Neuroscience Education for Prekindergarten–12 Teachers

Changes in teacher neuroscience knowledge (A), confidence in that knowledge (B), and pedagogical practices (C) as a result of attending a single summer 2 week introductory BrainU workshop. A, Teacher content knowledge was assessed using an 11-question multiple-choice test given at the beginning and end of a BrainU workshop. Bars represent mean ± SEM for n = 5 separate workshops. B, Teachers rated their confidence in their neuroscience knowledge in surveys completed before and after attending BrainU. Bars represent mean ± SD for n = 61 teacher surveys at each time point. C, Science lessons in BrainU and control teachers' classrooms were observed by trained evaluators using Newmann's Standards of Authentic Instruction (Newmann et al., 1995). The Standards addressed characteristics observed in student thinking and classroom interactions. Higher-order thinking in which students combined facts and ideas to synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize, or arrive at a conclusion was distinguished from lower-order thinking involving repetitive receiving or reciting of factual information, rules, and algorithms. Depth of knowledge was assessed as the degree to which instruction and students' reasoning addressed the central ideas with enough thoroughness to explore connections and relationships and to produce relatively complex understandings and explanations. Substantive conversations tracked extended (at least 3 consecutive) conversational interchanges among students and the teacher about subject matter in a way that built an improved and shared understanding of ideas or topics. Connections to the world measured students' involvement and ability to connect substantive knowledge to public problems or personal experiences. Bars represent mean ± SD for n = 46 BrainU and n = 12 control classrooms. *, **, and *** represent p ≤ 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively, in two-tailed t tests.