Da investigação sobre o cérebro e a cognição para escola: projeto de divulgação e de promoção de estratégias para alunos e professores

Translated title of the contribution: Bringing brain and cognitive research to school: scientific outreach project with strategies for students and teachers

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Abstract

Background: It is widely recognized the need to bridge the mind, brain and education research field to the classroom practice. In our project, we set a weekly activity with students and teachers to share neuroscientific knowledge. We also promote effective learning techniques by opening a space for interdisciplinary debate and future support network. This descriptive study is about the first year of our project to take its lessons for the next year. Method: Participants are 148 Portuguese students from 10 to 13 years old, attending the elementary school (5th and 6th grade, four classes from each year) and 16 school-teachers. Every week on Tuesdays, this day was dedicated to mind, brain and education talks, with debate and several activities. These work sessions are informally called Mind Gym (Ginásio Mental, in Portuguese). Each session was hosted by a facilitator trained in cognitive science. Results: Our results suggest student engagement is higher but not reaching our goals of using the knowledge in their study organization. Teachers highlight the problems of schedule (coinciding with their classes) and meeting curriculum goals to implement this kind of project. Conclusions: The first year’s results suggest limitations, with a gap between the initial design and its implementation and the need to upgrade the methodologies. Students’ engagement is more visible than effective knowledge transfer to better practices. The activity is lacking teachers engagement and without interdisciplinary work. To further develop such a project, it is vital to improve the connection between schools and research, highlight evidence-based practice as a result of good interdisciplinary work, and enable informal relationships with all participants since the design phase. Since it is an ongoing project, these results will carry on into the second year of the project.
Translated title of the contributionBringing brain and cognitive research to school: scientific outreach project with strategies for students and teachers
Original languagePortuguese
Pages (from-to)39-48
Number of pages10
JournalCadernos de Saúde
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cognitive research
  • Learning sciences
  • Scientific outreach
  • School community

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