Customer Reviews

For the Learners' Sake: A Practical Guide to Transform Your Classroom and School

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The authors have done a good job in helping teachers to make the transition from the rigid, standardised "schools as machines" to varied, creative "brain-compatible", learned-centred education. Charts, comparison tables, drawings, framed key ideas and activities, headings... all help to make the book easy to read, understand and use. After contrasting "Industrial-Age" with "Information-Age" beliefs and education, a very basic anatomy and physiology of the brain is given.

To be brain-compatible, teachers must consider these findings from brain research: "Emotions are critical to succesful learning. Our brains are poorly designed for rote learning. Multisensory input is desired by our brains. Learning involves the whole body. Threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness can impair learning. Our brains are 'plastic' and can continue to develop throughout our lives..." (p.35)

Elaborate rehearsal through multiple opportunities (role playing, creative writing, cooperative learning tasks, multisensory experiences) helps the formation of long-term memory. "Think-Pair-Share" and "10-2" (10 mins.' sharing followed by 2 mins.' student processing) are strategies that help assimilation. (p.41)

Mental models or beliefs with regard to students, teaching, intelligence, power and control directly affect our teaching styles and student learning. Tools, strategies and surveys are given for collaborative learning, community building in the classroom, conflict resolutions, inquiry, integrated instruction, and brain-compatible assessment, which both measures achievement and provides motivation.

This is a simple introductory book making good use of secondary sources. Once convinced of its value, readers can explore the website links and other books in the bibliography, which should be updated already with many new relevant titles and some new editions of the books listed.

Judy Stevens and Dee Goldberg have delivered a gift to those of us who love children. Their insightful theories and sage wisdom are the compass that every parent, educator and child caregiver should heed in order to perserve and encourage the natural enthusiasm children have for learning. If all those who teach our children used these principles, we wouldn't need to "teach to testing," be burdened by mountains of assessment paperwork and witness the dimming sparkle in the eyes of students. Teaching would be rewarding again, learning would become the thrilling adventure it should be and parenting would be joyful rather than burdensome. I think anyone interacting with children and anyone personally planning to continue learning as an adult should read this book. Gee, doesn't that cover just about everyone?