Teaching and Brain Function

Understanding how the brain works can help parents and teachers teach their children more effectively. Here are some principles educators should keep in mind as they create brain-friendly learning environments.

• The brain is a complex, dynamic system. The brain can function on many levels and in many ways simultaneously.

• The brain is a social brain. It's now clear that throughout our lives, our brains change in response to our interactions with others.

• The search for meaning is innate. This means that we naturally want to make sense of our experiences. Included in this search for meaning are such basic questions as Who am I? and Why am I here?

• The search for meaning occurs through "patterning." The brain automatically registers the familiar while simultaneously searching for and responding to what is new.

• Emotions are critical to patterning. Emotions color meaning. Emotions and thoughts shape each other and cannot be separated.

• Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception. The brain absorbs information of which it is directly aware, but it also absorbs the unconscious signals that reveal our inner attitudes and beliefs. Learning is developmental. There are windows of opportunity for laying down the basic hardware for later learning. Still, there is no limit to growth and to the capacity for people to learn more.

• Every brain is uniquely organized. We all have the same set of systems, and yet we are all different. Vast ranges in diversity are, therefore, characteristic of what it means to be human.

Source: Education on the Edge of Possibility, by R.N. Caine and G. Caine (Alexandria, Va.: ASCD, 1997).

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