Teaching is the art of changing the brain

By Laurie Bartels | October 6, 2008 |

James Zull is a pro­fes­sor of Biol­o­gy. He is also Direc­tor Emer­i­tus of the Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­ter for Inno­va­tion in Teach­ing and Edu­ca­tion at Case West­ern Reserve Uni­ver­si­ty in Ohio. These roles most assured­ly coa­lesced in his 2002 book, The Art of Chang­ing the Brain: Enrich­ing the Prac­tice of Teach­ing by Explor­ing the Biol­o­gy of Learning.…

Read More

Reorganizing School Schedules: Start Times, Light, Scheduling

By Laurie Bartels | September 5, 2008 |

With sum­mer draw­ing to a close and schools start­ing up for a new sea­son, what bet­ter time to take a look at how schools uti­lize research about the brain in deter­min­ing the tim­ing of the flow of school. Not only cur­rent brain research, but com­mon sense, tells me the fol­low­ing areas need tweak­ing. — School…

Read More

Resources for Brain Health Across the Lifespan

By Laurie Bartels | August 26, 2008

As promised in my pre­vi­ous post on Neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis and Brain Plas­tic­i­ty in Adult Brains, I will now list some inter­views, video, arti­cles, and books that go hand-in-hand with these fas­ci­nat­ing top­ics we are dis­cussing. Please com­ment below if you have favorite addi­tion­al resources! NEUROGENESIS MIT news – Picow­er researcher finds neu­ron growth in adult brain Society…

Read More

Neurogenesis and Brain Plasticity in Adult Brains

By Laurie Bartels | August 7, 2008 |

Back in July, I wrote a post enti­tled 10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn. Those tips apply to stu­dents of any age, includ­ing adults, for ide­al­ly adults are still learn­ers. Why is adult learn­ing rel­e­vant in a brain-focused blog, you may won­der: The short of it As we age, our brain: still forms new brain cells can…

Read More

Learning & the Brain: Resources for Educators

By Laurie Bartels | July 20, 2008 |

As promised in my pre­vi­ous post (10 Brain Train­ing Tips To Teach and Learn), here are some of the resources that inform my under­stand­ing of the brain: books, con­fer­ences, and web­sites. BOOKS There are a mul­ti­tude of books about the brain. For edu­ca­tors, the best of these are books that demys­ti­fy the lan­guage of neuroscience…

Read More