Unit Synopsis
Recent research from neuroscience highlights the dynamic and interconnected nature of learning, emphasizing neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to adapt and build new pathways. Understandings about the brain, its architecture and how it processes information provides evidence for how children learn and the implications for planning and enacting learning experiences with children. In this unit, you will examine your existing understandings about how the brain works and engage with the educational neuroscience and the application of this knowledge to the classroom context will be deepened. You will propose implications for teaching and outline some possible challenges that you may encounter as you begin to apply understandings from neuroscience.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Presentation | 50% |
| 2. Creative work | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 91.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 7.77% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: student
Text by Hofstede et al., (2010) no longer available from the library.
Audit unit readings and update those no longer available in the library.
Completed
Source: DDLT
Add Gen AI statement to unit profile and assessment pages.
Gen AI statement will be added to unit profile and assessment pages.
Completed
Source: unit coordinator
AT2 recommends using readings from weeks 7-11.
Remove restriction and recommend students reference relevant readings from throughout the unit.
Removed
Source: unit coordinator
Large increase of suspected AI generated assessment and reference lists.
Students to only use scholarly sources from the unit.
Actioned via instructions in Moodle
Source: DDLT
Reduce self-plagiarism
Explain to students that they cannot re-use previous material without unit coordinator permission.
Actioned via email
Source: Head of Course
Discontinuation of unit
No recommendations.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Synthesise contemporary research on how the brain works including executive function and propose implications for teaching
- Analyse existing personal assumptions about the brain and learning
- Utilise research to identify the difference between novice and expert learners and consider implications for classroom practice
- Synthesise the most efficient and effective process of knowledge acquisition in the brain evident in emerging research
- Synthesise research evidence that shows why the use of self-directed approaches as a starting point for novices is ineffective and should be avoided
- Outline the process that occurs in a novice brain during progression towards mastery.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
4.1 Support student participation
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Presentation | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Creative work | • | • | • | |||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |