In this blog, we look at an example of how scientific insights from educational neuroscience can practically inform classroom practice. We talk to UK high-school teacher Jeremy Dudman-Jones who has found educational neuroscience research integral to his professional approach – to the extent that he gives talks on the topic to students, teachers, parents, and even business professionals. Jeremy (centre above) is an experienced high-school teacher and assistant head in a London school. He has taught for over 34 years, including in three culturally diverse public schools in London, teaching geography, psychology, government and politics, and sociology.

We asked Jeremy three questions: How did he first encounter educational neuroscience? Which findings from neuroscience did he feel were most important in his practice? And how did he communicate educational neuroscience to others (and what was their response)?

We first asked Jeremy how he had encountered educational neuroscience: As a young adult training to be a teacher, it was obvious to me that engaging with a young person’s brain was going to be an important part of my job and as someone who had studied a biology degree, I had some vague understanding of the importance of chemical neurotransmitters and neurons even back in the early 1980s. The penny dropped in the mid-1990s with the publication of Steven Pinker’s “The Language instinct” and Judith Harris’ “The nurture assumption”. These books gave me the first insights into the fact that the brain was plastic, that it changed and that at certain periods of one’s life, it seemed to almost have greater specific skills.

The pre and post adolescent brains that I had been interacting with as a professional were different, were changing and were miraculous. In the early 2000s, when I was a tutor at the University of London Institute of Education working with teachers training in social science, I began to tell them about brain plasticity, a term that was being increasingly referenced in the literature I was reading. One of the new teachers seemed not to be particularly engaged so I asked what the problem was, and they said, “I don’t need to know what goes on under the bonnet, all I need you to tell me is how to drive the car”. For me, this became my inspiration and from then on, I resolved to learn more about neuroscience and to translate it, as any good teacher should be able to do, into meaningful and useful information for my teaching colleagues and I have continued this approach for over 20 years.

We next asked Jeremy which findings from neuroscience were most important in his practice: Having read the literature over the past few decades, it seemed to me that as a teacher I should try to focus on four main areas:

1. The idea of brain plasticity, of laying down neural connections and of synaptic pruning.
2. The idea that the brain in a sense matures as people go through adolescence and into adulthood – which parts of the brain appear to mature later and the impact this might have on behaviour and attitudes to learning.
3. Circadian rhythms are also important, given the timing of the school day, the importance of sleep and the apparent lag time the adolescent brain as in producing melatonin compared to the adult brain.
4. The role of neurotransmitters especially dopamine (for reward), serotonin (for mood) and oxytocin (for social bonding).

All of these insights have been useful to me as a teacher, pastoral lead and member of the school’s leadership team; I have certainly become more understanding and therefore more sympathetic to the changing attitudes of the secondary school student; I have been able to think more clearly about the need to return to topics to slow down or prevent synaptic pruning, I have been able to incorporate more dopamine events into the curriculum and use the “high five” to form oxytocin bonds; and I have been able to believe in the students much more given the insights that I have into the brilliant concept of plasticity.

Finally, we asked Jeremy how he communicates educational neuroscience to others (and what their response is): Over the years I have developed several presentations that I give to various educational stakeholders. These include presentations to primary school teachers, primary school parents and primary school students; secondary school teachers, parents, and students; senior leadership teams and individuals training to become teachers; and finally, people in industry and business settings. All of my presentations revolve around similar themes. These are: plasticity, synaptic pruning, motivation, circadian rhythms, neurotransmitters, basic cognitive psychology, and memory.

“My presentations revolve around similar themes: plasticity, motivation, circadian rhythms, neurotransmitters, basic cognitive psychology, and memory … The problems, if any, arise from what practically can then be done about the scientific findings”

Thankfully, all the audiences are fascinated by the insights that I have to offer. The problems, if any, arise from what practically can then be done about the findings. Practical solutions need time to be figured out and applying strategies in an already crowded market where silver bullets are promised by everyone is a real issue. My own presentations suggest that at the moment, there are no silver bullets on offer and that actually what stakeholders need to do is take on board the current academic findings and work with small personal strategies. Or realise that the brain changes and develops – understand this and you will be more understanding and accepting of adolescent behaviour and quirks.

I have also implemented a whole series of Action Research Groups with colleagues in my school. This means that I give a presentation on the “Teenage Brain” for 25 minutes, to a group of staff, including student teachers and then set aside another 25 minutes to allow staff to decide upon an Action research strategy that they can implement in their lessons or other aspects of school life over a 3-month period. They establish success criteria and ways of measuring impact and return after 3 months to feedback on their findings. Over the past few years, feedback has been nothing but positive and it has given staff the opportunity to take a more personal, trusting role in their own application of neuroscience findings.

