Neuroscience of Learning

Understanding how our brains learn is essential for all teachers.

In the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in our understanding of the human brain, how it develops and learns and how best to teach students. Many of the older ideas and strategies around learning and memory have been shown to be incorrect and recent findings paint a very different picture of the human brain and its capacity to learn. Teachers have the opportunity to learn and adapt their teaching practices to incorporate many of these findings into their own teaching strategies.

In this course, participants will first learn about the recent findings in the neuroscience of learning including:

• The importance of understanding neuroplasticity and how the brain works
• How memories are formed
• Hebbian learning and how it can be facilitated in the classroom
• Attention and its vital role in learning and memory.
• The role of emotions in memory formation and facilitation
• The good and bad aspects of stress and its impact on learning and the brain
• The brain basis of addiction and how it can be used to instill a lifelong passion for learning

The focus will be on how teachers can implement strategies in the classroom to improve learning, memory and most importantly deep understanding.