Brain Research and Learning Theory: Implications to Improve Student Learning and Engagement

Table of Contents:
DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES PART I THE BRAIN Nature and Nurture The Unified Whole Neurons Brain Growth and Development Regions of the Brain Genetic Influences Implications for Professors The Brain The Classroom and Its Environment The Curriculum Pedagogy Assessment Summary Notes PART IILEARNING THEORY Behaviorism Learning According to Behaviorism Implications of Behaviorism in the College Classroom Cognitivism Learning According to Cognitivism Multiple Intelligences Culturally Responsive Learning Implications of Cognitivism for the College Classroom Constructivism Learning According to Constructivism Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy Implications of Constructivism for the College Classroom Summary Notes PART IIIIMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS Implications The Learning Environment Curriculum and Pedagogy Assignments Assessment Applications Behaviorism Cognitivism Constructivism Notes BIBLIOGRAPHY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

About the Author :
Dr. Rettig draws upon 40 years of experience in higher education and K-12. He has served as a public-school teacher and principal, a professor of educational leadership, and a university vice president and dean. His conceptual research agenda reaches from leadership, decision making, and how people learn with implications for our classrooms. With an emphasis on the Latin root of curriculum, “to run”, professor Dr. Bailey’s research focuses on the procession of our understanding of cognition, and ideological formations along the history of curriculum and instructional practices.

Review :
Educators reside in a binary space as both teacher and learner. In that space, they are responsible for continually and effectively developing the minds in their academic environment. A successful and efficacious educator performs teaching as an art form while imbuing the foundational science behind the brain's capacity to discover, discern, assimilate, accommodate, and critique information. This process is in no way static. Learning is active. Learning is participatory. Learn is indeed a verb. Rettig and Bailey have created a resource for teachers that enlivens the what, why, and how to best perform the active, artistic, and scientific processes of teaching and learning. “Dr. Rettig’s and Dr. Bailey's lucid command of the neuroanatomical, neurodevelopmental, and neurobiological aspects of the human brain and its function are on full display in the opening section of his book x, accurately translated into layman’s language that can easily inform readers from all scientific disciplines. His approach levels the playing field for academic educators seeking to both become more aware of the internal processes that influence psychological receptiveness to learning and to pro-actively develop practical strategies that leverage emerging neuroscientific-based principles to maximizing learning success.”