STUDIOBLENDED

NEUROSCIENCE (and other EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN)

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<sup>“Without an understanding of human cognitive architecture, instruction is blind.”

John Sweller 

Evidence based is a continuum, not a category. 

Dylan Wiliam</sup>

Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our lead directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. tikvah@studioblended.com

Neuroscience

As a course/training coordinator you likely have an authentic need to understand why a certain design technique works for effective teaching design, to be reassured you are doing ‘the right thing’. It is actually quite common for teachers to search for ‘evidence-based’ practice beyond the hypes and trends or personalities and traditions.

Purely evidence-based design does not exist. The field of curriculum design is rich, and covers a broad spectrum of disciplines that allows for many angles and debates. Teaching is an art which builds on the experience and practice of generations of teachers, world-class philosophers, and pedagogues before you.

We have recently seen a call for for a revival of the so-called ‘knowledge domain’ of education (see i.e. Surma et al. 2025). These voices, often come as a reaction to what has been claimed to be the failure of the so-called ‘constructivist’ model, in other words what they will call seemingly ‘progressive’ education that is ‘student centered’ and sees the teacher as merely a guide (see i.e. Surma et al. 2025, Kirschner, Sweller & Clark 2006). However, theorists as early as at least Dewey (1916), have been critical of the so-called transmission model of education, this default theory, which is claimed to be the ‘common sense model’ of direct teaching. In this model education is about transmitting knowledge across generations. To be educated in this model, means knowing the facts, and having the skills (after Wegerif 2025, p.1-13).

Superficially, writes Wegerif (2025), theories and practice on how the brain learns most effectively, might sound like an account of internalisation of the larger culture and knowledge domain. The facts move into an imagined internal storage, the long term memory. Or, in Wegerif words (2025, p. 18): ‘The story that facts found first outside of students in books move inside their brains, perhaps stored in neuronal assemblies of some kind and are then expressed outside again on an exam page’. But this, argues Wegerif (2025, p. 18) ‘ignores the transformation of facts by consciousness and identity’.

Building on Freire (1970), Wegerif (2025, p. 18) argues, ‘the growth in education is not the storing of facts as one may store money in a bank, but a process of transformation whereby that which is originally encountered as external becomes internal and available for use in creative thoughts and actions that can change the world’.

And so, brain based approaches to effective learning, cannot do without the other: world class pedagogy. You can find more about pedagogy on our page, including the third way Wegerif (2025) proposes, education as expanding dialogue, which also includes technology.

The question is: what would be the best of two worlds, what are the robust essentials of evidence-based design? Our Studio is fascinated with brain-based angles of design, such as those arising from neuroscience. Discovering these angles can speak to your imagination, ignite your curiosity and intrinsic motivation, and boost your confidence. We synthesise all this for you, and equip you with the skills to allow deep learning to happen, and build memories that last.

How are we different from other educational advisors? We are dedicated to reaching conclusions: what does all this mean for you in your actual course/training design? For instance: how to use subject pedagogy together with evidence-based design?

Join related studies / Our Audio Podcast

Expect a new release of an episode of our Audio Podcast on writing/drawing/designing by hand, organically.


Prefer to read? Looking for resources? Transcript
Listen on: Acast Spotify Apple
Release Sept 23 ‘22, episode 1 StudiOpedia

In this podcast episode we delve into the actual practice of curriculum design:

1) The start of every sound teacher training: unlearn to go by intuition and emotion. Ensure a robust fundament with technique and pedagogy.
2) What curriculum is, and what learning design is.
3) Become aware of this fascinating organ, the brain – how does it learn best, how does it remember, how are lasting memories and deep understanding created – by design?
4) Get into a new routine, and skill yourself to design well.

Related publications

Browse through this presentation on the challenges of evidence-informed education by Dirk van Damme, Senior Research Fellow Center for Curriculum Design Boston.

At our Studio you will find publications such as:Freire, Paulo 1970 (2000) Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

Mc Tighe, Jay & Judy Willis 2019. Upgrade your teaching: understanding by design meets neuroscience. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA)

Mc Tighe, Jay & Grant Wiggins 2004. Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA)

Kirschner, Paul A. & Carl Hendrick 2020. How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice. Routledge : London and New York.

Kirschner, P. A. Sweller, J., Clarck, R.E., 2006, Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. DOI:10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1 

Weinstein, Yana, Sumeracki Megan & Oliver Caviglioli 2019. Understanding how we learn: a visual guide. Routledge: London and Newyork.

Hattie, John & Gregory C. R. Yates 2014. Visible learning and the science of how we learn. Routledge: New York.

Surma et al. 2025. Developing curriculum for deep thinking, the knowledge revival. Springer. Open access.

Peeters, Wessel, Lucassen, Michiel, Geurts, Reinier & Ilona Wevers 2021. Curriculumontwerp in een notendop. Uitgeverij OMJS: Helmond [Onderwijs maak je samen. Vernieuwenderwijs]

Wegerif, Rupert 2025. Rethinking Education Theory; Education as Expanding Dialogue. Edward Elgar Publishing, Chantelham, Northhampton, USA. [Available as Google Ebook]

More design angles we use

Technical resilience
Human resilience
Modular
Time dimension
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Assesment / evaluation
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Blended
Bichronous
MOOC
Designed to be green (and technological simplicity)
Nature and aspirations
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Simplicity and decluttering



Curios? Feel free to contact our senior advisor and teacher trainer directly:
tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69

We are here especially for you as unique professional, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a (architecture / urban / development / policy / land / water / climate) curriculum, so that you can offer effective and resilient education in its simplest form.