We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum [Hardcover]

Rita Smilkstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761946411 | ISBN-13: 978-0761946410 | Publication Date: December 20, 2002

This extraordinary book shows teachers how to create and deliver curriculum that helps students become the motivated, successful natural learners they were born to be.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This author not only summarizes the theories and research regarding how the brain functions in the process of learning-natural learning-she also shows how she has continued to apply it in her own teaching and learning."

(Robert Pinney, Director )

"The stunning correspondence between Rita Smilkstein's research results and Piaget's six stages validates this book. Smilkstein's work grounds in brain research theories and assumptions that educators have worked with for years. It is as if a missing link has now been unearthed to connect all that we have observed in our teaching."

(Jonathan Baylis )

"Being a community college English instructor who has used the Natural Human Learning Process approach for several years, I have had the opportunity to see the results it produces. There is no better way to experience the joy of teaching than to see students' joy of learning blossom. There is no greater motivator than success, and that's what all of us-students and teachers alike-experience in an NHLP learning environment."

(Julie Noble, English Instructor )

"A new theory more directly linking culture, information processing, instruction, and how the brain learns is needed to transform classroom practice for culturally diverse learners. Rita Smilkstein, the ranking scholar-practitioner-activist in the brain-based, natural learning movement, offers concrete, research- based classroom strategies for achieving this vision."

(Irving Pressley McPhail, Chancellor )

"This is an important and useful book-readable, practical, and inspiring advice for the practicing teacher. This is a great translation of theory into practice, and Rita's stories of her own work are especially compelling."

(Jean MacGregor, National Learning Communities Project )

"I would certainly recommend that developmental educators read this book and implement its findings. This work is [also] going to be particularly helpful to high school teachers. It summarizes vast amounts of research and experience in clear and practical terms. It offers a whole new approach to teaching and learning that is well grounded in fact and science."

(Hunter R.Boylan, Professor and Director )

About the Author

Dr. Smilkstein speaks nationally and internationally on brain-compatible education. She has taught in middle school through graduate school including 28 years at North Seattle Community College. Currently Professor Emerita North Seattle Community College and invited faculty in Educational Psychology at Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education, Everett Campus. Publications include articles and books on brain-based curriculum and pedagogy. Author of We’re Born to Learn: Using the Brain’s Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum (Corwin Press, 2003), which won the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society’s Educator’s Award of the Year, 2004; the second edition will be published in 2011. She is a co-author of Igniting Student Potential Using the Natural Human Learning Process (Corwin Press, 2007). M.A. (English, Michigan State University), Ph.D. (Educational Psychology, University of Washington). She has received many teaching awards, including the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development’s Excellence Award, 1991, 1995; the College Reading and Learning Association’s highest honor, the Robert Griffin Award, 2005; Induction as a Fellow of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations, 2006, the highest honor in the field of Developmental Education.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Corwin Press (December 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761946411
• ISBN-13: 978-0761946410
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,959,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brain-based Teaching need not upset the apple-cart, October 5, 2009

By 

Madlon T. Laster (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum (Paperback)

Dr. Smilkstein has explained how the brain attaches new learning to the neuron-networks established for the initial concept in each student's mind. She discusses how students are involved and interested when they know they are building new dendrites to connect across synapses and create more knowledge for the student. And she does this with simple approaches classroom teachers can initiate easily without losing the focus the testing mandates press upon them each day. It's worth the read just for the encouragement.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book, April 11, 2011

By 

Christina Russell "Christy <3" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum (Paperback)

I had to read this for a class. It was okay book over all. If your gonna be a teacher this is a good book to read to help successfully teach your students.