María José Navas took part today in the Neuroeducation Congress at IFEMA (Madrid), where she presented the school’s experience of applying the NeuroEduca-Te Programme in Primary Education. Her colleague Marta Álvarez will speak tomorrow to explain how they are developing this methodology in Infant Education.
The San Luis de Sabinillas school is gaining recognition beyond the local area thanks to the work of its teachers in educational innovation. María José Navas and Marta Álvarez have received national awards from EducaciónLab for their respective projects on the application of neuroscience in the classroom.
Both teachers have won in different categories of the competition. María José Navas received the award in Neurodidactics and Methodology, while Marta Álvarez was recognised in Neuro-outreach and Ethics in ICT and Social Media.
The first to take part in the Neuroeducation Congress conference programme, which is being held these days at IFEMA (Madrid), was María José Navas. She spoke today in the conference «NeuroEduca-Te Programme · Primary», which explains how the programme is applied in Primary Education classrooms.
Tomorrow it will be the turn of Marta Álvarez, who will take part in the conference «NeuroEduca-Te Groups and NeuroEduca Schools · Infant», focusing on the experiences of schools that run the programme at this educational stage.
A project that began in Infant Education and spread to Primary
The awards are the result of the work carried out at the San Luis school through the NeuroEduca-Te programme, an initiative that uses knowledge about how the brain works to improve learning, emotional development and pupil integration.
As the teachers explained, the project began in Infant Education, where, after receiving specific training, they started to see significant changes in the children’s behaviour and abilities. Systematic work on executive functions helped improve areas such as attention, memory and inhibitory control, which led the team to extend the experience to Primary as well.
María José Navas explained that the aim goes far beyond achieving better academic results. The project gives children tools to cope in their daily lives, manage their emotions, improve their social relationships and promote inclusion.
«We have a lot of pupils with additional needs, there is a lot of diversity, and we are helping all those pupils to be better integrated», said the teacher as she explained the importance of adapting educational tools to the different realities found in the classroom.
Among the activities carried out, a key one is teaching pupils how their brain works and how they can control certain emotions. Navas gave as an example the case of a pupil who told her that, thanks to these tools, he had felt important for the first time and had learned to manage his nerves when speaking in public.
Meanwhile, Marta Álvarez has worked in particular on designing games and resources to train executive functions, fostering skills that are fundamental to learning and personal development.
The teachers also highlighted the involvement of families and the wider school community as an essential part of the project. «The whole school community is rowing in the same direction and that is very positive for the pupil», said María José Navas.
The twofold national recognition and the participation of both teachers in the Neuroeducation Congress highlight the work being carried out at the San Luis de Sabinillas school, which is sharing its experience these days with professionals and schools from other parts of the country.
