Empowering Teachers through the Introduction of Educational Neuroscience Literacy: Effects on Teacher confidence, Collective Efficacy and Evidence informed Pedagogy
Alejandro Jurado Freire, MA Educational Leadership, MCCT
This dissertation discusses whether a brief continuing professional development (CPD) intervention based on educational neuroscience and cognitive psychology can improve teacher confidence, collective teacher efficacy, and evidence-informed pedagogical thinking. The study was conducted within a small British international school in Spain with a need for a more cohesive professional learning culture.
The literature review draws on the work of authors such as Howard-Jones, Dehaene, Bandura, Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, Hattie, and Darling-Hammond et al. in order to establish the conceptual and theoretical foundations for the intervention. It focuses on key areas relevant to the project, including educational neuroscience, cognitive psychology, teacher self-efficacy, collective teacher efficacy, and effective professional development.
A practitioner-led action research design was adopted, using a mixed-methods approach that combined repeated-measures questionnaires, open-ended reflective responses, and targeted lesson observations. The project was originally designed around four stages of data collection, although the later stages were compressed due to time constraints and limited continuity in participation.
The findings suggest that the intervention was partially successful. Its clearest contributions were establishing a baseline profile of teacher self-efficacy, generating positive immediate post-session responses, and creating early signs of reflective engagement with ideas such as prior knowledge, cognitive load, retrieval practice, and the distinction between short-term performance and enduring learning. However, the data gathered at later stages proved insufficient to support strong claims about sustained pedagogical change over time.
The project should therefore be understood as a credible first cycle of enquiry rather than a completed process of transformation. Its main value lies in initiating a more evidence-informed professional conversation about learning and clarifying the leadership, cultural, and organisational conditions required for deeper and more sustained professional change.
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Freire Robertson 