Project team

  • Dr Astrid Schmied, Office of Education Research, Science of Learning in Education Center, NTU
  • Dr Iro Ntonia, Centre for HE Research and Scholarship, Imperial

Project summary

This collaboration between faculty and students across both institutions, NTU and IC, aimed to co-produce and bring to life two educationally relevant lessons on key neuroscience of learning topics: attention and memory. Strategically, the core idea was for these lessons to not only act like whistle-stop introductions to content, but also to be used across both institutions.

To accomplish this goal, the co-production was intentionally directed such a way where the learning experience would be equally accessible by students at either Imperial or NTU, regardless of the students’ background and level of study. At first instance, the short-term goal was for the lessons to be incorporated into two existing modules: the Application of Educational Neuroscience course at NTU, and the Science of Learning module at Imperial.

The project successfully achieved the co-production of two lessons for teaching and learning materials on attention and memory in cross-cultural settings through a systematic 3-stage process that comprised (1) extensive literature review, (2) developments of materials and storyboarding of each lesson, design of graphics, videos, and assessments, and (3) evaluation of outcomes.

To co-produce student-facing resources that were effective and efficient cross-culturally, the PIs sought to involve students voices systematically across all levels of project implementation. A total of five student collaborators were equally involved throughout the project’s inception, storyboarding, calibration, production, and evaluation. Student collaborators acquired new knowledge (e.g., curriculum design), gained research skills (e.g., focus groups facilitation), and learned novel tools (e.g., software use), for further use in their education, career, or personal lives. Working across two different time zones, and with a built 6-person strong team, offered both challenges and opportunities for knowledge building, cross-cultural exchange, and educational innovation. The opportunity to collaborate internationally on a unified goal truly enriched project PIs and student collaborators alike.

The resulting work has already gained traction at both institutions and internationally. The project team has been invited to present at the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference: From Good to Great (NTU, Singapore, 3 October), and the 11th International Brain Research Organization World Congress of Neuroscience (Granada, Spain, 9-13 September, 2023). The next steps to further share the project’s results involve identifying and securing additional sources of funding to disseminate a scientific piece in a peer[1]review journal and to continue creating neuroscience of learning resources for use in the global higher education sector.