On Friday 24th May of last year, around twenty teachers attended a training day as part of the professional skills development plan put in place for Excelia’s faculty.
Following a first day dedicated to pedagogical scriptwriting and another devoted to the assessment of learning outcomes, this third day focussed on the contribution of neuroscience as an insight into, and a tool for, understanding learning mechanisms.
TRAIN YOUR BRAIN! This could easily have been the title of the training day!
First, a few words about the guest speaker, Gaëll MAINGUY. He is a neurobiologist and has been a researcher at the CRI. (Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity affiliated to the University of Paris) for several years, where today he holds the post of Director of Development & International Relations.
It would be almost impossible to sum up this day, such were the intensity and dynamism of the discussions, in response to the scientific input provided by Gaëll MAINGUY, and which themselves further fuelled the debate. In fact… really impossible! I am therefore going to share with you what, for me, were the highlights of the day, and how it contributed to reassessing our pedagogical model, within the framework of our Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
Advances in neuroscience are leading us to a better understanding of learning mechanisms and how the brain works. Did you know that in us humans, each brain cell nucleus contains 2 gigabytes of information, enabling us to develop? Incredible! The brain is made up of 100 billion neurons, and there are potentially 10,000 synaptic connections per neuron. Such magnitude is difficult to imagine. Yes, it’s incredible! Our brain develops using representations, to which it is exposed. The more it is stimulated, the better it develops. Neuroscience has made it possible to understand the functioning of neurons and the processing of information via the synapses connected to them. And what about memory? Well, memory is nothing less than the creation of a neural network, that is both associative and contextual. It is via stimulating activities that we develop the ability to learn how to learn.
It is very important to be aware that sports and meditation are essential activities to be able to learn effectively, as is music. According to Hebb, anything that is not used after a certain age (about 10 years old) is lost. However, there are various examples that call into question the categorical nature of this statement... and so much the better. Indeed, although it is during this critical period that neural networks are built, the plasticity window never closes completely and can sometimes reopen. An example, related to our role as a school, is that of the right to make mistakes, to fail, which favours the development of resilience and the ability to learn, essential to our intellectual and mental functioning. How then can we best support our students in this primordial right to make mistakes?
Another major focus of the day was the subject of stress. The debate about positive stress versus negative stress does not really exist, once we’ve understood the mechanisms of stress and its effects… stress can only be negative. It is negative for learning, as well as negative for mental and physical health in general.
Consequently, chronic stress means that the neural system is out of control: synapses break down, memory fails, behaviour becomes erratic. It is therefore essential to distinguish stress, characterised by the production of cortisol, from a flow state, a state of fulfilment, where concentration allows one to surpass oneself and which is characterised by other neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
Examples of flow are associated with surpassing oneself and enjoyment, and could be that of a top sportsman before a competition, an artist before going onstage, a student well prepared for their exam, a business professional working on a project for hours on end and being hyper-productive, etc. It is therefore this state of flow that needs to be developed. Raising students’ awareness of how to manage stress and giving them the tools to limit it, or even eliminate it, is also an essential part of effective teaching.
A third focus of the day was that of reward, a fundamental element of learning. It is at the heart of mental activity, which guides our behaviour. However, this reward system can sometimes be ‘hacked’ by chemical substances, such as drugs that cause addiction. Nevertheless, social logic plays a fundamental role in the predisposition of whether or not to resist forms of addiction (drugs, digital technology, etc). We must also take into account the fact that drugs act on the frontal cortex, which does not mature until around the age of 30. In the context of learning, we therefore need to consider this fact: the pleasure of learning is of paramount importance. Valuing learners, in all their diversity, is therefore an important issue.
Our students are still in the process of developing, so these physiological elements must therefore be taken into account in our relationship with them as educators.
So, what now? How can you train your brain? How do you use it? How do you learn? How can using it bring you pleasure? So many questions that we need to consider when we deal with our children and our students. So many techniques to reinforce, to question, to develop. How can we support and guide learners on their chosen path, in the style of Aristotle? How can we adopt the maieutic method? How do we incorporate this into our pedagogical approach? Possible avenues are emerging, and have been successfully tested at the CRI. These are based on both the pedagogical organisation at programme level and the pedagogical method used at teacher level. A compelling idea may be to involve the peer community. This would enable students to discuss the concepts presented in the lessons with other students in their year group, in order to appropriate them. The idea would then be to extend our peer tutoring system that has existed at the School for several years. Following on from this, back in the classroom, teachers would deal with any problems of misunderstanding, help to clear them up, and open up new avenues of thought.
New perspectives are opening up, in France and abroad. We need to define ours.
“You have to learn, not for the love of knowledge, but to defend yourself against contempt in which the world holds the ignorant.” Charlie Chaplin
Valérie FERNANDES
Dean of Faculty
