Educational Neuroscience

At St Mary’s School, staff design learning opportunities which require students to engage in continual practice to achieve educational goals. Our student-centered learning opportunities are evidence-based with specific links to recent studies in educational neuroscience and the ‘Science of Learning’. St Mary’s has partnered with Dr Jared Cooney-Horvath for 2021 to explore how our brain works as a learner. A key component of our philosophy of education is to support students to construct deep knowledge and understanding with opportunities to transfer their learning to different contexts. In addition to content knowledge and academic skills, students develop sets of attitudes, strategies and behaviours that are crucial to life-long learning. Our staff and students are invested in promoting and upholding a culture where respect, resilience and responsibility are trademarks of our collective attitude towards the pursuit of continual learning. We have learnt a lot about different mindsets as described by Carole Dweck of Stanford University who argues that people have either a fixed or growth mindset and implement various strategies to promote a continual learning and a collective growth mindset throughout our school.