In my experience, everyone is fascinated by neuroscience: parents are reassured that the changes they witness are the norm, staff understand that making memories requires effort, and students understand that their own brains are changing and that it is not to be feared; senior leaders become more sympathetic to teaching staff and they reconsider expectations including timings of meetings, and of course staff themselves become more aware of the genius and diversity of the students in their care. Finally, even slightly cynical business leaders see value in many elements of cognitive psychology, especially around the idea of team building, motivation and how reward channelled by neurotransmitters can best be utilised. However, I am very much of the view that educational neuroscience is at the early stages of its development, and there is much more to come.

Thank you, Jeremy!

References

Harris, J. R. (1998). The nurture assumption: why children turn out the way they do. New York, Free Press.

Pinker, S. (1994 / 2007). The Language Instinct. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Dr. Jessica Massonnié is a CEN alumnus who received her doctorate from Birkbeck in 2020 for her thesis on the impact of noise in the classroom. Jessica recently wrote an entry on ‘Perspectives on learning from neuroscience’, for the forthcoming International Encyclopedia of Education (4th Ed). In her entry, Jessica argued that it is essential for educational neuroscience researchers to spend time in schools. As she says, ‘placements in schools and involvement in learning communities provide invaluable opportunities to gain insight into the objectives, constraints and challenges of educators.’

In this blog, we hear from one of the CEN’s co-directors, Prof. Denis Mareschal, who has combined his academic research activities with volunteering one day a week in a local primary school to teach maths. We asked Denis how his experiences in the classroom have helped to shape his research. Here’s what he told us:

“I started my volunteer work in an inner city London primary state school almost 10 years ago. While I had considerable hands-on experience of working with children in educational and recreational settings in the past, I had moved away from the front line of educational practice as my academic career had progressed. Although I very much enjoy the research topics that I work on, I also missed the direct impact that teaching has on children. I therefore approached a local school and offered a day a week of my time.

At first, my role was to support classroom teachers (much like a teaching assistant), especially Newly Qualified Teachers. However, after a few years, the school realised that I had advanced maths training and could deliver “stretch” sessions for the top performing students in Years 5 and 6. Alongside this, I have continued to contribute one-on-one literacy and reading support for children who may not get as much support at home as others. I do this for children from Years 1 through 3.

Probably the biggest lesson I have learnt from this work is the reality of the challenges that teachers face in the classroom. While we researchers tend to focus on detailed questions of learning (e.g., whole word vs phonics as the best way to teach reading), teachers face much more substantial obstacles to learning that often arise from outside the schools. Sociological questions about how regularly a child comes to school, how engaged those at home are with the school work, and what message they get from carers about the value of school all impact very substantially on the child’s educational achievements.

‘the role of basic research into the learning sciences is to ensure that, however small the “learning windows” when the child is at school and focussed actually are, their learning uptake is the most effective’

In the end the cognitive variables that we explore as scientists often feel very secondary given these much bigger issues. That said, I have also come to understand better that the role of basic research into the learning sciences is to ensure that, however small the “learning windows” when the child is at school and focussed actually are, their learning uptake is the most effective. In this way the child can benefit maximally from the time they are actually present in class.

A second point is that frontline primary teachers have to deal with a large number of directives and changing pedagogical frameworks that disempower them. The consequence is that they are often reluctant to take up any new approach. Consequently, as a research scientist who may wish to transfer my findings to practical classroom practice, I have to make sure that my suggestions are clear, easy to implement, engaging and empower the teachers to use their own judgement, experience and skill. This will maximise the likelihood that teachers actually take up the suggestions and integrate them within their own classroom practice.

Beyond the classroom environment, it is clear from my tutoring work with the children how much repetition forms the basis of learning. Unlike what theories of “insight learning” advocate, I have found that children learn new concepts by gradually and repeatedly dealing with relevant problems or tasks.

Once they have acquired a lot of experience or practice (and even though they may still not be able to explicitly explain how or why they do something), children of all ages can have moments of insight during which the information being taught “clicks” and they are able to provide an explicit explanation. This corresponds to a moment when the new information suddenly fits within their mental model of how other parts of (say) maths work. That said, children can also often have the feeling of an “insight moment” and still have a completely wrong reasoning process. Experiencing an “aha” moment… does not necessarily mean that they have the right answer or understanding!

In short, while my time in the classroom has not directly shaped the research questions that I have followed, it has helped me understand the large challenges that both the teacher and the learner face in a classroom. This has led me to think of solutions that are practical and practicable in the real world.

Most importantly, it has been fun — not a bed of roses everyday — but a chance to reconnect with why I am doing research in the learning sciences in the first place.”

At CEN, we are keen to hear from those who are working at the intersection of research and educational practice. We are delighted to introduce Margaret Mulholland, SEND and Inclusion Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders, former Director of Development & Research at the Swiss Cottage Teaching School Alliance. She shares inspiring resources and insights with us!

How do you keep up-to-date with the latest education research? Is it important to you whether the research uses particular methods (e.g. neuroscience, classroom-based)?

