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A challenge for using evaluation data to improve climate change education in schools is access to an instrument for teachers to measure behavioral changes and their antecedents. We report on teachers' implementation of a brief survey measuring climate-related beliefs, self-efficacy, intention to act, action, and anxiety before and after their program of climate change education for students (aged 11-14 years, N = 62). Results indicated improvement in self-efficacy but not in students' intention to act. This prompted teaching staff to generate modifications aimed at fostering greater behavioral change, with staff discussion focused on students' emotions and revisions characterized by creative, affect-driven approaches. Our paper demonstrates how data from a reproducible evaluation tool can inform teachers' efforts to improve their practice.

To inform current debate around climate change education (CCE) in the school curriculum in England, we surveyed the views of primary and secondary teachers (N = 626). In England, direct reference to climate change in the National Curriculum is confined to secondary Science and Geography but, unrelated to their subject area, teachers favoured a cross-curricular approach with most already communicating to their students about it. Feeling comfortable delivering CCE was correlated with reported resource availability, with most teachers considering only basic literacy was a greater funding priority. Teachers supported an action-based CCE curriculum including issues of global social justice, beginning in primary school with mitigation projects such as conservation, local tree-planting and family advocacy. Local campaigning (e.g. legal demonstration) was considered appropriate around the primary/secondary transition, with most supporting inclusion of civil disobedience but indicating this should begin at secondary school (11+ years). Results are compared with a 2018 poll of US teachers.

This pilot study investigated how a brief professional development session on the science of learning impacted teachers' attributions of usefulness to both scientific and performative concepts about teaching. Ratings were collected from teachers attending five events across the United Kingdom (N = 585) before and after receiving a 90-min training session. Initial ratings of scientific concepts were positively correlated with age, while initial ratings of performative concepts were negatively correlated with years of experience. Immediately following professional development, the value teachers attributed to scientific concepts for understanding their practice increased, while their valuing of performative concepts decreased. A follow-up study with a subsample (N = 153) revealed the impact was reduced but persisted 6-12 weeks later. Results are discussed in terms of the potential for a scientific understanding of learning to empower educators as expert professionals.

The teaching‐learning relationship in online microteaching was explored using mixed methods. Adults (N = 40) alternated roles of "teacher" and "student" during a 15‐min language learning session. Video analysis using a context‐specific framework based on the science of learning revealed diversity in teaching approaches. Multiple regression revealed teaching behaviors that had been reasoned to build and consolidate knowledge contributed to learning but behaviors that had been reasoned to engage the student appeared to have a negative impact. No relationship was found between learning and participants' teaching experience (which was chiefly teaching second languages to children). Results demonstrate the complexity of teaching and its irreducibility to a set of prescriptive behaviors. They also suggest that a process‐based context‐specific analysis of online microteaching can provide a "bridging" tool for researchers and practitioners to address fundamental questions about teaching and so develop a "science of teaching". Assumptions about the teaching‐learning relationship remain untested because teaching behavior is difficult to summarize and classrooms are complex. Here, we draw on the science of learning to interpret and categorize the teaching behaviors of adult volunteer participants who, online and in pairs, were asked to teach each other a language they were both unfamiliar with. Such "microteaching" is an example of a context that is simpler than a classroom but still educationally meaningful. Our results demonstrate the experimental study of teaching is feasible, with teaching impacting learning. Our participants' teaching experience (which chiefly involved teaching children) failed to transfer to unfamiliar content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest in the application of cognitive neuroscience in educational thinking and practice, and here we review findings from neuroscience that demonstrate its potential relevance to technology-enhanced learning (TEL). First, we identify some of the issues in integrating neuroscientific concepts into TEL research. We caution against seeking prescriptive neuroscience solutions for TEL and emphasize the need, instead, to conceptualize TEL at several different levels of analysis (brain, mind and behaviour, including social behaviour). Our review emphasizes the possibility of combining TEL and neuroscience concepts in adaptive educational systems, and we consider instances of interdisciplinary technology-based interventions drawing on neuroscience and aimed at remediating developmental disorders. We also consider the potential relevance of findings from neuroscience for the development of artificial agency, creativity, collaborative learning and neural insights into how different types of multimodality may influence learning, which may have implications for the future developments of tangibles. Finally, we identify a range of reasons why dialogue between neuroscience and the communities involved with technology and learning is likely to increase in the future.

