Customer Reviews

Learning Smarter: The New Science of Teaching

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This book is compiled from the online "learningbrain" monthly newsletter, which gives the latest and timely research articles pertinent to education. The book covers a similar format in 10 areas: cognition, environments, achievement and test performance, music/arts, memory, mind/body, nutrition, enrichment, early years, and the fragile brain. Each article gives a succinct summary of the issues based on research data, "Action Steps" and sources. There are just too many interesting and relevant topics. A few examples: "Is Chocolate Good for Learning?", "The 'Mozart Effect' Under Fire: Where Do We Go From Here?", "Why Some Learners Strive on Stress?", "Learning a New Language in Early Childhood Requires Less Brain Effort", "Neuroplasticity: How Do We Change Our Brain?', "The Biology of Cheating"... There are many passages that you wish to quote and teach the students. Teachers and school administrators can also make better decisions based on reliable information supplied by the book.

Compared to Jensen's other books with even more illustrations, I hope this book could be improved in the next edition. E.g., can you make sense of the following? "Research suggests that fonts with serifs (referring to the short lines stemming at an angle from the upper and lower ends of the stroke of a letter) increase reading speed rates when compared to sans serif fonts (without seifs)." (p. 10) A sketch of the anatomy of the brain would help for visualising many terms throughout the book. E.g. in "Gender Differences and Learning Performance", unless you have some background already, it would be hard to know what is being compared (pp. 69-71). Of course you can start with other introductory books first. Overall, this is a very valuable and interesting book for all educators.

I am very pleased with this order. The book is like new condition, the shipment was puntual.
Thank you!
Bobby