I read a lot and I use Twitter to steer me toward things that are beyond my familiar scope. When I am driving or exercising I enjoy podcasts, I sometimes force the whole family to listen!

I particularly like Ollie Lovell’s Education Research Reading Room (ERRR). It broadcasts a series of podcasts. Try the ones with Dylan William, John Hattie or Jon Sweller (you just can’t escape Cognitive Load Theory at the moment), or Podcast 17 for a real challenge to our infatuation with meta analysis – love it!

Provenance of the evidence is what interests me. As an historian I always ask who wrote this? And why? I listened to the ERRR interview with Daniel Willingham – who’s insights on the lessons of cognitive psychology and neuroscience for the classroom are so very popular in our secondary schools at the moment. Willingham is an advocate for teaching of scientific knowledge, so I was delighted to hear him talk about his wife being a Montessori teacher and his children going to Montessori school. This seemed so incongruent based on where Willingham is positioned on the knowledge skills debate. Looking at provenance here helps to unpick the complexities in his position and not be taken in by the polarised positioning translated through the media. To be honest, it made me more inclined to hear him out – however, I’m not shifting!

Could you tell us how research has influenced your teaching?

My own experience of learning to teach was based on the ‘clinical practice’ model used by Oxford University to frame their teacher training programme. Here, theory and practice is bridged for beginner teachers through working with experts. The model sees the university tutor and the classroom mentor as equals in the process of helping the beginning teacher see the link between the theoretical understanding and their response to pupils in the moment.

In fact so heavily influenced was I by this theoretical framework, that most of my career has been focused on the practice development of new teachers. I was lucky enough early in my very first year of teaching to work with Hazel Hagger and Donald McIntyre on an Esme Fairburn research project on the importance of mentoring. I didn’t see it as research – I saw the relationship with evidence and with the researchers as simply helping me to get better as a teacher.

Over the last few years my work has focused on how we help new teachers recognise vulnerable learners as their starting point when planning for learning, rather than as an afterthought. Learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities don’t need resources dumbing down, they need alternative routes in, to access that learning. The work of Florian and Black on the adoption of an ‘inclusive pedagogy’ through their research of teachers and the challenges they plan for, is a must! I love this presentation by Kristine Black Hawkins.

How do you tell if something is working in the classroom?

When I see teachers making confident judgements in their classroom.

Levels of engagement and enjoyment – a sense of ownership – metacognition are all important to me. However, it’s contextual too, a holistic picture. It is important to review all or as many elements against each other to inform planning and actions – triangulating quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform next steps. When I took over my first History Department a simple SWOT analysis showed that GCSE grades were poor yet popularity and passion for the subject were high. Reviewing exam technique and empowering Year 11 to understand the skills of an historian involved them rewriting all their coursework whilst not losing faith in themselves – in fact using that retrograde step to build confidence further, to show them they can control the outcomes, my job is to provide tools to achieve these goals. The results that year were the best the school had ever seen.

What do you think researchers should focus on next (i.e. what are the gaps in our understanding, from a teacher’s perspective)?

Profiling strengths and needs that are specific to a learner and how they learn. Teachers need help to move beyond labels and learn how to profile the learning rather than the learner.

Is there anything you don’t think we should be focusing on?

Let’s not give too much airtime to myth busters (those who are making a living from books about what doesn’t work and why – a focus on Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic for example). Research is on a journey – understanding it’s weaknesses is part of that journey but currently we give too much time to what is wrong. If we make teachers fearful – we deskill them.

Do you have any suggestions of how communication and collaboration can be improved between teachers and education researchers?

Through celebration and sharing. The work of Learnus has strengthened the dialogue between teachers and researchers. I am on the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Council and delighted that our partnership is supporting this growth. Co-production is an aspiration too; but lots to be done to model how this can work effectively.

If you could share one piece of advice about research-informed practice with other teachers and trainee teachers, what would it be?

Don’t promote absolutes; unequivocally support the development of Inquiry mindedness.

Please could you describe a research-informed idea that you feel has had a positive impact in your classroom, so that others could try it as well if they feel it’s relevant. (e.g. Why did you introduce the idea? What did you do? What impact has it had?)

Early in my career – Chris Watkins – short accessible research summaries about metacognition were real favourites and still influence my practice today.

At a time of workload concerns and retention challenges, working with others in the classroom should be part of every school’s Continuous Professional Development. I have used some of the co-teaching strategies explained so well by Colette Murphy. It is an investment in the staff learning together, and the pupils benefit from having two teachers.

I’ve recently been approached by a publisher to write a book about Inclusive pedagogy and I’m so excited to simply understand better and learn more about how we best include struggling learners to access and engage better.

Thank you very much for your time. We are very much looking forward to this book!

You can follow Margaret on Twitter @MargaretMulhol2