Good for the mind, good for education. Ways of dealing with pupils

Abstract

Almost two decades ago, a new scientific discipline was born – neurodidactics, dealing with the neurophysiological foundations of teaching and upbringing, because that is how neurodidactics is defined. It is the fruit of the specific research of the human brain, whose scope and innovative methods allow us to speak about a certain breakthrough or even scientific revolution today. Thanks to brain imaging techniques and their analysis, significant progress has been made in identifying mental activities. Changes in the structure of connections within the brain have resulted in many valuable conclusions about the reasons of behaviour and the way young people react. This brought hope for the possibility of more effective influencing on ways of acquiring knowledge and influencing behaviour. An enthusiastic reception met with counter-arguments of sceptics, however, the truthfulness of data disclosed in the research was not undermined. Recognizing the necessity to deepen research in the future directly in classrooms, but noting also the subsequent reports appearing in the case of neurodidactics, it is worth familiarizing ourselves with the most important areas, the awareness of which may facilitate the work of teachers. These considerations will be limited to the possibility of the teacher‘s influence on students, which is contained in the direct influence of the human being, outside the analysis area, leaving the postulated changes in the education system.