GEN: Professional Resources

Synthesizing recent research exploring how the brain works, she explains how students' emotions and stress affect their ability to learn, how the physical classroom environment influences learning, and what forms of assessment work best.

From an early age, it is drilled into our heads: Restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. We're told that learning is all self-discipline, that we must confine ourselves to designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual if we want to ace that test, memorize that presentation, or nail that piano recital. But what if almost everything we were told about learning is wrong - and what if there was a way to achieve more with less effort?

In The Learning Brain, Torkel Klingberg urges us to use the insights of neuroscience to improve the education of our children.The key to improving education lies in understanding how the brain works: that is where learning takes place, after all. The book focuses in particular on "working memory" - our ability to concentrate and to keep relevant information in our head while ignoring distractions

Written for educators, Mind, Brain, & Education showcases neuroscience's insights into the learning process and explores its implications for educational theory and practice. It provides applications, examples, and suggestions for further thought and research. This landmark publication features leading researchers in the emerging field of educational neuroscience. The contributors investigate such questions as: What are the neurological foundations of learning and of individual differences in learning? How did educators get involved with neuroscience, and where might this involvement lead? What does neuroscience reveal about the brain's ability to use written and spoken language, to use mathematics, and to think creatively? How can educational neuroscience improve the teaching of these abilities?

...explains the new transdisciplinary academic field that has grown out of the intersection of neuroscience, education, and psychology. The trend in "brain-based teaching" has been growing for the past twenty years and has exploded in the past five to become the most authoritative pedagogy for best learning results. Aimed at teachers, teacher trainers and policy makers, and anyone interested in the future of education in America and beyond, Mind, Brain, and Education Science responds to the clamor for help in identifying what information could and should apply in classrooms with confidence, and what information is simply commercial hype.

Caine and Caine build a bridge to the future of education with a dynamic model of teaching that works for all grade levels and all cultural and ethnic groups. The authors' education model, the Guided Experience Approach, is based on the scientific foundation of learning as a totally natural, continuous interaction between perception and action. This important book provides a practical, step-by-step description and successful examples from practice so that we can finally provide the learning environments essential for our children to thrive in the knowledge age.

Dr. Restak, author of more than 15 books on the brain, leads you through the latest research and the expanding field of cognitive science, explains its implications, and even offers practical advice

This book offers a definitive, scientifically grounded guide for better teaching and learning practices. While parents and teachers are often bombarded with promises of "a better brain," this book distinguishes true, applicable neuroscience from the popular neuromyths that have gained currency in education.

Read the title again, and then consider: What is the point of doing your job any other way? After explaining the basics of research and theory in clear terms, this book offers precise techniques for putting those principles to work in class. The day after you read it, this book will make you more effective at commanding attention, motivating students, and helping them really remember what they learn. Produced by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).