Stemming Attrition in Early Stage Teachers - some Musing
Written by Kery O’Neill, Founder, Director and Head Mythbuster, Active Axons Education
Every year, thousands of eager new teachers step into classrooms with passion, purpose, and determination. Yet, a staggering number—nearly 30-50%—leave the profession within five years. While we often hear about long hours, student behaviour, or administrative burdens, a deeper, less obvious cause lies beneath these surface stressors: teachers are being sent into classrooms without some fundamental keys.
Teacher preparation programs, while excellent at equipping educators with curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment strategies, often overlook the biology of learning. This isn't a "nice-to-have"; it's an energy economy issue. Without understanding how the brain actually develops, learns, and communicates, teachers spend far more energy than they have, often fighting against biology instead of working with it. Over time, this mismatch doesn't just drain teachers; it drives them out.
I was recently told that a teacher educator didn’t want to embrace too much of the Science of Learning into their undergraduate programs, because they wanted to prepare teachers to teach the whole child. I was very surprise – as teaching for the whole child in my eyes, starts with learning to work WITH the biology of learning, and not against it.
Myth #1: Neuroscience of Learning is an Optional Add on
This pervasive myth is deeply embedded in most teacher training. Future educators learn what to teach, but rarely how the brain truly functions and learns. Most teacher education only touches on how attention, memory, stress, or motivation play out neurologically—or how these differ profoundly between children, teens, and adults.
Secondary teachers, in particular, are left without the tools to understand how the adolescent brain is uniquely wired for novelty, emotion, and peer connection. Without this crucial knowledge, even the most well-designed lessons can misfire. Teachers burn immense energy trying to force understanding rather than unlocking it, leading to frustration and self-doubt.
The Adolescent Brain: Not a Mini Adult, But Another Planet
Let’s bust another myth: teenagers aren’t just "younger adults." Their brains are undergoing a full-scale renovation, fundamentally shaping their perception, decision-making, and learning. Neuroscience reveals five big differences that matter for every classroom:
The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) Is Still Under Construction: This "executive" part of the brain, responsible for planning, impulse control, and judgment, isn't fully wired until the mid-20s. This means teens are biologically wired for emotion over logic, making self-regulation a significant challenge.
Emotions Run Hotter: The limbic system, responsible for emotional and reward processing, matures much sooner than the PFC. This imbalance fuels impulsivity and strong emotional responses, making small setbacks feel like crises.
Reward-Seeking Is on Overdrive: Dopamine sensitivity peaks during adolescence, making risk, novelty, and peer influence especially compelling. This isn't defiance; it's biology.
Time Feels Different: Long-term consequences often don't land with the same weight. Immediate relevance and impact matter more to the adolescent brain.
Processing Needs Space: Myelination and synaptic pruning are actively restructuring neural pathways, increasing processing speed but often unevenly and slowly in complex thinking tasks. Silence in teens may often mean "I’m still trying to process," not resistance or indifference.
These are not deficits. They are biological realities. But without training, teachers misinterpret them. What looks like resistance may simply be rewiring. What feels like indifference may be a time perception gap. If teachers don’t know this, they spend huge amounts of energy trying to "fix" what isn’t broken.
Myth #2: Academic Skills Can Be Taught Separately from Wellbeing
Too often, schools split academic teaching and student wellbeing into two separate teams that barely speak to each other. Teachers are expected to juggle dual roles—delivering curriculum while carrying the emotional needs of the class. This creates massive energy leaks.
But the truth is clear: emotional state and learning are inextricably linked. A stressed, anxious, or disconnected brain literally can’t process or retain information effectively. Conversely, curiosity and emotional safety release neurochemicals like dopamine and oxytocin that prime the brain for learning. When these domains remain siloed, everyone loses. When merged—academics and wellbeing reinforced as one integrated approach—energy, clarity, and engagement thrive. Teachers don’t wear two hats; they wear one: teaching for whole human thriving.
Myth #3: Burnout Is a Personal Shortfall, Fixed by Resilience Training
Burnout isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a sign of mismatch. We cannot simply teach teachers to be more resilient while ignoring the root causes of energy drain: communication mismatches, lack of brain-aligned strategies, and systemic expectation gaps.
Teachers don’t need endless pep talks or self-care initiatives that frame burnout as a personal failing. They need alignment, the right tools, and a system that respects their energy economy. When teachers are given tools that work with brain biology rather than against it, they conserve energy naturally because they’re no longer pushing uphill. It’s like upgrading from a leaky bucket to a sealed container; the same effort goes further.
The First Five Years: Where Leaks Become Exits
Imagine a beginning teacher entering the classroom without neuroscientific guidance:
Their clear explanations get blank stares.
Emotional disruptions escalate because the teen brain is struggling, not defying.
The teacher uses all their emotional energy just managing behavior—not teaching.
Exhaustion builds into self-doubt: “Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”
It’s no wonder that so many leave within five years. In some regions, the number of early-career teachers quitting has surged by nearly 97%, and stress-related compensation has jumped 59%. These numbers expose the painful facts behind teacher burnout—not just as systems failure, but as missed biology. Because teacher wellbeing and student outcomes are deeply linked, the loss ripples outward. Students lose mentors. Schools lose talent. Systems lose vital investment.
Rewiring Education: Teacher Preparation as Energy Investment
Rewriting this story starts at the core: in teacher education. We can stop losing brilliant teachers every five years by making fundamental shifts:
Embed the Biology of Learning into Training: Don’t treat it as a specialty. Make understanding memory, attention, emotion, and adolescent neurobiology foundational for every teacher.
Teach Adolescent-Aligned Communication Skills: This isn't an elective; it's essential pedagogy. Help teachers to slow communication, validate emotion first, and anchor content to relevance and immediate future impact.
Collapse Academic/Wellbeing Silos into One Energy Economy: Empower teachers to integrate both, not juggle them. This frees energy and moves culture toward wholeness, benefiting both educators and students.
Support Early-Career Teachers with Biology-Aligned Mentorship: Pair graduates with mentors who can normalize the challenges of adolescent communication and show practical ways to work with biology before burnout sets in.
The Bottom Line: From Energy Leak to Energy Keeper
Teacher attrition isn’t inevitable—it’s a symptom. When educators walk into classrooms without the neuroeducation-aligned tools, they leak energy on the wrong things. Their tanks don’t just run low—they feel empty.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. When we rewire teacher preparation for the reality of the adolescent brain, integrate wellbeing into pedagogy, and plug systemic energy leaks, classrooms transform. Communication becomes connection. Teaching becomes sustainable. Energy circulates—rather than drains.
We can stop losing brilliant teachers. We have the opportunity to reframe preparation around biology, bust the myths, and protect energy. Because when teachers thrive, students—and schools—thrive too. And that’s the future of education we can’t afford to walk away from.