Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning [Paperback]

Daniel S. Janik (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1578862914 | ISBN-13: 978-1578862917 | Publication Date: September 8, 2005

Here, Daniel S. Janik, MD, PhD, argues replacing education and teaching with non-traumatic, curiosity-based, discovery-driven, and mentor-assisted transformational learning. Unlock the Genius Within is an easy read that explains—in conversational manner—the newest ideas on neurobiological and transformational learning beginning with what's wrong with education and ending with a call for reader participation in developing and applying neurobiological learning and transformational learning theory and methodology. Janik draws extensively from his own experiences first as a physician working with psychological recovery from trauma, and then as an educator and linguist in applying neurobiological-based transformational learning in clinics, classrooms, and tutoring.

Features:
· Descriptions of classical and contemporary research alongside allusions to popular movies and television programs
· Suggested further readings
· Neurobiological learning web resources

Throughout this book, the author incorporates humor, wisdom, and anecdotes to draw readers into traditionally incomprehensible concepts and information that demonstrates transformational learning. It will be of interest to teachers (postsecondary, secondary, and ESL), administrators, counselors, parents, students, and medical researchers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[A] topic of extreme importance, yet there is no proper coverage of the subject in the open literature. . . . The parts of the book related to neurobiological learning are especially strong. The questions asked in that part are the crucial ones, and they open many new avenues for research. . . . I personally will use this book in my graduate teaching. (V. Milutinovic, PhD )

Readable, very informative. . . . The concepts put forth are applicable to today's students and their unique needs. . . . This book is a tool that will take them beyond trying to actually succeeding. As I read, I was conscious of an overwhelming feeling of 'I wish I had known that.' I can see this book revolutionizing education as we know it. (Judith M. Ireton, MEd. )

Informative, educative, stimulating, and fun to read. . . . Recent scientific findings are introduced and explained in a language that I think is fairly accessible . . . especially fascinating and helpful to someone like myself, a language teacher who teaches language and at the same time studies it academically. (Yoichiro Hasebe )

A welcome addition to current work on . . . effective learning. After his academic book, A Neurobiological Theory and Method of Language Acquisition, [Janik] now presents us with a text stripped of the medical, biological, linguistic, and educational jargon, highlighting the most compelling and important contemporary contributions to neurobiological learning . . . [and] its derivative, transformational learning. (Sofija Micic, PhD )

To an informed language specialist, this book gives a lot to digest, a lot to enjoy, a lot to wonder about. Combining his expertise in medicine and in education, [Dan Janik] has pushed language education theory and practice a quantum leap ahead. . . . To an SLA researcher and an FL educationalist, this fine and exquisite book tells a different story: something that has not yet been touched upon in the research literature. Simply, this book is thought-provoking, eye-opening, and immensely immersive. I will personally recommend it to all my language colleagues and to our future student teachers. (Dr. Seppo Tella )

Written in a style accessible to the general reader, this volume is a good primer for those wishing to learn how effective learning via practical mentoring can be so much more rewarding to students, than standard 'talk and chalk' teaching practice. ...there is much to be gained from this book with regards shifting one's affective teaching style, methodology and effective pedagogical practice towards mentoring in determining student learning outcome... Sections concerned with the history of learning theories (from the ancient Greeks, through Darwin to behaviorism and the new cognitive revolution), the evolution of the nervous system, and brain imaging techniques are very valuable, and are made easily accessible to the lay reader in simple language. ...I must recommend [the book's] inclusion on the reading list of any teachers and instructors wishing to explore the power of good mentoring, and its potential for enhancing the intellects of those willing to afford the luxury of such intimacy, time, and energy that is required for such potentially rewarding voyages of discovery. (Metapsychology )

This book takes a new look at how humans acquire language and knowledge.... A good book for your...reading. (Billie Day Global Teachnet )

Janik wondered about the extent to which traditional classroom teaching that stresses imposed efficiency and mastery invokes the emotional side effects of trauma. The result is his intriguing book, Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning. In it, he describes the principal and side effects of traumatic learning as they occur in the classroom, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying them, and the resulting collective inhibition of curiosity. (Brainconnection.Com )

