Physiology faculty and student contributions to schoolteacher training in neuroscience: innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research investigating how the brain develops and learns profoundly impacts education. Understanding the brain mechanisms responsible for learning and memory and the factors that influence them, such as age, environment, emotions, and motivation, can transform educational strategies by contributing to the development of programs that optimize learning. Including neuroscience education in teachers' training requires teaching them a multidisciplinary approach to science, which presents a challenge. Furthermore, the potential educational advances from the incorporation of neuroscience into teachers' training are hindered by significant obstacles such as translating research into the classroom; this includes the spread of neuromyths and the products, practices, and programs based on them. Our group has 9 years of experience in developing courses for training teachers. However, in 2020 the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposed on society a new way of carrying out its daily activities, including teaching. This study reports the experiences of our group as we developed the ninth edition of the Neuroscience Applied to Education teachers' training in an online format that included synchronous and asynchronous activities. Sixty teachers participated in the course. The synchronous meetings lasted 1.5 h/wk and addressed different themes: neuroscience and education, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurobiology of learning and memory, factors that interfere with learning, and pedagogical innovation. According to the teachers' perceptions, the course was fundamental for them in terms of acquiring new knowledge about neuroscience. Everyone agreed on the possible applicability of the concepts covered to improve their pedagogical practice and teaching environment. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study reports the experience of developing the ninth edition of the Neuroscience Applied to Education course in an online format that included synchronous and asynchronous activities. Here we show that schoolteachers consider the course important for acquiring new knowledge about neuroscience and the applicability of the concepts covered to improve their pedagogical practice and teaching environment. The online format did not prejudice the experience, and the technologies used were well evaluated.