Brain processes have a lot of influence in the different activities people do, specially in the education area, even though when lots of people don't believe this can be true. That’s why, lots of teachers feel afraid of including techniques that would help to improve their students' brain development, because of the fact they don’t think they're able of working under this new approach. Nevertheless, recently scientists have made harder efforts to show the importance of understanding how our brain works and how it influences everything we do, in order for us as teachers to take all the possible advantage of it.
This post, talks a little bit about brain-based education. That is, the way teachers should encourage students’ brain development, through the use of different strategies which should be attractive to them. But, at the same time, teachers also must be aware of the students’ reactions to the strategies, in order for them (the teachers) to know when it's necessary to change the strategy for another one, which would bring the students more benefits to their brain functioning. It's really important to remember that brain functioning changes with time and experiences, so that's why it's very important for teachers to try to use the right strategies for the different kind of students they have, because each student’s brain works differently according to their experiences.
It's worth to make clear that “Brain-based education is the engagement of strategies based on principles derived from an understanding of the brain” (Jensen, 2008 p.1). According to this, it's teachers’ due to take in account the different aspects that influence the students’ life, and for instance, influence their brain functions; and taking this as a starting point, they can choose more suited strategies for their students, and for encouraging their brain development. Actually, this could work as an advantage for the teacher, to implement a whole interdisciplinary teaching program, which could integrate aspects such as social interactions, feelings, and so on.
At the bottom line, it can be said that we, as teachers besides of paying attention to the pedagogical aspects of our work, also must be aware of the multiple discoveries that are being done on the neuroscience area, and try to apply them into the classroom, because they can help us to find new and better ways of take advantage of our students’ and our own brain functioning, and for instance this would work as a big benefit for the students in their learning process and achievements.
Written by: Peñaloza Diana & Rangel Tiffany
