Neuroscience for Teachers: Applying research evidence from brain science

Cover
Praise
Title Page
Foreword by Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE
Preface
	What’s in the book?
		Meta-analyses and effect sizes
		How we have used references in the text and the way in which we sometimes talk about the brain
		Chapter structure and glossary
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of Reflections
List of Research Zones
1: Neuroscience in the classroom – principles and practice
	Why would you want to know about this?
	What is neuroscience?
	How does the brain work?
	What techniques are used in neuroscience research?
		Neuroimaging in humans
		Techniques in laboratory animals
	Research into mathematics teaching illustrates what neuroscience can bring to education
		Maths anxiety
		Non-symbolic and symbolic numerical representation
		Mental rotation skills
	Things that sometimes make collaboration between neuroscientists and teachers difficult
	A cautionary tale of what happens when things go wrong
		Misinterpretation of experimental results
		Distortion of scientific facts, normally through the over-simplification of results
		Belief in a previously held scientific hypothesis
	Next steps
2: Learning and remembering
	Why would you want to know about this?
	A neuroscience view of learning and memory
		Making connections in the classroom
	Paying attention – what does this mean from a neuroscience perspective?
		Start with a good headline
		Inattentional blindness and suggestions for how to avoid it
		Being careful about how we talk about attention to avoid a new neuromyth
	Memory processes and structures
		Memory processes
		Types of storage (consolidation)
	The structure of working memory
		Sustaining attention and the use of working memory in the classroom – social interaction and effective questioning
		Stages in the process of forming a working memory – implications for the classroom
	The structure of long-term memory
		The role of sleep in consolidating long-term memory
		From working memory to long-term memory
			Self-referencing
			Executive function and recent research into its role in effective learning
			Chunking and organising information into categories – how and why it can help
	How your lesson structure could improve the potential for remembering
		The von Restorff effect
		The primacy and recency effect
		Association and repetition – not that again (we hear you say)!
	Next steps
3: Metacognition
	Why would you want to know about this?
	Key features of metacognition
		Phases of metacognition
			Metacognitive planning
			Metacognitive monitoring
			Metacognitive evaluation
		Cognition versus metacognition
		Metacognition and ability
	How the brain thinks about thinking
		The basis of metacognition from a neuroscience perspective
	A metacognitive menu
		Questions that can be posed at each point of a reading comprehension task
			Planning questions
			Monitoring questions
			Evaluation questions
		Other strategies to support metacognition
	Next steps
4: Emotions and learning
	Why would you want to know about this?
	Mood and emotion
	Types of emotion
	The neuroscience of emotion
		Factors affecting mood and emotions
			Day of the week and time of day
			Sleep
			Exercise
	Manipulating mood in the classroom
	The body under stress
	The stress response
	Factors affecting the impact of stress
		Stress in the learning context
		Timing of the stressor
	Managing stress in the classroom
		Environmental factors
		Teacher training
		Pupil training
	Motivation to learn
		What is motivation?
		Dopamine: a key neurotransmitter in motivation
		Using risk to motivate in the classroom
	Next steps
5: The individual in the classroom
	Why would you want to know about this?
	Individuals and neuroscience
	The neuroscience of exceptional performance
		General high intelligence and the brain
			Research on brain volume
			Research using EEG
			Research using PET and fMRI
		Specific talent and the brain – two areas that have been studied recently
			Expert drivers and what studying this has told scientists about ability
			The musical brain
		Short cuts to talent: smart drugs
	The question of nature versus nurture – Part I
		The neuroscience of specific disorders – three areas where neuroscience is making a contribution
		Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
			Changes in brain structure and function in ADHD
			Treatment of ADHD
			ADHD in the classroom
		Dyslexia
			Changes in brain structure and function in dyslexia
			Dyslexia interventions
			Developmental dyscalculia – a brief note
		Autism spectrum disorder
			Some of the controversies surrounding autism and the challenges involved in studying it
			The brain science associated with autism
			Helping children with autism in schools
	The question of nature versus nurture – Part II
		Grouping by abilities
	Next steps
6: The adolescent brain
	Why would you want to know about this?
	Peer pressure, or ‘Do you realise you don’t have to do everything your friends tell you?!’
		The importance of being liked
		The neuroscience of peer pressure
		Interpreting emotional displays
	Puberty as a trigger of changes in the adolescent brain
	Decision-making, or ‘Why can’t you think of your future for once?!’
		Youthful short-sightedness
		Conflicting decisions in the adolescent brain
	Risk-taking, or ‘How could you be so reckless?!’
	Next steps
7: Surprises from cognitive psychology and neuroscience
	Why would you want to know about this?
	‘Desirable difficulties’ – what does this mean?
		The difference between learning and performance, and why this distinction is so important
	Changing the way you teach so you vary the conditions to which your learners’ brains are exposed
	Building in time for forgetting by using spaced learning
	Testing more often and seeing testing as a learning event, not just a way of measuring outcomes
		Multiple-choice tests and how they can help
		Connecting the testing effect to learning and remembering
			The benefits of more frequent testing: some emerging conclusions
	Interleaving the content you teach
	Getting the learners to make things up themselves – the generation effect
		The worked example effect versus the generation effect
	Next steps
8: Concluding remarks
	Why would you want to learn more about this?
	Different types of research
		What is a randomised controlled trial?
		What is ‘significance’, and why is it not enough to just do one study?
	Where do we go from here? The role that teacher-led research could play in taking the neuroscience evidence forward
	Next steps
Glossary
References
About the authors
Kindle Link Page
Copyright