ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to identify some important characteristics of classroom experiences that promote learning in general and in science in particular. The evidence used comes from classroom events, such as described in the case studies in Chapter 3, from systematic research and also from what is known from neuroscience about changes in the brain that accompany learning. The last of these reflects the argument that, even though we identify learning with change in observable behaviour – in what pupils show they know and can do – learning must have something to do with what happens inside the brain. So we begin by looking at what is needed to help learning from a different perspective than the classroom – what is known about the changes inside our heads when learning takes place.
