Research-based learning associated with an authentic topic can promote active learning in high school neuroscience lessons

Abstract

Memory is not an unfamiliar term to most high school students. They can easily construct the elementary meaning of memory based on their daily life experience about memory. Yet, they may not be interested in acquiring deeper understanding about memory as it involves both abstract and difficult topics such as neuroanatomy, brain physiology and neurotransmission. Traditional pedagogy to illustrate the physiology of memory is to provide students with a large amount of facts with diagrams about how memory forms. From our experience, this pedagogy does not effectively engage high school students in actively learning memory because it is not authentic to them. In the present study, we try to apply research-based learning (RBL) as a tool to engage high school students in linking the physiology of memory and daily life. We investigate whether the pedagogy of RBL associated with an authentic topic can promote students to actively learn difficult scientific concepts such as the mechanism of how memory forms. Methodology: With the supervision of a neuroscience teacher, two groups of four students aged 13-15 spent about 6 months to conduct two scientific researches titled “Doing physical exercise has no indication on learning and memory enhancement in children aged 13-15” and “Increment of sleeping time does not implicate enhancement on memory and learning in adolescents”, respectively. These two topics were selected because the students were interested in understanding how to promote their ability to memorize for better learning efficiency. Assessment of learning was done through lesson observation, interview and student’s outputs including a research report written as a scientific abstract and presentation. Results indicated that the students usually discussed their research. They also suggested many ways to improve their research. They showed a desire to see the final result of the research. Without any request from the project-supervising teacher, all participant students actively searched and read information about memory from the internet. Some specific terms about memory which are “hippocampus”, “short-term memory” and “long-term memory” appear in their research products such as a scientific abstract and a poster for conference presentation. These pieces of evidence indicated that the students were actively learning the topics of memory through doing an authentic research. In conclusion, research-based learning associated with an authentic topic is an effective pedagogy to engage students in learning some difficult scientific concepts.