Neurodidactics, an axis of change in the educational paradigm

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Neurodidactics is a recent discipline that arises from advances in neuroscience. It is responsible for the study of the brain bases of teaching and learning processes to promote the latter based on the potential of each individual (Rodríguez, 2015).

In this sense, by knowing the brain structures involved in learning processes, teachers can become trainers of the respective mental functions within the classroom so that these favor student learning. With this objective, ISEP has designed the Master’s Degree in Neuroeducation and Capacity Optimization.

The basic principles of neurodidactics are based on the following premises (Rodríguez, 2015):

1. Learning requires an active role from the learner.
2. Learning implies respect for the rhythms, interests, level, and needs of each student.
3. For true learning to occur, it is essential that children are the protagonists of the process and responsible for it.
4. Advances in neuroscience show that learning requires exploration, search for meaning, reasoning, and understanding. Mere exposure to content is not learning but favors the repetition of said information without understanding it.
5. Emotions have a great implication in learning, which is why the mood of the students will determine their learning.
6. The role of mirror neurons (brain cells that promote empathy and imitation) in learning is indisputable.

Neurodidactics represents a change in the traditional educational paradigm, modifying traditional teaching models that do not consider the neural bases underlying learning.

Some practices promoted by neurodidactics to enhance learning in the classroom, and which are included in ISEP’s neuroeducation training, are:

• Flipped classroom: implies that students are responsible for researching and developing content at home, on their own, and using class time to do assignments and ask the teacher questions. The educator thus becomes a learning guide (Rodríguez, 2015).
• Small groups and cooperative learning: in this practice, small groups are responsible for the process, actively processing, elaborating, and interpreting information among themselves (Rodríguez, 2015).
• Play-based dynamics: from which learning is promoted through games and requires teamwork and creativity (Rodríguez, 2015).
• Faster, more structured, and interactive ways to present information: for example, short motivational videos, conceptual maps, etc., from which information must be presented, and it is then when students will investigate, experiment, and explore to give meaning to the information and create their own learning (Rodríguez, 2015).
• Guiding learning with questions: this strategy motivates the student, focuses their attention, and turns them into a kind of researcher who searches any possible source of information for the solution to the questions posed (Morgado, 2014).
• Frequently practicing recall of what has been learned: asking about recently learned information benefits long-term memory by promoting the recruitment of neural circuits of recall in subsequent study opportunities (Morgado, 2014).
• Oral assessments: oral presentations or exams not only allow for a very rigorous evaluation of the knowledge acquired by students but, above all, induce in them a type of study much more based on the understanding of materials and information than on simple memorization (Morgado, 2014).
• Early immersion in more than one language: students who acquire multiple languages in childhood and practice them throughout their lives have greater selective attention and develop the habit of switching mental content, which facilitates the acquisition of complex learning, especially those involving changes in execution rules (Morgado, 2014).
• Tribute to reading: of all intellectual activities that enhance mental capacities, the most accessible and that provides the best cost/benefit balance is, without a doubt, reading. The occipital and temporal cortices are activated to see and recognize the semantic value of words. The frontal motor cortex is activated when we mentally evoke the sounds of the words we read. The memories evoked by the interpretation of what is read powerfully activate the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe of the brain, which are critical areas for memory. The narratives and emotional content of the writing, whether fiction or not, activate the amygdala and other emotional areas of the brain. Reasoning about the content and semantics of what is read activates the prefrontal cortex and working memory. Reading also reinforces social skills and empathy, in addition to reducing the reader’s stress level (Morgado, 2014).

The modification of the current educational system involves the inclusion of neuroeducation courses in the training of teaching teams. This must be the first step to achieve success.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]