From Brain to Mind: Using Neuroscience to Guide Change in Education

by James E. Zull

Finalist for "Foreword Magazine's" 2011 Book of the YearWith his knack for making science intelligible for the layman, and his ability to illuminate scientific concepts through analogy and reference to personal experience, James Zull offers the reader an engrossing and coherent introduction to what neuroscience can tell us about cognitive development through experience, and its implications for education.Stating that educational change is underway and that the time is ripe to recognize that the primary objective of education is to understand human learning and that all other objectives depend on achieving this understanding, James Zull challenges the reader to focus on this purpose, first for her or himself, and then for those for whose learning they are responsible. The book is addressed to all learners and educators to the reader as self-educator embarked on the journey of lifelong learning, to the reader as parent, and to readers who are educators in schools or university settings, as well as mentors and trainers in the workplace.In this work, James Zull presents cognitive development as a journey taken by the brain, from an organ of organized cells, blood vessels, and chemicals at birth, through its shaping by experience and environment into potentially to the most powerful and exquisite force in the universe, the human mind.Zull begins his journey with sensory-motor learning, and how that leads to discovery, and discovery to emotion. He then describes how deeper learning develops, how symbolic systems such as language and numbers emerge as tools for thought, how memory builds a knowledge base, and how memory is then used to create ideas and solve problems. Along the way he prompts us to think of new ways to shape educational experiences from early in life through adulthood, informed by the insight that metacognition lies at the root of all learning.At a time when we can expect to change jobs and careers frequently during our lifetime, when technology is changing society at break-neck speed, and we have instant access to almost infinite information and opinion, he argues that self-knowledge, awareness of how and why we think as we do, and the ability to adapt and learn, are critical to our survival as individuals; and that the transformation of education, in the light of all this and what neuroscience can tell us, is a key element in future development of healthy and productive societies.

Genres: Education, Neuroscience, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Professor of Biology
Professor of Biochemistry
Director of UCITE

Reviews

[Shane Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Zull explains why action is the key to learning.
“The value of mindless action depends on chance. Our actions may lead us to something that we will think about and explore further, or they may lead nowhere.

[...]

Discarding infrequent or meaningless experiences and retaining frequent or meaningful ones puts experiential learning into gear. The journey has begun! The next step is to discard the randomness. Rather than hitting on good learning experiences randomly, we begin to select and copy specific actions. We begin to mimic.

[...]

Simple as it seems, action is the cause, vehicle, and outcome of education. Perceptions, thoughts, ideas, memories, and intentions are important, but they are not the end product. As we see in the next chapters, they are just middlemen in the transactions of the mind.

The value of action is not in what observers perceive, but in what the learner perceives about his or her own actions. Action is a test of learning, but only the learner can know the motive or the outcome of the tests."

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Academic in need of a really good editor.

This book might have been interesting but I can't get over the self congratulatory stance of the author.

In a nutshell - "I'm a brilliant genius, and I am going to tell you why I am a brilliant genius eventually".

Really dude, just get to the point!

[Nhi Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Experiencing this book is such a great journey for me. Thanks a lot.

“The mind itself is a source of light. We must continue our self-examination, our metacognition. Each of us has that choice. We may not be able to predict what we will find or when we will find it, but it is the process that matters. As long as we choose to continue it we will have new light - not only from outside ourselves but from within.”

[Wiebke Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zull moves us from the physicality of the brain as muscle and biological object via the different processes triggered in brains to the metaphysicality of the mind, connecting input with hormones triggered by electrical charges, leading to joy and how we can use it to teach and learn more successfully. Definitely a worth-while read.

[Khan Ashraf Alif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alas if these knowledge were prerequisite for the teaching professionals what an utopian world we would have ❤

[Aida Saldana Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about how our mind works and how we learn.
I like reading the epilogue because the author questions the place of technology in education.

[Ryan Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read this book for grad class, and it was very dull. Far too technical in the biological functioning of the brain for me. The author also does a lot of extra talking, explain things like "Soon, I'm going to tell you about this, but first I will tell you about this and this" before actually getting to the content. It gets old very fast. Someone more interested in biology may like the book more than I did.