Top Resources for Educators on Learning and the Brain

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In my pre­vi­ous post 10 Brain Train­ing Tips To Teach and Learn I promised to share some of the resources–books, con­fer­ences, and web­sites– that inform my under­stand­ing of teach­ing, learn­ing and the brain. Here’s an updat­ed list:

BOOKS

There are many books about the brain. For edu­ca­tors, the best of these are books that demys­ti­fy the lan­guage of neu­ro­science while pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion applic­a­ble to the teach­ing and learn­ing process.

Among the more pro­lif­ic or well-known authors of this type include Jeb Schenck, Robert Syl­west­er, Bar­bara Givens, Robert Marzano, Mar­ilee Sprenger, and Eric Jensen.

I have found books by Sprenger and Jensen to be immense­ly help­ful. Both write about the brain in under­stand­able terms, pro­vide prac­ti­cal sug­ges­tions, dis­cuss sen­si­ble ideas, and include innu­mer­able ref­er­ences to sup­port­ive research. Three of my most ref­er­enced books by these two are:

By Sprenger  How To Teach So Stu­dents Remem­ber and Learn­ing & Mem­o­ry: The Brain in Action.

By Jensen  Teach­ing with the Brain in Mind, Revised 2nd Edi­tion.

For a more gen­er­al per­spec­tive you can also enjoy The Brain That Changes Itself: Stores of Per­sonal Tri­umph from the Fron­tiers of Brain Sci­ence and The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age.

CONFERENCES

High­ly stim­u­lat­ing and infor­ma­tive are the Learn­ing & the Brain con­fer­ences, which take place mul­ti­ple times a year. Each con­fer­ence has an over­ar­ch­ing theme, which is then bro­ken down into sev­er­al strands. In the past these strands have focused on pre‑K through col­lege; but often also include an adult brain strand.

The L&B con­fer­ence runs the gamut from renowned neu­ro­sci­en­tists shar­ing their research to prac­ti­tion­ers trans­lat­ing that research into prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion. There are pre- and post-con­fer­ence work­shops, and plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet and talk with all pre­sen­ters, as well as con­fer­ence attendees.

WEBSITES

Web­sites pro­vide infor­ma­tion in a vari­ety of modal­i­ties. Many of these sites can be used with stu­dents, who enjoy learn­ing about their brains, and hence, about themselves.

Gen­er­al Topics

• The Franklin Insti­tute: Your Brain and Your Brain Exhib­it Edu­ca­tor Guide
• Neu­ro­science for Kids:  Auto­nom­ic Ner­vous System 
• LeDoux Lab, New York Uni­ver­si­ty: Emo­tion, Mem­o­ry, and the Brain 

Sleep

• Neu­ro­science for Kids Sleep
• Nation­al Sleep Foundation
• Nation­al Insti­tute of Neu­ro­log­i­cal Dis­or­ders and Stroke:  Brain Basics: Under­stand­ing Sleep

Nutri­tion

• NPR: A Bet­ter Break­fast Can Boost a Child’s Brainpower
• Web­MD Brain Food Quiz: How Much Do You Know?

Move­ment and Exercise

• NPR: Exer­cise Helps Stu­dents in the Classroom
• Dr. Judith Han­na: What Edu­ca­tors and Par­ents Should Know About Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Learn­ing and Dance

I hope you find these resources useful.

Lau­rie Bar­tels writes the Neu­rons Fir­ing blog to cre­ate for her­self the “the grad­u­ate course I’d love to take if it exist­ed as a pro­gram”. Since 1982 she has been teach­ing com­put­er class­es and facil­i­tat­ing the use of tech­nol­o­gy in schools.