The culmination of over 20 years of work, Dr. Janik discusses the traumatic roots of traditional teaching, how traditional teaching, while effective, results in loss of interest and creativity, and proceeds to describe the neurobiological foundations of a new form of nontraumatic learning—transformative learning—that is equally effective but free of the liabilities of traditional teaching. (Acpm Headlines )

Janik describes his neurobiological theory of learning using a minimum of technical jargon. Drawing upon his experience working with patients recovering from trauma, he identifies some basic principles of effective learning and suggests how they may be applied in a wide range of educational settings. (Reference and Research Book News )

The author weaves an integrated philosophical and physical net to contain his neurobiological theory of learning. The comments on education and the suppositions on the physicality of learning are intriguing and fascinating. (Educational Technology and Society )

About the Author

Dr. Daniel S. Janik is a physician and University Studies Coordinator at Intercultural Communications College, a private english second language and college preparation school in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: R&L Education (September 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578862914
• ISBN-13: 978-1578862917
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,490,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel S. Janik is a physician-educator-author-naturalist and owner of Savant Books and Publications (http://www.savantbooksandpublications.com). He has authored numerous books in a wide variety of genre's under a variety of pen names. He lives in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii, USA with his lovely wife Setsuko Tsuchiya.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awakening Curiosity and Discovery, June 13, 2006

By 

Margaret Zygo "MAZ" (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Paperback)

A must-read for parents and educators of our times. Switching from teaching to learning and nurturing curiosity is the answer education is searching for! Add this book to your essential references... It's time to awaken our own curiosity and discovery, and share this book with friends and colleagues worldwide.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tutoring the Brains of Others ?, January 28, 2008

By 

Anthony R. Dickinson (WashU Med School, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Paperback)

Written in a style accessible to the general reader, this volume is a good primer for those wishing to learn how effective learning via practical mentoring can be so much more rewarding to students, than standard `talk and chalk' teaching practice. Rather than aiding the reader towards `unlocking up their own genius', however, we are perhaps being informed instead of the ways in which one might help one's own students to do so. For the current reviewer, there is much to be gained from this book with regards shifting one's affective teaching style, methodology and effective pedagogical practice towards mentoring in determining student learning outcome (of which I am an adherent myself), but I remain skeptical of (and indeed rather puzzled by) Janik's premises and rationale for the methodology being proposed. For example, although I am readily convinced that mentoring by demonstration (via shared voyages of curiosity and discovery) with one's students are likely to be less traumatic than the mere rote-learning of content and method, I am not sure that `standard teaching practice' is really a trauma comparable to that of one's birth or instances of child sexual abuse in the way the Janik suggests in this book. Overtly Freudian, and keen to suggest that failing intellects may become so as a result of the repression (or suppression ?) of their owner's memorial and thought processes during `traumatic learning' in the classroom (!), the logic of Janik's argument here is not clearly operationalised within the examples he cites in his defense. In this sense, it is the current reviewer's opinion that the author is at best correct with respect to the case for mentoring (and its likelihood of success for potential genius students), but is perhaps correct for quite different (and unstated) reasons. I would also have preferred a different structure to have been used to introduce what is otherwise useful and informative content.

Sections concerned with the history of learning theories (from the ancient Greeks, through Darwin to behaviourism and the new cognitive revolution), the evolution of the nervous system, and brain imaging techniques are very valuable, and are made easily accessible to the lay reader in simple language. And although I wholly agree that the neurobiology of learning and memory (as we currently understand them) are greatly facilitated by the volitional, active engagement of self-motivated students who choose their mentors and role-models wisely, I am not convinced that one's `cognitive awakening' will only occur when one is `free of teachers' (p.47). For the same reason, I am unwilling to believe that the lack of post-natal memory or metacognition is the result of one's `birth trauma' (although early childhood amnesia admittedly remains an as yet unsolved enigma, I think it more likely the result of inadequately networked pre-frontal cortical substrate). Several other of my concerns include the need for improved referencing of the older literature (many early quotes do not match the cited references, or are entirely missing), and there are occasional errors of fact (e.g., Aristotle was not a student of Plato [p.3], but maybe that was intentional ?). In concluding, Janik's `7 Natural Laws of Transformative Learning' are both useful and acceptable tenets for future empirical study, but to date, Janik's own data and rationale (at least as presented in this book) remain unconvincing. The final chapter refers to case-study `proof-of-concept' data (and author-based websites for the reader to access), but little is shared here as to exactly `how' one might go about operationalising Janik's preferred mentoring approach.

