Customer Reviews

Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a New Learning Science

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Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science is a product of OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperative Development] and CERI [Centre for Research and Innovation}. I am telling you this because OECD is a forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalization. A word of importance...globalization in this context does not imply "socialism". OECD/CERI conducts pure research and helps to lay out statistics that will allow for mature study of the manner in which countries utilize their resourses, conduct business in a egalitarian manner and possibly point toward model systems of efficient governance.
OECD is made up of real people who make the system viable...

The book/text in review called Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science by OECD/CERI is a powerful beginning of setting brain education on a higher level than is it is presently. Presently, schools throughout the world, some more than other, teach or educate students about the brain by using materials that teachers teach from....that being other books and lectures, films etc.

This can be alarming when reviewing the "stuff" that teachers use to teach our children about the brain. We are all pretty well agreed that "prior learning" and the "development of neuronal networks" set the foundation for subsequent growth in learning. Yet, many, many resources that teachers use for helping their students do not require 'causation' and strong 'underpinnings', but are simply based on 'correlations' which do not support a strong foundation.

Christina Hinton, consultant to OECD/doctorate student at Harvard University played a big part in the meetings of neuroscientists and educational practitioners: The purpose of the meeting seemed to be one of the first such meetings [2006] whereby dialogue between the two territorial curricular areas could conjoin in sorting out a common vocabulary and agreements on what could be called 'teachable truths' for our students. 'Neuromyth' which are still taught in schools were especially alarming with essentially no causation or underpinnings to support teaching the facts/or fictions.

Since this is a short book review, I would suggest that all high schools, colleges and universities read the book and suggest alligning your curriculum with what seems to be a healthy change. Board members need to read this book also since it will be an on-going series.

The cutting edge in Mind, Brain and Education at the present time is Harvard Universities MBE program..Dr. Kurt Fischer and the inchoate International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, President Dr. Kurt Fischer., Harvard University. Other such organizations are OECD, CERI and Yale and Stanford Universities. In Europe, we have Cambridge and others who are working very hard to form a strong synergism between neuroscientists and educational practitioners.

OECD specialist Christina Hinton say this on page 239 of the book.
"The following are a selection of extracts on varying topics of discussion, from "Emotions and Learning", "Literacy and the Brain" to " Dyscalculia" and " Brain Science and Education'. Meet our members who hail from Solana Beach, Californa to a farm in East York, United Kingdom, from the mid-west to the outback hills of Australia, and even beyond OECD member countries to include members from countries like India and Nigeria. They are teachers, education counselors, neuroscientists, and OECD experts. They go by the aliases such as "segarama", "puppet-maker", "justme" "the foreign brain" and "4th grade teacher". Some are even retired, well in their 60s, still lit by the fire to educate, by the driving force of learning, and to find out the latest about what neuroscientists are discovering and what can be possibly applied in the future".

Be well,
Rob Harriman
Segarama