Rules you brain works by

Hat tip to Eric Barker from the intriguing Barking up the wrong tree for refreshing my memory about John Medina's excellent book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.















We workshopped the book at Muriel Brand School about a year ago and staff found it very useful. All educators can learn much from John Medina. Here is a link to a Pdf summarising the Brain Rules. The Pdf gives enough information to be usable.

Here are his points as summarised for a presentation:

Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power

Survival: The human brain evolved

Wiring: Every brain is wired differently

Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things

Short-term memory: Repeat to remember

Long term memory: Remember to repeat

Sleep: Sleep well, think well

Stress: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way

Sensory integration: Stimulate more of the senses

Vision: Vision trumps all other senses

Gender: Male and female brains are different

Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers

Medina lays much emphasis on the importance of movement and exercise for learning. Note that these are not the specific movements alleged to activate specific areas of the brain that are often suggested by expensive educational consultants. Do not waste your money on stuff that has no scientific validity and no scientific evidence for effectiveness.

Tips for teachers on the neurobiology of learning

The term "brain based education" seems to be redundant, a no-brainer, what else could education be based on, the liver? Yet it is one of the the biggest sources of quackery in education, also in South Africa. I list the advice by Prof. Michael Friedlander with some trepidation therefore, lest some quack latch onto something he or she does not fully understand and build a new mythology on it.


Prof. Friedlander offered advice based on the neurobiology of learning for medical educators. I briefly list his ideas of factors important for learning below, summarised from Brain Scientists Offer Medical Educators Tips on the Neurobiology of Learning. Read the article itself for more information.

Repeating works if it is appropriately spaced

Reward and reinforcement helps learning

Visualization of material aids recall

Active engagement with work helps, teacher must motivate learners

Stress (moderate) is good for learning

Sleeping is important to consolidate learning

Multitasking is bad for learning, except where tasks are related

Individual learning styles

Here I would differ, there is ample evidence that teaching to individual learning styles is ineffective.

Active involvement: Doing is learning

Revisiting information and concepts using multiple senses

Note that brain profiling, whole brain learning, left brain right brain, brain blockages, etc., do not appear in the list. That's because such ideas are not based on good science and have no scientific evidence to support their use! Click on Mind Myths under Labels on the blog, Occam's Donkey.