MORE ABOUT NEUROSCIENCE

Many teacher training programs focus exclusively on education and the latest methods of teaching.

This sounds like a great idea as all teachers should know about education research, methods, and the content they will be teaching - but to properly guide their students they need to address more than just these things.

Teachers should be building their awareness about how the brain and nervous system are developed and how they work - how the brain is connected to behavior and learning.

Your brain controls your ability to think, talk, see, feel, hear, walk, remember, and much, much more. It even controls your breathing and your heartbeat.

The brain is the most complex organ in our body. And it can do incredible things. Ultimately, the brain is responsible for our thinking, learning, and memory.

If we want to understand the most effective ways to teach and learn, we need to begin by understanding the neuroscience of learning.

How learning happens in the brain is not entirely understood, but neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have a very good idea about how the main processes work.

The main consideration is that our brains literally change when we learn something new. That is, our brain cells are physically and chemically changed.

When we recall what we have learned before, those changes are reactivated in the brain.

Your brain cells do not act alone; they are connected to other brain cells by neuronal circuits – this is why connections and associations are important to increase our understanding of topics.

If our knowledge is isolated, we may be able to recall it, but we will not be able to use it to solve a problem. When we try to link new information to things we already know, remembering one of them will activate the other ones and will improve our ability to provide a response.