Are teachers taught how learning happens anatomically?
Throughout my teaching career, I had no idea how learning happens at a neural level, and I do wonder if this is something that should be a compulsory part of all teacher training programmes.
At a classroom level, I had an inkling of how learning happens and how memory is shaped. As a teacher, one learns through experience – how learning happens using a range of practical strategies – but from a science perspective, this knowledge was lacking.
The art and science of teaching
As teachers, we learn through our experiences – the art of teaching. Today, with access to research and closer connections to academics and cognitive scientists, teachers can learn more about the science of teaching. Something that may not have been provided to many experienced teachers (like myself) working in the profession for a long time.
Today, our early career teachers are offered this provision as part of their teacher training.
Teaching a second subject
At one point in my school leadership career (2010), I found myself covering for a psychology A-level class. I was teaching Year 12 and 13 students (17- and 18-year-olds) without any qualification in the subject whatsoever – just a mere interest and a willingness to teach a second subject. I knew it, and the students did too! However, this didn’t stop me from working tirelessly to revise, attend courses and prepare lessons to the best of my ability. Overall, the students each achieved their predicted grades or better. I don’t believe this was anything to do with me!
I look back to that point in my teaching career, and at that time, social media was emerging, and information was becoming easier to access. This is also at the point in my career when I developed a deeper interest in cognitive psychology and its place in the classroom and teacher training. Since then, I have been seeking information about how learning happens, beginning with understanding how memory is shaped.
How is memory shaped?
To develop a basic grasp of this, we must focus on some very important cells in the human body: neurons.
Neuroscientists estimate that the adult human brain has between 86 billion and 100 billion neurons (Blakemore, 2019; Norden, 2019). For any of us to imagine, this number is staggering. NASA estimates that there are between 100 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. Just dwell on that. One adult human brain has 100 billion neurons, equivalent to the number of stars in our galaxy!
If you counted out loud in seconds, it would take you 11.5 days to reach just one million, which in human terms is achievable, albeit very hard work! One billion seconds would take you 31¾ years; 100 billion seconds would take you over 3,000 years. I don’t think you and I have long enough to live to get close to 100 billion – it’s an astonishing number!
A single neuron …
A neuron is a nerve cell that is a fundamental part of our brain and nervous system. Neurons send information to other neurons in electrical or chemical form. Neurons are made up of dendrites, which are soft, branched extensions to the cell body. Dendrites receive impulses from other neurons, which are communicated to the neuron’s cell body.
A signal is sent into the axon if the impulses are strong enough. The axon rises from a part of the cell called the axon hillock. The axon carries the signal from the cell body to the axon terminals. These axon endings send the signal to the dendrites of other neurons, causing the process to restart in these adjacent cells.
Note, they do not connect physically. A microscopically small space remains between them, called the synaptic cleft. (See header image)
Myelin is a fatty substance that surrounds the axon. It insulates the axon to prevent the signal from degrading. This insulating layer of myelin is known as the myelin sheath.
The stronger the myelin sheath, the stronger the electrical signal travels and/or can form a connection with another cell. This makes a stronger synaptic connection. This is the process called neuroplasticity.
Suppose we consider those 100 billion neurons in our brains for a moment. Scientists report that they can form up to 1 trillion synaptic connections! Imagine that?
Myelination – the super highway!
Memory is shaped by myelination, which involves the build-up of myelin, the fatty substance surrounding the axon. Myelin – think ‘insulator’ – is referred to as white matter and as it becomes stronger, it forms an insulating myelin sheath around the axon. Put simply, myelin protects the superhighways in the brain, allowing increased speed and efficacy of passing signals, and plays an important role in the formation of long-term memories.
If we think of the animal kingdom, for example, whales and dolphins who are relatively intelligent animals, I believe they have stronger myelination because there is treated fatty tissue surrounding the myelin sheath.
The challenge for all teachers is how to strengthen these neural connections …
Find out more in my book, Guide To Memory.
