Should we teach kids about the neurons in their brain so they can learn?

In discussions with Dr Jannie Van Hees around ways to use language learning effectively, a key idea she has discussed is the need to put the 'lense on language' so that our learners can achieve success.  An example of how we did this was the lesson we recently had with our year 9's who were learning about concepts in migration.  When Jannie drew a brain on the board and explained that making yourself learn these concepts helps the neurons in your brain move and become active, I felt that the kids felt more connected to their learning.  She reminded them that unless you use your brain, it will be inactive.  In the lesson, students were 'forced' to use their brains and re-energise them to ensure that the learning wasn't just 'surface' level but ingrained in the brains to allow for access when needed.  Following on from the lesson with Jannie, I decided I wanted to find out more about how the neurons worked in the brain and whether teaching something like this to our kids could help them be more engaged in their learning and improve outcomes.

The search for answers
I began like all good researchers do, I googled 're energise brain neurons education NZ'.  The first link was to the TKI ESOL site which gave specific examples of metacognitive (thinking about thinking) strategies and how teachers could scaffold learning using different templates and strategies. The title of the page was 'Thinking and metacognition' and although it didn't help me explain if teaching kids about their brains would be a good thing, I am locking this link away for later for when I need a few teaching strategies.

The second link was better.  It was a blog by a writer and educationalist called Dr Donna Wilson.  She has written a lot of books and publications.  She is an expert in the field. Her blurb read like this:
For more than two decades, Dr. Donna Wilson has been a pioneer in bridging brain science and psychology to educational practice. She co-developed the world’s first MS /EdS degrees in Brain-Based Teaching and Instructional Leadership (BrainSMART), as well as the first Doctoral Minor in Brain-Based Leadership. Dr. Wilson has co-authored 20 books and over 100 articles, book chapters, and blog postings.

The particular link that I'd clicked on was a blog post by Dr Wilson called 'Building a Metacognitive Classroom' Featured in New Zealand magazine' which shared a piece that she had co-written for our very own New Zealand 'Teaching matters' magazine.  I went to article itself and as I read it, I was excited to find out that teaching kids about their brain has a positive impact on engagement and achievement in school.  A Secondary school example of how a teacher in Georgia taught 'neuroplasticity' showed that 'emphasing that our brains can change and that we're always getting smarter as long as we are learning' was a proven strategy that worked.

Another article by Dr Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers called 'The boss of my brain' explains how 'explicit instruction in metacognition put students in charge of their learning'.  It goes on to talk about how lessons about neuroplasticity (how learning new information and skills changes the structure and functioning of the brain) are especially inspiring for struggling students, who may have internalised the idea that they cannot become academically successful'.  How cool would it be for our kids to know that if they used their brains 'more', they could redirect their learning and essentially achieve their best in their learning?

When looking for New Zealand specific examples of this type of learning, I came across a publication by an ex-principal in Rotorua, Eden Chapman, who was awarded a scholarship in 2016 to examine how our education system was applying Neuroplasticity in our schools and if this was effective.  He found that the few schools who did use strategies to address this, had to essentially buy expensive programmes to run them with specific learners.  It seems that my search had come to a bit of a dead-end.  Why weren't we teaching this more in our schools?

Reflections:
In synthesising what I have learnt in my search for answers so far, I found that kids need to know and understand how their brains work and this needs to be explicitly taught and continually reinforced for our kids, especially our struggling learners.  In my own teaching practice, I know I have become too complacent and don't push my kids enough to make them really use their brains to work.  When I think back to the lesson that Jannie and I taught recently, when we made the kids really learn the concepts using multiple opportunities to learn, this forced them to energise those 'neurons' and what grew out of this learning were kids who 'got it'.  My hunch is, that if kids are reminded that learning re-energises their brain, not their friends brains, but their own brains, they will feel empowered and motivated to learn and this will lead to positive outcomes.

Next steps:
I will continue to discuss with Dr Jannie ways to explicit teach how the brain works for the year 9's perhaps in our next unit, which will be a collaboration with the English department.  I also want to survey the students to see if learning about the brain is important to them and to see if they can make   a connection between knowing how their brains work and improved outcomes in social studies.