Emotions and feelings in neuroscience education across career stages: a qualitative study with views from alumni, junior and senior academics
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Sandrone, Stefano
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Introduction
Emotions and feelings are crucial components of our lives. However, their role in medical education scholarship, including in neuroscience education, has been overlooked. Moreover, their impact has been understudied in academia, especially across career stages. We explored emotions and feelings in the context of neuroscience education and across different career stages.
Methods
This work is based on a project exploring the value of learning in postgraduate education, drawing on data from nineteen semi-structured interviews with university alumni and academics. Eight alumni (six females and two males) and eleven academics from a UK-based STEM-intensive institution participated in the study. Alumni refers to former students who have completed the MSc in neuroscience at a STEM-intense institution within the last six years. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers in neuroscience have been labelled as junior academics, whereas Readers and Professors have been labelled senior academics.
Results
The alumni recognised their master experience was intense and challenging, yet acknowledged that enjoyment and stress are two faces of the same coin. Many cited their peers as an inspiration to go beyond the limits but only one student mentioned gratitude, which was never mentioned by the academics. At least one alumnus and one junior academic mentioned trust and confidence, but not the senior academics. Anxiety and confidence (and lack of) dominated the interviews with junior academics, who used intense words when discussing the pleasures of science. Conversely, the senior academics dedicated few words to emotions and feelings, never talked about anxiety, trust or gratitude, and very briefly mentioned the reward linked to sharing their knowledge with the next generations.
Discussion
This work epitomises the importance of exploring emotions and feelings in neuroscience education. Talking more openly about emotions and reducing the pervasive narration of ‘success stories’ might be directions to follow, along with stressing the importance of cultivating self-efficacy, trust and gratitude since the early stages. Meetings between students and supervisors can play a key role in developing self-trust among the students. More focus should be placed on supporting the transition process between postgraduate studies and the subsequent steps of the academic ladder.
Emotions and feelings are crucial components of our lives. However, their role in medical education scholarship, including in neuroscience education, has been overlooked. Moreover, their impact has been understudied in academia, especially across career stages. We explored emotions and feelings in the context of neuroscience education and across different career stages.
Methods
This work is based on a project exploring the value of learning in postgraduate education, drawing on data from nineteen semi-structured interviews with university alumni and academics. Eight alumni (six females and two males) and eleven academics from a UK-based STEM-intensive institution participated in the study. Alumni refers to former students who have completed the MSc in neuroscience at a STEM-intense institution within the last six years. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers in neuroscience have been labelled as junior academics, whereas Readers and Professors have been labelled senior academics.
Results
The alumni recognised their master experience was intense and challenging, yet acknowledged that enjoyment and stress are two faces of the same coin. Many cited their peers as an inspiration to go beyond the limits but only one student mentioned gratitude, which was never mentioned by the academics. At least one alumnus and one junior academic mentioned trust and confidence, but not the senior academics. Anxiety and confidence (and lack of) dominated the interviews with junior academics, who used intense words when discussing the pleasures of science. Conversely, the senior academics dedicated few words to emotions and feelings, never talked about anxiety, trust or gratitude, and very briefly mentioned the reward linked to sharing their knowledge with the next generations.
Discussion
This work epitomises the importance of exploring emotions and feelings in neuroscience education. Talking more openly about emotions and reducing the pervasive narration of ‘success stories’ might be directions to follow, along with stressing the importance of cultivating self-efficacy, trust and gratitude since the early stages. Meetings between students and supervisors can play a key role in developing self-trust among the students. More focus should be placed on supporting the transition process between postgraduate studies and the subsequent steps of the academic ladder.
Date Issued
2025-02-20
Date Acceptance
2024-12-16
Citation
BMC Medical Education, 2025, 25
ISSN
1472-6920
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
BMC Medical Education
Volume
25
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1186/s12909-024-06546-0
Subjects
Emotions
Feelings
Neuroscience education
Neurology
Medical education
Stress
Anxiety
Self-efficacy
Identity
Mentoring
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
277
Date Publish Online
2025-02-20