Effects of Neuroscience Training and Outreach on Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge, Comfort, and Perceptions

Anastasia Grubyak

Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation

College: Hennings College of Science Mathematics and Technology

Major: BS.BIO/CELL/MOLEC

Faculty Research Mentor: Lauren Schiller

Abstract:

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is an international initiative that promotes public understanding of the brain through education and outreach, particularly for children. Research has shown that early exposure to brain science can improve children’s curiosity, learning, and understanding of how their bodies and minds work. While there is a strong body of literature on neuroscience education for children, much less is known about how teachers, particularly preservice teachers, experience and perceive teaching neuroscience content. Understanding teachers’ perspectives is important because their comfort and confidence directly influence how effectively they teach complex topics. Preservice teachers play a key role in shaping early science education, yet their training in neuroscience is often limited. Therefore, this study examined preservice teachers’ (a) perceptions of the value of teaching neuroscience, (b) their comfort with neuroscience content and instruction, and (c) their neuroscience knowledge. Using a pretest–intervention–posttest design, preservice teachers (N = 16 females; Mean Age = 21 years) completed Qualtrics surveys measuring these three constructs. Following the pretest, participants received neuroscience instruction and training on facilitating interactive brain education activities. Then, they taught 4th grade students about the brain during a Brain Awareness Week outreach event at a local elementary school and completed a posttest afterward. A paired-samples t-test indicated that preservice teachers’ comfort with neuroscience content significantly increased from pre-test (M = 3.00, SD= 0.45) to post-test (M = 3.67, SD= 0.29 ) ( t(10) = −4.39, p = .001). Although there was a trend in improvement in both knowledge of the brain and perceived value of teaching neuroscience, these improvements did not reach statistical significance, which may be due to a small sample size. These results suggest that participating in a Brain Awareness Week training and outreach program yielded improvement in preservice teachers’ comfort with teaching neuroscience, indicating that hands-on training and real teaching experiences can strengthen preservice teachers’ confidence and understanding, helping better prepare them to teach neuroscience concepts to elementary school students. Overall, these findings highlight the value of incorporating neuroscience training and outreach into teacher education programs to better prepare preservice teachers to teach brain-related concepts in elementary classrooms.