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Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit in 2007, and today, he is one of the ‘most followed educators’on social media in the world. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the ‘500 Most Influential People in Britain’ by The Sunday Times as a result of…
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What if students remembered more by learning how the brain connects?
“Emphasising neural connections and their functional outcomes helps simplify neuroanatomy and improve understanding and retention.”
After a one-month delay, they remembered more!
This research, Described neural connections enhance classroom learning of neuroanatomy (Hindy et al., 2025) suggests that teaching students how brain regions are connected – rather than in isolation – leads to stronger long-term memory and better application in real-world scenarios.
For decades, neuroanatomy teaching has focused on identifying and labelling individual brain structures.
But this new study challenges that norm. In two classroom experiments using a 3D brain model tool, university students (n = 25 and n = 104) were taught 48 brain structures either with or without described neural connections.
Why connections beat categories
The “described connections” gave simple functional context (e.g. “Connects with X to help you move your eyes”), while other students only saw names and shapes. The results? After a one-month delay, students who were taught using connection-based narratives remembered significantly more and could apply their knowledge to clinical examples.
Retrieval practice also helped, but categorising structures by systems like “motor” or “visual” showed no benefit – and sometimes confused students more.
When students are taught in isolation, they often forget
This matters to every teacher trying to get students to remember and apply complex information. Lists and labels aren’t enough. When students are taught in isolation, they often forget. But when taught *how things work together*, understanding deepens and memory improves.
The study draws on constructivist theory – the idea that learning happens best when students build mental models using connected knowledge. For example, linking the red nucleus to the cerebellum to explain coordinated movement makes the content memorable, not just testable.
Apply this in your classroom
In practical terms, teachers can improve outcomes simply by switching from “what is this?” to “what does this do and how does it link to other things?”
Image: Hindy et al., 2025
Teachers can apply this in any classroom, without any need for specialist tech. The magic is in *narrative and context*. Whether teaching brain parts, a historical timeline or a science process, always explain how components link together and what function they serve.
Use retrieval practice – but enhance it. After a quiz question, offer a short sentence that connects it to another idea. Example: “Chlorophyll absorbs sunlight and passes the energy to carbon dioxide and water to make glucose.” What connects to what? Why does it matter?
In diagrams and group tasks, encourage students to build “connection parts” rather than lists. Help them shift from remembering to understanding. These small tweaks = big metacognitive wins.
CPD questions for teachers:
- In English, do students understand how themes, characters and context link across a text?
- In science, are students taught how systems interact (e.g. photosynthesis and respiration)?
- In maths, are formulas presented as rules to memorise, or as patterns that connect to real-life problems?
- Do retrieval tasks in lessons help students link today’s topic with yesterday’s – or just recall facts?
- Are students encouraged to use sentence stems like “This connects to…” or “This affects…” in their writing?
- In your subject, do displays and models highlight relationships between concepts or separate categories?
- Do students get opportunities to build concept maps or timelines to see how ideas evolve or interact?
- In exam preparation, are students guided to transfer knowledge between texts, topics or question types?
- Are misconceptions addressed by showing functional links (e.g. why a maths rule works, not just how)?
- How could schemes of work be tweaked to build interleaved, connected learning rather than topic blocks?
Knowledge and application matters
Teachers can improve long-term retention by making small changes: link content, build context and focus on function. When students see how parts work together, understanding sticks.
