6. Ignoring the brain

Not knowing much about the brain and how learning is expressed in the brain is very much like trying to navigate without understanding your map. We’ve been educating systematically now since the early 1800s, yet only in recent years has the call to understand the brain, as it learns, gathered any momentum.

The most significant impacts on the student brain are:

Resources: nutrition, fitness and sleep in particular

Social: being accepted, listened to and respected

Emotional & Cognitive: safety, clarity, autonomy, relatedness and fairness[1]

Situational: reflection and feedback to form new connections from established patterns

So what can you do as a teacher? Read widely:

The Brain That Changes Itself – Norman Doidge

The Decisive Moment – Jonah Lehrer

The Success Zone/Success Zone Classrooms – Mowat, Corrigan & Long

A User’s Guide to the Brain – John Ratey

Your Brain At Work – David Rock

The manual to teaching manual to The Success Zone, Success Zone Classrooms, has a section on teaching to the student brain.