Many have warned against a direct "brain scan to lesson plan" approach when attempting to transfer insights from neuroscience to the classroom. Similarly, in the effective design and implementation of learning technology, a judicious interrelation of insights associated with diverse theoretical perspectives (e.g., neuroscientific, pedagogical and classroom praxis) may be required. A design-based research approach to the development of learning technology informed by neuroscience may be one way of achieving this interrelation. Accordingly, here we report on some of the preliminary research of a web app, known as "zondle Team Play", that allows teachers to teach whole classes using a games-based approach and which draws on concepts from neuroscience. Rather than just exploring "what works" in terms of the technology, low-fidelity prototyping and participant design helped us explore aspects of praxis and affordances of the technological design that were contingent upon each other. Five cycles of design, intervention, analysis and reflection revealed some potential benefits of a neuroeducational approach to learning technology design, including the development of related pedagogy, identification of immediate and future neuroeducational research questions and the development of language and terms suitable for communicating across interdisciplinary boundaries.

This paper describes psychometric investigations that have been carried out as a prelude to developing new approaches to learning structures within education, based on connectionist concepts. In Experiment A, the ability of 15 subjects to produce different interpretations of an image fonned from abstract geometric shapes was studied over a 30 minute period of observing the diagram. The rate at which these subject produced ideas was shown to initially decline and then become constant. Experiment B investigated the effect of a strategy that encouraged 16 subjects to defocus their thinking before attempting to find another new interpretation. On returning to the problem, the average time taken to produce another interpretation was significantly reduced. Both sets of results are discussed m terms of connectiomst modelling, the need to broaden one's attention during creative problem-solving and the neural mechanism of 'lateral inhibition'. Further evidence for the potential effectiveness of 'chance' strategies is also referenced in the work, techniques and philosophy of well-known and recognised artists.

A challenge for using evaluation data to improve climate change education in schools is access to an instrument for teachers to measure behavioral changes and their antecedents. We report on teachers' implementation of a brief survey measuring climate-related beliefs, self-efficacy, intention to act, action, and anxiety before and after their program of climate change education for students (aged 11-14 years, N = 62). Results indicated improvement in self-efficacy but not in students' intention to act. This prompted teaching staff to generate modifications aimed at fostering greater behavioral change, with staff discussion focused on students' emotions and revisions characterized by creative, affect-driven approaches. Our paper demonstrates how data from a reproducible evaluation tool can inform teachers' efforts to improve their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement learning involves a tight coupling of reward-associated behavior and a type of learning that is very different from that promoted by education. However, the emerging understanding of its underlying processes may help derive principles for effective learning games that have, until now, been elusive. This article first reviews findings from cognitive neuroscience and psychology to provide insight into the motivating role of uncertain reward in games, including educational games. Then, a short experiment is reported to illustrate the potential of reward-based neurocomputational models of behavior in the understanding and development of effective learning games. In this study, a reward-based model of behavior is shown to predict recall of newly learned information during a simple learning game. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

There is increasing interest in research that combines neuroscientific and educational perspectives on learning, but significant philosophical issues divide these perspectives. This article examines the value of such neuroeducational research and how concepts from different perspectives may be interrelated through a "level of actions" model. This model, which encourages a multiperspective approach, may be helpful in avoiding some of the worst transgressions of sense-making in constructing concepts that span neuroscience and education. Application of the model is explored in the context of teaching strategies intended to foster creativity, and its affordances and limitations are discussed. (Contains 1 note and 1 figure.)

Uncertainty may be an important component of the motivation provided by learning games, especially when associated with gaming rather than learning. Three studies are reported that explore the influence of gaming uncertainty on engagement with computer-based learning games. In the first study, children (10-11 years) played a simple maths quiz. Participants chose their preferred reward for a correct answer prior to seeing each question. They could either receive a single point or toss an animated coin to receive 2 points for heads or none for tails. A preference for the uncertain option was revealed and this increased during the quiz. The second study explored the discourse around learning when pairs of participants (13-14 years) competed against the computer in a science quiz. Progress depended on the acquisition of facts but also on the outcomes of throwing dice. Discourse was characterised by a close intermingling of learning and gaming talk without salient problematic constructions regarding fairness when losing points due to gaming uncertainty. A final experiment explored whether, in this type of game, the uncertainty provided by the gaming component could influence players' affective response to the learning component. Electrodermal activity (EDA) of 16 adults was measured while they played the quiz with and without the element of chance provided by the dice. Results showed EDA when answering questions was increased by inclusion of gaming uncertainty. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential benefits of combining gaming uncertainty with learning and directions for further research in this area are outlined.

