Connecting the Dots from Professional Development to Student Learning.

Following professional development (PD), implementation of contemporary topics into high school biology requires teachers to make critical decisions regarding integration of novel content into existing course scope and sequence. Often exciting topics, such as neuroscience, do not perfectly align with standards. Despite commitment to enacting what was learned in the PD, teachers must adapt novel content to their perceptions of good teaching, local context, prior knowledge of their students, and state and district expectations. How teachers decide to integrate curricula encountered from PD programs may affect student outcomes. This mixed-methods study examined the relationship between curricular application strategies following an inquiry-based neuroscience PD and student learning. Post-PD curricular implementation was measured qualitatively through analysis of teacher action plans and classroom observations and quantitatively using hierarchical linear modeling to determine the impact of implementation on student performance. Participation in neuroscience PD predicted improved student learning compared with control teachers. Of the two distinct curricular implementation strategies, enacting a full unit produced significantly greater student learning than integrating neuroscience activities into existing biology units. Insights from this analysis should inform teacher implementation of new curricula after PD on other contemporary biology topics.

Contributions of Neuroscience Knowledge to Teachers and Their Practice.

While neuroscience has elucidated the mechanisms underpinning learning and memory, accurate dissemination of this knowledge to teachers and educators has been limited. This review focuses on teacher professional development in neuroscience that harnessed the power of active-learning strategies and best educational practices resulting in increased teacher and student understanding of cognition and brain function. For teachers, the experience of learning a novel subject in an active manner enabled them to subsequently teach using similar strategies. Most important, participants viewed neuroscience as a frame for understanding why active-learning pedagogies work to engage and motivate students. Teachers themselves made connections applying neuroscience concepts to understand why learner-centered pedagogies are effective in promoting higher order thinking and deep learning in their students. Teachers planned and embraced pedagogies involving modeling, experimentation, discussion, analysis, and synthesis, increasing classroom cognitive engagement. Comprehending that everyone is in charge of changing their own brains is a tremendously powerful idea that may motivate science and non-science teachers to provide students opportunities to actively engage with content. Neuroscience courses for preservice and in-service teachers, provided as collaborations between scientists and teacher educators, can result in improved science education, pedagogy, and understanding of neuroscience.