On 2 September 2026, Y. L. Teresa Ting, lecturer and researcher at the University of Calabria, led the workshop “Designing Instruction with the Brain in Mind” at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid. The session brought together academic staff from the Department of Education, Research Methods and Assessment and students from the education degree programmes of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences. It was organised within EUPeace, as part of the EUPeace work on internationalisation in teacher education.
Learning by doing, not by listening
Rather than presenting research findings from a lectern, Ting placed participants in the position of learners. Staff and students worked through materials and activities designed from a student-centred perspective, experiencing at first-hand what such a task feels like from the inside. Each activity was then unpacked together: what it asked of the learner, why it had been sequenced in that particular way, and what would have been lost had the same content been delivered as a straightforward explanation.
From research findings to classroom decisions
The question running through the session was a practical one: what do findings from cognitive neuroscience actually change about the way a lesson is designed? Working through hands-on tasks and shared moments of reflection, participants looked at how everyday teaching choices — how new content is introduced, how much is asked of learners at once, how ideas are returned to over time — can either support or work against the way the brain processes and retains information. The emphasis stayed on decisions that teachers take in an ordinary classroom.
Staff and student teachers in the same room
Bringing lecturers and student teachers together proved to be one of the most productive features of the workshop. Experienced staff approached the activities as designers of teaching, while students met them both as learners and as future professionals, and the two perspectives fed into each other during the discussion. For the students in particular, the session was an early opportunity to see educational research used as a working tool rather than as an academic requirement.
A concrete step in internationalising teacher education
Participants highlighted the quality of the workshop and Teresa Ting’s ability to connect academic research with educational practice in a way that was rigorous, clear and inspiring. For Comillas, the visit is a tangible example of what the EUPeace alliance makes possible: expertise developed at one partner university reaching the teacher education programmes of another through direct contact between colleagues. Beyond the day itself, the workshop created space to exchange experiences, to reflect on teaching innovation and to strengthen collaboration within the EUPeace community.
