Dubinksy, Roehrig, & Varma Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development

Dubinksy, J. M., Roehrig, G., & Varma, S. (2013). Infusing neuroscience into teacher professional development. Educational Researcher, 42(6), 317-329.

Summary: The authors taught inservice teachers concepts of neurobiology during a series of summer workshops called BrainU. They found that teaching teachers about neuroscience and specifically synaptic plasticity improved teachers' pedogogica practices. They identify concepts in neuroscience that are connected to education and they argue for the teaching of these concepts in both teacher preparation and inservice teacher professional development. They advocate for collaboration between educators and neuroscientists to create special courses for this purpose. They argue that PSTs would struggle to make connections between neuroscience and pedagogy without an educator. They claim that having both will not only raise the rigor of the content but that it will also make the content relevant to future educators.