Browsing by Author "Roehrig, Gillian"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A Place for Neuroscience in Teacher Knowledge and Education
    (Mind, Brain, and Education published by International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Wiley Periodicals LLC., 2022-08-22) Dubinsky, Janet M; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank
    The foundational contributions from neuroscience regarding how learning occurs in the brain reside within one of Shulman’s seven components of teacher knowledge, Knowledge of Students. While Knowledge of Students combines inputs from multiple social science disciplines that traditionally inform teacher education, teachers must also (and increasingly) know what happens inside students’ brains. Neuroscience professional development provides neuroscience principles that teachers can learn and apply to distinguish among pedagogical choices, plan lessons, guide in-the-moment classroom decisions, and inform the views of students. Neuroscience does not directly invent new pedagogies. Rather, knowledge of neuroscience guides teachers in choosing appropriate pedagogies, pragmatically informing teaching. By providing physiological explanations for psychological phenomena relevant to education, teachers benefit from neuroscience content in their training and professional development.
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    A Case Study of Undergraduate Biology Students' Engagement in Blended Sensemaking During Mathematical Modeling Tasks
    (2023) Desi; Roehrig, Gillian; Schuchardt, Anita
    Studies of students engaging in problem solving tasks have shown that individual students who are able to draw on both their mathematical understanding of the equation and scientific knowledge of the phenomenon (blended sensemaking) are more successful in problem solving. Both science and mathematics sensemaking have been shown to occur in mathematical modeling tasks. Prior studies have only examined whether blended sensemaking occurs by individual students, not how blended sensemaking occurs when students are working collaboratively in mathematical modeling tasks.
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    Infusing Neuroscience Into Teacher Professional Development
    (American Educational Research Association, 2013-08-01) Dubinsky, Janet M; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank
    Bruer advocated connecting neuroscience and education indirectly through the intermediate discipline of psychology. We argue for a parallel route: The neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of plasticity, have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to affect how students think about their own learning. We present a case study of how the core concepts of neuroscience can be brought to in-service teachers—the BrainU workshops. We then discuss how neuroscience can be meaningfully integrated into preservice teacher preparation, focusing on institutional and cultural barriers.
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    Teaching Neuroscience to Science Teachers: Facilitating the Translation of Inquiry-Based Teaching Instruction to the Classroom
    (The American Society for Cell Biology, 2012-07-30) Roehrig, Gillian; Michlin, Michael; Schmitt, Lee; MacNabb, Carrie; Dubinsky, Janet M
    In science education, inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning provide a framework for students to building critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Teacher professional development has been an ongoing focus for promoting such educational reforms. However, despite a strong consensus regarding best practices for professional development, relatively little systematic research has documented classroom changes consequent to these experiences. This paper reports on the impact of sustained, multiyear professional development in a program that combined neuroscience content and knowledge of the neurobiology of learning with inquiry-based pedagogy on teachers’ inquiry-based practices. Classroom observations demonstrated the value of multiyear professional development in solidifying adoption of inquiry-based practices and cultivating progressive yearly growth in the cognitive environment of impacted classrooms