Neural Coupling as a Measure of Teacher-Student Understanding

• In Event: Metacognition, Monitoring, and Mindfulness: Insights From Educational Neuroscience

Abstract

Verbal communication to relay information between students and the teacher lies at the heart of all science classrooms. This study characterizes the neurological basis for the talk between teachers and students in terms of speaker-listener coupling in a classroom setting. Speaker-listener coupling is the time-locked moment in which speaker vocalizations result in activity in the listeners brain. Coupling is highly predictive of listener understanding. The design is an observational stimulus-response study using neuroimaging data obtained from talk sessions between a teacher and a student. Results were obtained using a functional near-infrared spectrometer and an artificial neural network model. Examination of the data suggested that speaker-listener coupling occurs between a student and a teacher during successfully understood verbal communications.

Authors

• Richard Lamb, East Carolina University

• David L. Fortus, Weizmann Institute of Science

• Troy D. Sadler, University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Knut Neumann, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education

• Amanda Kavner, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Len Annetta, East Carolina University

• Douglas Hoston, Buffalo State College – SUNY

• Rebekah Lamb, Wake County Public School System