of musical abilities together with cognitive and socio-emotional skills across adolescence. They argue that our current knowledge of brain plasticity and the changes that occur in the brain as a result of musical learning can be used to support mindset teaching interventions. The authors offer a framework for developing such an intervention.
The BrainCanDo Handbook of Teaching and Learning is available to buy now from Routledge. For a 20% discount on this and purchases across the Routledge range, log in to view all current NACE member offers.
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