Background: Neuroscience is unlikely to produce findings for immediate application in the classroom. The educational significance and practical implications of knowledge about mind and brain inevitably require some level of interpretation, yet the multiplying examples of unscientific "brain-based" educational concepts suggest this process of interpretation is potentially problematic. Research is needed into the most appropriate ways of developing such concepts. Purpose: This paper reports on an attempt to develop a process of "co-construction" of pedagogical concepts, enriched by insights about the brain and the mind, with a group of trainee teachers led by a team with both educational and scientific expertise. Sample, design and methods: A research team consisting of two teacher trainers and a psychologist followed an action research spiral involving 16 trainee teachers who explored their own creativity, and the psychology and cognitive neuroscience of creativity in seminars, discussions and practical workshops, with the pedagogical aim of developing their own reflective capability. Results: Outcomes illustrated both dangers and opportunities associated with developing concepts bridging neuroscience and education. Trainees' understanding developed in stages that might broadly be described as initial enchantment, mythologizing, disenchantment, an increased focus on metacognition and, finally, a demonstrable ability to reflect on their own classroom practice with a heightened sensitivity to issues of underlying cognitive processes. Conclusions: The type of "co-construction" process reported here may help reduce some of the more popular and problematic misconceptions that arise when developing pedagogical concepts involving the brain and mind. Further research is needed to assess impact of such concepts upon practice. (Contains 2 figures.)

This article examines how discussions around the new interdisciplinary research area combining neuroscience and education have brought into sharp relief differences in the philosophies of learning in these two areas. It considers the difficulties faced by those working at the interface between these two areas and, in particular, it focuses on the challenge of avoiding "non-sense" when attempting to include the brain in educational argument. The paper relates common transgressions in sense-making with dualist and monist notions of the mind-brain relationship. It then extends a brain-mind-behaviour model from cognitive neuroscience to include a greater emphasis on social interaction and construction. This creates a tool for examining the potentially complex interrelationships between the different learning philosophies in this emerging new field.

This report summarizes findings from a study of educators' views on the role of the brain in education. Responses were sought using questionnaires (n= 189), followed by a smaller number of in-depth interviews (n= 11). Results show a high level of enthusiasm for attempts to interrelate neuroscience and education, although conceptualizations about what this entails differ widely. Findings suggest that communication with practitioners may become a key factor influencing the success of attempts to enrich classroom practice with scientific understanding about the brain and mind.

Theory-testing can only inform scientific inquiry when the prediction of test outcome is based upon the current theory (theory-prediction consistency). This investigation explores children's theory-prediction consistency in a computer-mediated task in which multiple opportunities were provided to predict outcomes and review theories. An initial correlation study revealed that theory-prediction consistency was associated with children's success when attempting to identify causation. The second study investigated the effect of goal and a simple intervention upon children's theory-prediction consistency. The type of goal appeared to have no effect but the intervention, which encouraged the children to use their theory to make predictions, significantly improved their ability to identify cause. Interestingly, it also improved other aspects of their performance--such as encouraging more reflection upon the outcomes of tests. The results imply that poor theory-prediction consistency may be related to difficulties in identifying the type of problem being presented.

Reports on two studies of student teachers that investigated the effect of asking learners to answer questions when learning in a hypertext environment. Discusses effects on concept learning from three learning environments: no response or feedback, analysis using a multiple choice questionnaire, and rule generation by students. (Author/LRW)

Investigated whether experiencing 25 minutes of unstructured play in a preceding task influenced the creativity of 6- and 7-year-olds in a subsequent activity. Found that there was a positive effect of a preceding salt-dough play activity upon the creativity and range of colors used in creating a collage with a controlled range of materials. (Author/KB)