The Human Nervous System: A Framework for Teaching and the Teaching Brain

The teaching brain is a new concept that mirrors the complex, dynamic, and context-dependent nature of the learning brain. In this article, I use the structure of the human nervous system and its sensing, processing, and responding components as a framework for a reconceptualized teaching system. This teaching system is capable of responses on an instinctual level (e.g., spinal cord teaching) aswell as higher order student-centeredteaching and even more complex teaching brain teaching. At the most complex level the teacher and student engage in a synchronistic teaching flow that achieves the optimal teaching and learning experience. In this article, I propose to use the human nervous system as a conceptual framework for exploring the components, functions, and interactions of the teaching brain within the larger context of teaching as a system (see Figure 1). The nervous system has three core functions: sensing, processing, and responding, which are referred to as ‘‘limbs’’ in medicine. Within this framework, the sensing limbs absorb both internal and external stimuli from the teachers themselves, their students, their class, their school, and beyond. This information is then processed within the teaching brain. In order to respond to each student in a distinctive way in each class, teachers engage in student-centered processing, which produces what I have termed student-centered teaching responses. As Figure 1 illustrates, only part of the processing ability of the teaching brain is utilized in these responses. Teachers also have the ability to engage in teacher-centered processing, utilizing relevant information from their personal contexts. The combination of studentand teacher-centered information processing produces what I have termed teaching brain responses. These responses are built upon the dual