Jill Maschio, PhD
June 12, 2023
I started my teaching career at a community college over 14 years ago. I started my career by doing the traditional lecture followed by an exam, partly because that was all I had seen or been taught. After applying neuroscience to my pedagogy, I realized that there seems to be this mindset among college faculty that engagement and active learning is a thing of the past – it’s for children. We become adults, so we are expected to show up to class and listen to the lectures and retain the information. Sadly, the majority of the lecture is lost, probably forever in the minds of the listener. The brain retains only a small portion of what is said in a traditional hour lecture. The brain needs time to digest the bits and pieces of information, to comprehend the information, and make the information meaningful in some way, which initiates the formation of long-term memories. Yet, in many college classrooms, information may be conveyed faster than the mind can determine a new reality about the information and determine how the information might be useful before the educator moves onto a new topic.
I wanted to revolutionize how I teach, so I started researching different ways of engaging students and creating more interactive learning experiences. Through my research and creativity, I found that incorporating engaging activities, including games, virtual rooms, and problem-solving group activities can help bridge the gap between the learner and the content for a number of reasons. One is that through active learning, the learner can relate to the concept and gain an understanding of how the concepts work in real world and in their own lives.
Providing the Right Learning Environment
Learners are developing in their minds the reality of what is being taught, so I work to provide an environment where they can have the time and freedom to develop their own reality with the content. Students learn at different speeds, and some need more time to process information. Don’t rush through the material and content for the purpose of keeping up with some curriculum schedule at the cost of hindering some students from learning. Let the students talk about the concepts and topics amongst each other and share experiences. That’s how they learn.
Despite this general knowledge, change is hard, especially when we have been doing something the same way time-after-time. To make a change, I decided to mix my lecture with activities and demonstrations. This not only created an engaged audience, but it also allowed for the students to fully understand concepts better than before. It was like turning the lights on in their minds!
How Neuroscience can help the Field of Education
The brain can only hold about 7 bits of information at a time. It could be more or less than that depending on the student. It is easy to overload the brain with information where it doesn’t have enough time to process information correctly. The brain is trying to determine what information is the most important to process, but when educators rush content, then the brain may abort the learning process or even wrongfully determine which information is most important. As a result, a few things can occur. The students experiences cognitive overload as a result of the educator communicating too much information at a time. Second, the student misunderstands the information given.
Neuroscience taught me the importance of grabbing students’ attention at the start of a new topic. Once a student is interested in a topic/concept, it produces dopamine in the brain that enhances the learning experience and retains attention longer. That can lead to students retaining more knowledge. I also learned the importance of slowing down to allow the student some time to process the information before moving onto the next topic or concept or theory. The training workshop I created is devoted to inform educators how to teach in a different format with how the brain learns.
- You can learn more about the influence neuroscience has for education by clicking here.
