Brain-to-brain synchrony in STEM learning

STEM课堂是一个高度动态的社会环境，学生和教师实时面对面互动。这些互动是学习过程的基础。然而，我们对课堂社交的大脑基础的理解是非常有限的。该项目将使用新的便携式脑电(EEG)技术来记录一名教师和一群学生在高中理科教室里的大脑活动。其目的是调查教师和学生之间大脑活动的相似和不同是否可以预测STEM参与和学习结果。拟议的研究将在多个方面为教育实践做出贡献。例如，学生的脑电波呈现相似模式的程度可以被用作在线、隐含地衡量学生对STEM内容的参与度。因此，脑电波同步性在未来可能被证明是有用的，作为教学实践有效性的客观衡量标准，提供对学习过程的实时洞察。此外，作为拟议研究的一部分，将为高中开发和测试基于脑电的神经科学课程。该项目由EHR核心研究(ECR)计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。该项目寻求一种新的、具有潜在变革性的方法，使用尖端的便携式脑电(EEG)技术来研究课堂互动。该项目扩展了之前由NSF资助的工作，这些工作使开发实验装置和分析工具成为可能，这些工具需要同时记录教师和一组学生的大脑活动。该项目将通过以下方式促进我们对自然主义课堂互动的理解：(A)使用最先进的无线EEG耳机，预计将提供比先前研究中的低档便携式EEG耳机更准确和更丰富的神经生理数据；(B)不仅记录学生的大脑活动，还记录教师的大脑活动；(C)从不同学校和学校类型的学生和教师样本收集数据；(D)调查学生和教师之间的脑对脑同步、学习结果和客观的注意力测量之间的关系；以及(E)在STEM学习文献中一个悬而未决的问题--虚拟实验室环境的有效性--的背景下，探索脑与脑的同步。该项目将把神经科学研究带出实验室，走进课堂，在整合神经科学研究和教育实践方面迈出重要的一步。通过验证新的神经科学方法和分析方法，本研究将为未来认知神经科学在教育实践中的研究铺平道路。此外，这项研究的结果将从一个新的角度阐明课堂互动，并使教师更深入地了解学生参与和学习结果之间的关系。

The STEM classroom is a highly dynamic social environment where students and teachers interact face-to-face in real time. These interactions are fundamental to the learning process. Yet our understanding of the brain basis of social interactions in the classroom is very limited. This project will use novel portable electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to record brain activity from a teacher and a group of students in a high school science classroom. The goal is to investigate whether similarities and differences in brain activity between teachers and students predict STEM engagement and learning outcomes. The proposed research will contribute to educational practice in a number of ways. For example, the extent to which brainwaves exhibit similar patterns across students can be used as an online, implicit measure of student engagement with STEM content. As such, brainwave synchrony can prove useful in the future as an objective measure of the effectiveness of teaching practices, providing insight into the learning process in real time. In addition, as part of the proposed research, an EEG-based neuroscience curriculum for high schools will be developed and tested. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning. This project pursues a novel and potentially transformative approach to studying classroom interactions using cutting-edge portable electroencephalogram (EEG) technology. The project extends previous NSF-funded work that enabled the development of the experimental setup and analytical tools required to simultaneously record brain activity from a teacher and a group of students. The project will advance our understanding of naturalistic classroom interaction by: (a) using state-of-the-art wireless EEG headsets that are expected to provide much more accurate and richer neurophysiological data than the low-grade portable EEG headsets from prior research; (b) recording brain activity not only from students, but also from teachers; (c) collecting data from a sample of students and teachers in different schools and school types; (d) investigating the relationship between brain-to-brain synchrony across students and teachers, learning outcomes, and objective measures of attention; and (e) exploring brain-to-brain synchrony in the context of an unresolved issue in the STEM learning literature, the effectiveness of virtual laboratory environments. This project will take neuroscience research outside of the laboratory and into the classroom, taking an important step in integrating neuroscience research and education practices. By validating novel neuroscience methods and analytic approaches, this research will pave the way for future cognitive neuroscience research on educational practices. Further, the results of this study will illuminate classroom interactions from a novel perspective and provide teachers with a deeper understanding of the relationship between student engagement and learning outcomes.