Unlocking School Bias: Using Neuroscience to Improve Student Outcomes with Horacio Sanchez

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

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17d ago 1:03:43

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In this enlightening episode, Andrea Samadi welcomes resiliency expert and author Horacio Sanchez to discuss his latest book, "Unlocking School Bias: Using Neuroscience to Improve Student Outcomes." Together, they delve into how educators can effectively address bias in their classrooms by exploring neuroscience-based strategies. Horacio shares the significance of understanding subconscious biases, such as confirmation bias and impact bias, and their influence on students' well-being and achievement. He emphasizes the role of educators in creating inclusive environments by being aware of their own biases and adopting practical strategies that foster positive student interactions. This episode provides invaluable insights for anyone looking to make impactful changes in educational settings.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/V78873aZPBk

On today's EP365 "Unlocking School Bias" you will learn to explore your own and your students' biases and discover:

✔ The latest research from psychology, education, and neuroscience.

✔ Different types of biases, including confirmation bias and impact bias, and how they manifest themselves in everyday life.

✔Practical strategies for educators who are ready to change their and their students' actions.

✔How patterns in one’s environment create biases and affect the brain’s development

Welcome back to SEASON 14 of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we connect the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence training for improved well-being, achievement, productivity and results—using what I saw as the missing link (since we weren’t taught this when we were growing up in school), the application of practical neuroscience. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast 7 years ago now, with the goal of bringing ALL the leading experts together (in one place) to help us to APPLY this research in our daily lives.

Welcome back! It’s always good to take some time away, for travel and family time, and it feels incredible to routine back to recording and routine. Thank you for tuning back in after our summer break where I hope you have taken some time off to refresh, before diving back into the second half of 2025.

For today’s EP 365, we meet with someone who I first heard about on our very first interview, EP #3[i], with educator, Ron Hall, from Valley Day School, Pennsylvania on “Launching Your Neuroeducational Program.” Ron Hall mentioned it was today’s guest who opened his mind to connecting the brain to his classrooms, many years ago, and he has never looked back. Today, we welcome back resiliency expert, author Horacio Sanchez to the podcast for the 4th time. We met him first on EP 74[ii] on “How to Improve Brain Science to Improve School Climate”, EP 111[iii] on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem: and again on EP 177[iv] where we gathered a team of experts to dive into the most significant insights they’ve noticed over the years in neuroscience.

When we first met Horacio, we focused on his book The Education Revolution [ii]published by Corwin Press, that addresses the decline in empathy, increase in obesity, and the impact of implicit bias on minority students. Our conversation turned to focus on the problems we were seeing in the world at that moment (July 2020) highlighting the need for racial change through an understanding of race and culture. I knew that Horacio was deep into his next book, The Poverty Problem: How Education Can Promote Resilience and Counter Poverty's Impact on Brain Development that we went deep into on EP 74.

Today we meet with Horacio Sanchez to review his latest book, Unlocking School Bias: Using Neuroscience to Improve Student Outcomes[v] that was released in February of this year, through Corwin Press.

His most recent book, Unlocking School Bias ends the confusion around bias and provides educators with research and strategies that enable them to effectively address bias in the classroom and school in appropriate and productive ways. Learn to explore your own and your students' biases and discover:

The latest research from psychology, education, and neuroscience Different types of biases, including confirmation bias and impact bias, and how they manifest themselves in everyday life Practical strategies for educators who are ready to change their and their students' actions How patterns in one’s environment create biases and affect the brain’s development

Implicit bias occurs subconsciously and so quickly that the conscious brain is unaware that it happened. Yet, with mindful practice and reflection, we can rewrite the automated processes in our brains, stop our subconscious minds from determining our thoughts and behaviors, and help our students feel safe and successful in school.

Let’s meet Horacio Sanchez and explore our own biases first, and then see how this understanding can help us with our students in the classroom, or with the athletes we coach, or in our workplace.

Welcome back for the 4th time Horacio! It’s incredible to see you again. What have you been up to (other than traveling and working in schools?)

INTRO: Horacio, I know that implicit bias came up on our first interview, and I’ve had other guest speak about this topic, but I wonder what made you want to write this book about Unlocking School Bias?

Q1: After reading the Foreword by David Fink, where he mentioned that “he lived in a world where everyone around him constantly made assumptions about how people with dyslexia and adhd thought, felt and performed in school” and that “you can’t dodge these assumptions (that we know are biases). I started to see things differently, especially as you know the work I do day to day is around helping students who are struggling readers. I want to be sure that I am aware of my own biases.

With the insights from David’s Foreword, why is it so important (or critical) that we check ourselves every day to stop our subconscious mind from determining our thoughts and behaviors? How can we do this?

Q2: How do you see biases impacting student wellbeing and academic achievement?

Q3: This topic has become popular over the past few years. What are some common misconceptions about biases that are harmful?

