Brain Rules, subtitled 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, by John Medina, deals with the above topic through the author's use of anecdotes, examples, and simple explanations of the science that make the stories relevant. The book is a fairly quick read, although slow because of the breadth of the topic at hand. Medina breaks the topic into 12 rules: exercise, survival, wiring, attention, short-term memory, long-term memory, sleep, stress, sensory integration, vision, gender, and exploration.
John Medina is uniquely qualified to discuss this topic, given that he researches the molecular basis of psychiatric disorders. He writes that he "occasionally would run across articles and books that made startling claims based on 'recent advances' in brain science about how to change the way we teach people and do business. And [he] would panic, wondering if the authors were reading some literature totally off [his] radar screen." But there was no need for panic, as the science cannot yet tell us how the brain knew how to pick up a glass of water. Instead, Medina wishes more research would be done.
In this way, he does not ever demand that we follow these rules, merely points to the results of going with or against them. With exercise, he pointed to sharp intellectuals still active in their nineties vs "couch potatoes" who were fading or already gone by seventy.
This book is helpful to us as teachers in that it shows some of the science behind why our students behave the way they do, perform the way they do, and ultimately need our help in the areas they seem to be weak at. Using these rules can help us as educators adjust our teaching to fit our many different learners.
No comments:
Post a Comment