A Different Kind of PD

The Ontario Ministry of Education spends somewhere between $100 and $300 million on professional development (PD) per year (as an FYI, this is a reasoned estimate using ChatGPT and Google) - regardless of the exact figure, those boundaries represent a lot of money, the type of money that lets someone buy a drink, chips, AND cookies with their Subway 6-inch Cold Cut Combo without even thinking about it. And to be clear, I firmly believe that allocating provincial government dollars towards equipping teachers with better pedagogical strategies and more confidence in the classroom is a sound use of public money.

That being said, I tend to wonder how much of it is focused on teaching students how to optimize their mental performance using their physicality and physiology. A multitude of meta-analyses on studies from reputable journals have shown the positive association between nutrition / exercise and on student success - yet, in my 20 years of tutoring/coaching/advising, I have not had one student tell me their instructors have focused on any of these crucially preparative elements. Can diet impact your brain’s ability to think? Yes. Can exercise help regulate stress response before major assessments? Yes. Can sleep protocols improve sleep depth as well as retention of learned material? Yes. Teaching students how to optimize physically for peak mental performance can be accomplished through the creation of a formalized curriculum OR by equipping teachers with the knowledge to engage with students substantively at key points in the school year, such as before exams.

I believe that teaching kids how to manipulate the variables of nutrition, physical movement, and recovery to the end of increasing attention levels is crucial to maximizing the learning that CAN occur. For example, If a student is experiencing low blood glucose levels for example, because of a poor choice at breakfast, such as a high sugar cereal, or has a diet low in iron, B‑vitamins, and omega‑3 fatty acids, all of which are needed for brain metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis, and memory processes, then the those pedagogical strategies will be a fraction as effective, as the student’s brain won’t be “primed” for learning.

I fervidly contend that this is a brilliant life skill for students to start mastering at a young age - let’s normalize the idea that it’s not just high level athletes who need to learn how to prep their bodies to maximize mental performance. Right now the current paradigm of common knowledge revolves primarily around caffeine consumption to optimize cognitive performance. While it is a helpful stopgap solution, it is not optimally sustainable in the long run and we miss a big opportunity to empower students to improve their performance using the tools they were born with.