Five things every child’s brain needs from school
As Queensland prepares to celebrate State Education Week from 26 – 30 October, a CQUniversity educational neuroscience expert is urging schools, teachers and parents to rethink the everyday classroom practices that shape how children learn.
Professor Ken Purnell, CQUniversity’s Head of Educational Neuroscience, says schools should look beyond technology alone and prioritise five fundamentals: physical and psychological safety, a sense of belonging, focused attention, meaningful practice and regular movement.
He said understanding how the brain learns could help teachers make informed decisions about everyday classroom practices and create learning experiences that improve students’ knowledge, skills and wellbeing.
“A great school is more than modern buildings and the latest technology. Its quality rests on learning experiences that foster belonging and understanding, enabling students to apply what they learn in and beyond the classroom,” Professor Purnell said.
Professor Purnell has identified five practical priorities to help teachers make the most of how the brain learns.
1. Safety: make it safe to try
Children need to feel physically and psychologically safe before they can fully engage in learning.
Professor Purnell said bullying, humiliation and excessive stress could interfere with working memory and flexible thinking, making it harder for students to process information and solve problems.
“Clear routines, calm responses and respectful correction help make the classroom a dependable, pleasant place for learning,” he said.
2. Belonging: make connection part of learning
Positive relationships with teachers and classmates can help students feel connected, engage more readily and participate in learning.
Professor Purnell said belonging meant more than simply having a place in the classroom. Students needed opportunities to contribute, exchange ideas, hear different perspectives and work through disagreements.
“Give every child someone to turn to and opportunities to contribute, not merely a seat in the room,” he said.
3. Attention: keep the focus on the learner
With digital devices and artificial intelligence increasingly part of education, Professor Purnell said schools needed to ensure technology supported learning rather than replaced the thinking students needed to do themselves.
He advocated clear boundaries around device use during teacher-led activities, including limiting distracting messaging apps, and using technology to help students question assumptions, improve their writing and explain mathematical reasoning.
Professor Purnell pointed to a 2025 University of Pennsylvania-led study involving nearly 1000 high-school mathematics students in Türkiye. It found that students using an unrestricted generative AI tutor performed better during practice but scored 17 per cent lower on subsequent unaided tests than students who did not use AI. A tutor designed to provide hints rather than answers largely avoided this negative effect.
The researchers found that safeguards encouraging students to work through problems, rather than simply receive answers, largely avoided this negative effect.
Professor Purnell said teachers could help avoid this by asking students to attempt tasks first, explain their reasoning and check their answers before turning to AI tools.
4. Meaningful practice: return to learning and use it differently
Completing a worksheet once does not guarantee that a student will remember the information or know how to apply it in a new situation.
Professor Purnell said revisiting concepts over time, practising recall and mixing related problem types could help students retain knowledge and recognise when to use different approaches.
He recommended returning to key concepts the next day, the following week and in subsequent months, adapting the timing to what students remembered.
“Change the example or context, mix it with earlier learning, and ask students to explain their decisions,” he said.
5. Regular movement: give the body a role in learning
Movement breaks and active play can be more than a welcome distraction from classroom work. They can also support the cognitive processes students rely on to learn.
Professor Purnell said walking, running and active play engaged the body and brain, while often providing opportunities for social connection.
He encouraged schools to build regular movement into the school day, following a 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis that found a small positive effect of classroom activity breaks on working memory.
“Movement should be part of the learning day, not something reserved for lunch breaks or physical education. Even short activity breaks can support working memory and give students an opportunity to return to their learning refreshed,” Professor Purnell said.
Professor Purnell said the goal was not simply to help students complete more work in less time, but to develop learners who could explain their ideas and apply their knowledge independently.
“The aim is not to help students finish more work with less thought. It is to help them become capable people who can explain their ideas and apply what they know as they become more expert,” he said.
His advice for schools is to start with a simple question: ask students what helps them learn, then listen carefully.