Aside from my concerns for the particular arguments put forward in this book, I must recommend its inclusion on the reading list of any teachers and instructors wishing to explore the power of good mentoring, and its potential for enhancing the intellects of those willing to afford the luxury of such intimacy, time, and energy that is required for such potentially rewarding voyages of discovery.


Dr. Tony Dickinson
Global Choice Psychometrics/People Impact Consulting (Asia)
Hong Kong, SAR, China.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neurobiological Learning Comes of Age: The Transformation of Learning and Education, June 12, 2006

By 

Sutrisna Widjaja (Honolulu, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Paperback)

Janik, D. Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching and Transformative Learning. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 208 pages. 10 Chapters. Referenced. Extensively Indexed. ISBN 1578862914.

Last year, Dr. Daniel S. Janik published his newest book, Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching and Transformational Learning (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2005). The book is the second in a series on neurobiological-based learning, and it contains his general theory, tenets and description of neurobiologically-based transformative learning.

This novel learning theory is drawn extensively from his own experience first as a physician working with patients who experienced psychological trauma, and later as an educator and linguist in applying neurobiologically-based transformative learning in clinics, classrooms, and tutoring. In this inspiring book, Janik first discusses what is wrong with education and teaching methodologies in general, and then proceeds to discuss the traumatic roots of traditional teaching--how it ultimately results in loss of interest and creativity. He continues to describe the neurobiological foundations of a new form of nontraumatic learning - transformative learning--a "second learning pathway" (p.114). Janik claims that transformative learning is just as effective and yet free of its liabilities. He argues passionately and convincingly for replacing teaching with non-traumatic, curiosity-based, discovery-driven, mentor-assisted transformative learning to enable students to transform to learners, and teachers to mentors, and as a result of this change, "a new type of learner...[begins] to emerge" (p.164).

Janik believes that his "new" unified educational theory is so workable that it will be applicable not only in the classroom but also in tutoring and distance learning situations. Exciting and intriguing! However, since this theory is still in its "infancy" stage, though having been applied quite successfully in the TOEFL program (specifically TOEFL II and III at Intercultural Communications College (ICC)), more ethnographic and quantitative studies are needed to fully delineate its applicability and measure its success in other classrooms as well as in distance learning.

I found Janik's characterization of mentorship particularly innovative and intriguing. In the book, he writes,
"Tearing apart learned expectations evokes anxiety and even fear. Yet that's all it is: emotions and feelings. The best mentors openly acknowledge these emotions and feelings, relegate them clearly to prediscovery discomfort, and "hold the fort"--keep seeking--until the pop-up or-out phenomenon occurs and awakens discovery" (p.169). Moreover, he argues that, unlike teachers, mentors do not always have to have an answer or be correct as some of the most powerful learning opportunities occur when mentors do not know the answer. "Transformational mentors don't need a `bag of tricks,' but they do need to be aware of not only the processes, but also the limits of neurobiological learning" (p.155). Unfortunately, there is no provision of detailed, step-by-step instructions as to how to transition from teacher to this new kind of mentor.

This neurobiologically-based nontraumatic, transformational learning theory sounds like it should be a complicated and difficult-to-comprehend concept. To my amazement, the book is not only inspiring and thought-provoking but also interesting to read and surprisingly easy to understand. This is because throughout this book, the author uses humor and incorporates anecdotes that illustrate various facets of transformational learning.

This book should be of interest to teachers in a wide variety of disciplines including, of course, English as a Second Language. Administrators, counselors, parents, students, and researchers will also find the book both fascinating and illuminating. According to the author, "...this neurobiological theory will eventually prove to be the long-sought-after unifying theory underlying all effective educational as well as traditional classroom teaching theories and methods..." (p.176). High claims indeed, but ones that the reader comes away excited to see fulfilled rather than skeptical as to their eventual fulfillment.