Q4: What have you uncovered with the latest psychology, education and neuroscience research that can help us to break through the bias barrier? How can we use neuroscience to understand how our brains produce bias, predict when it’s probable, and prepare ourselves for appropriate responses?

Q5: Chapter 1 The Birth of Bias you cover the first year of life of a baby, and how “in-group bias is an unattended outcome of infant-mother attachment” as well as how a “fear of strangers” first occurs in the early years of life. How can this brain-science now help teachers in the classroom with their students? What about for those who work with athletes? Or the corporate space?

Q6: In Chapter 2 The Cup is Half Empty on the negativity bias, you cover in depth how “negativity bias is already present in the first year of life” and that “we are alerted to negative things in our environment faster than positive ones” and that “we remember negative experiences longer and more vividly.” This chapter was hard for me to read because I work hard to focus on the positive side of things every day, squashing the negatives, and wondered if brain science will go against all the hard work that I put into this. What does neuroscience say about the negativity bias, and how can we use this understanding to improve results in our schools, sports and workplaces?

Q6B: The part of this chapter on change interested me, as I do come across your example from the book on change in my day to day experience. What can we do to help us through change, knowing how hard it is for the human brain?

Q7: In Chapter 3, Believe it or Not on Confirmation Bias, you cover how “our brain is programmed to see things in the environment that support existing beliefs” and that “research shows that teachers’ beliefs about students might be the strongest predictor of outcomes.” This reminded me of what David Fink wrote about in the Foreword, that was behind the reason for why he has devoted his life to “addressing the biases that stunt student achievement and well-being.” How can we combat confirmation bias and update our belief system?

Q8: Horacio, I love the work of Julie Porter, who created the graphic that accompanies your book. She explains each chapter, with an explanation of each bias, as well as strategies that educators can use. Since I’m always looking to extend the learning to our sports environments and workplaces, is there anything we should do different in our sports environments or workplaces as we are navigating these biases?

Q9: As I was reading your book, and thinking of these subconscious biases that we all have, it made me think of something that came up in my brain scan evaluation with Dr. Shane Creado, after we recorded EP #84.[vi] Dr. Creado asked me if I had ever done any shadow work. At the time I hadn’t and I didn’t even know what it was. I thought it must have been important, so I’ve since started to look at Carl Jung’s work, and I wonder, how are our subconscious biases similar to our shadow-sides, or the hidden parts of ourselves that we can explore to improve our self-awareness?

Q10: What are some final thoughts of what we can do with the “200 milliseconds where our subconscious mind has shaped our perceptions and influenced our behaviors?” What can we do to lessen the impact of implicit biases and create schools, sports or work environments where we can all flourish?”

Horacio, I want to thank you very much for coming back to the podcast for a 4th time. What’s next on the horizon for you? We need to have you back for a 5th time, which will be a record for us on the podcast, beating out all guests.

For people who want to follow your work, or reach out to you, is the best place still https://www.resiliencyinc.com/?

CONNECT WITH HORACIO SANCHEZ

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsanchezceo/

X/Twitter https://twitter.com/ResiliencyInc

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/resiliencyinc/

EMAIL: [email protected]

Horacio Sanchez, a national speaker and author, is an educational consultant to many organizations focused on improving formal education. He is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on resiliency and applied neuroscience. His expertise helps schools overcome the impact of poverty, improve school climate, engage in brain-based instruction, and address issues related to implicit bias. He is the author of the best-selling books The Education Revolution and The Poverty Problem.

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #3 with Ron Hall https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/interview-with-ron-hall-valley-day-school-on-launching-your-neuroeducational-program/

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #74 with Horacio Sanchez on “How to Apply Brain Science to Improve Instruction and School Climate” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/leading-brain-science-and-resiliency-expert-horatio-sanchez-on-how-to-apply-brain-science-to-improve-instruction-and-school-climate/

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #111 with Horacio Sanchez on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/resiliency-expert-and-author-horacio-sanchez-on-finding-solutions-to-the-poverty-problem/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #177 with Horacio Sanchez, Dr. Jon Lieff, Howard Rankin and Tom Beakbane https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/firstpanel-interview-with-horaciosanchez-jon-lieff-md-howardrankin-phd-and-tombeakbaneon-the-most-significantinsight-from-neurosciencethatcould-tra/

[v] Unlocking School Bias: Using Neuroscience to Improve Student Outcomes by Horacio Sanchez published February 2025 https://www.corwin.com/books/unlocking-bias-292586?srsltid=AfmBOooya2rHddToUePQdt9hl23xILDh-IfZIS4HTCriszgDNGwbjjBD

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #84 on “PART 3: Andrea’s Brain Scan Results” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

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Unlocking School Bias: Using Neuroscience to Improve Student Outcomes with Horacio Sanchez

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

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published 17d ago