By Betsy Hill and Roger Stark
“We stand on the threshold of important new advances in neuroscience that will yield increased understanding of brain functioning and the way we learn. How we use this new information to teach our children may well be the most important question of our lifetime.” Dr. Pat Wolfe, author of Brain Matters.
Neuroscience-informed education offers a practical and hopeful path forward as we move beyond the disruptions of the pandemic. By applying what we now understand about the brain, schools can make deeper, more lasting improvements that prepare students for real-world challenges. There are three concrete ways neuroscience can reshape learning: by strengthening basic cognitive functioning, by making instruction more brain-friendly, and by developing the 21st century skills students need for college and careers.
1. Improve learning by enhancing basic cognitive functioning
Traditional improvements—better teachers, facilities, and technology—matter, but they address external conditions. Neuroscience directs attention to internal factors: the cognitive skills that determine how effectively a student learns. Research shows the brain is plastic, constantly forming new neural pathways in response to experience. Every brain is unique, shaped by a lifetime of experiences that influence attention, memory, processing speed, and reasoning. Intelligence is not a fixed trait; experience and training play a major role in developing intellectual capacity.
Underlying cognitive skills are central to success in the classroom. In fact, research suggests they account for a substantial portion of variability in learning outcomes. Yet schools rarely teach these foundational skills explicitly. The assumption is that students either possess adequate cognitive capacity or will not improve beyond their current level. That assumption is contradicted by decades of clinical work and more recent computer-based training programs that effectively build cognitive skills at scale. When integrated into classrooms, these programs can strengthen working memory, attention control, processing efficiency, and other core abilities—yielding measurable gains in academic performance.
2. Make teaching and schools more brain-friendly
Neuroscience provides actionable guidance for classroom design, lesson planning, and instructional strategy. Key approaches include:
- Presenting information in ways that align with sensory memory so relevant details reach conscious processing.
- Designing tasks that respect the limits of working memory and support the transfer of information into long-term memory.
- Using multisensory instruction and varied media to engage different neural pathways and reinforce learning.
- Incorporating emotion and mnemonic techniques to improve consolidation and recall.
- Making curriculum meaningful by connecting new ideas to students’ prior knowledge and experiences.
- Recognizing how declarative (fact-based) memory and procedural (skill-based) memory are stored differently and retrieving them effectively.
These practices are not trendy add-ons; they are evidence-based ways to increase student engagement, which is itself a driver of learning. When lessons are relevant, hands-on, and problem-centered—through projects, simulations, and real-world problems—students invest attention and effort, leading to deeper understanding and better transfer of knowledge to new contexts.
3. Help students develop essential 21st century skills
Skills like critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and communication are not simply content to be explained; they are capacities that emerge from the development of underlying cognitive processes. For example, describing the mechanics of pole-vaulting won’t teach a novice to coordinate the body; the skill emerges from practice that integrates perception, timing, strength, and feedback. Similarly, higher-order thinking develops through tasks that challenge students to analyze, synthesize, and apply information rather than only memorize facts.
There is wide agreement that these skills matter, but less clarity on how to teach and assess them. Moving beyond tests that only measure content retention toward assessments that evaluate the effectiveness of mental processes will rely increasingly on neuroscience. By tracking how students process information, teachers can tailor instruction to develop the cognitive architecture that supports creativity, logical reasoning, and adaptive problem solving—outcomes that align directly with college and career readiness.
Neuroscience will not replace skilled teachers or sound pedagogy, but it offers powerful tools to refine instructional choices and create learning environments that respect how brains learn best. When educators combine strong content knowledge with an understanding of cognitive development, schools can accelerate recovery from pandemic learning loss and equip students with the adaptable skills they need for the future.
How else do you think neuroscience can improve education? We welcome your ideas and experiences.
About the authors
Betsy Hill is president of BrainWare Learning Company, which applies neuroscience to build learning capacity. An experienced educator, she has studied the links between brain science and teaching and has worked with experts in the field. She served as chair of the board of trustees at Chicago State University and teaches strategic thinking in the MBA program at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and an MBA from Northwestern University.
Roger Stark is co-founder and CEO of BrainWare Learning Company. For more than a decade he has worked to make cognitive literacy training and assessment affordable and available. Drawing on over fifty years of clinical collaboration and iterative development, he led the creation of a comprehensive, research-based online cognitive training program designed to improve attention, memory, and problem-solving skills for learners of all ages.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub focused on the shift in education toward digital curriculum.