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Unfortunately, while Mr. He divides his book into twelve chapters, and writes each chapter in a breezy, colloquial tone, and uses anecdotes now and then to maintain the reader's attention. Medina advices reducing class time from 50 minutes to 20-30 minutes a class, repeating this class three times a day, and ending summer holidays. And then there is an observation that is just plain nutty: smell helps people remember better, and so he suggests using perfume in an important class, using the perfume again as the students sleep and convert the class lecture from working memory into long-term memory, and then using perfume again to activate the students' memory. (The most interesting for me is how bilingual households should have different rooms for different cultures). Media's 12 rules are obvious and well-known: the importance of incorporating exercise, play, and exploration into the classroom setting. He summarizes the main points at the end of each chapter.Some of Mr.
Some are controversial, and not at all practical. To help students pay attention better (they lose focus after ten minutes of a lecture) and retain what they've learned better, Mr. John Medina structures and writes his "Brain Rules" as though he were teaching a class. For example, it's clear that every individual has a different brain structure and learn differently, and the idea of setting the same learning goals for every student is counter-productive and unfair. That may be true, but the point of schooling is to teach students to conform to the stringent unfairness and arbitrariness of society. This would be a cute experiment, but no classroom teacher or office manager would dare attempt it.There is a lot of interesting practical knowledge that readers can take away from this book. Medina would argue that's why he's such a great and popular teacher: he lacks the narrow-mindedness of a scientist and narcissism of a writer, and has genuine empathy and concern for his students, and that's why he's determined to bring neuroscience as clearly, as vividly, and as relevantly as possible into their lives. Of course, Mr.
He makes each chapter interesting and memorable to the reader by suggesting, sometimes ironically and other times ridiculously, how the classroom and the office could be improved by applying certain principles from neuroscience. Medina is undoubtedly a great and popular teacher, he's neither a great researcher nor a great writer. From an education perspective, while this is not practical (teachers, students, and parents would all object violently), it does make a lot of sense: teach the basics, and make sure that students understand the basics. Some other observations are right, but it's unclear how to best implement them in practice. He lacks the breadth and sophistication of a scientist deeply immersed in his field, and he lacks the depth and erudition of a writer immensely absorbed with his material.
The chapter summaries available on the website really suffice for the self-help reader.The verdict: Four stars as light and accessible reading on molecular biology, but two stars as self-improvement because of the dearth of applied information. The takeaways for boosting the brain's potential, such as exercise, repeat to remember, ten minute attention spans, sleep, stimulate the visual senses, etc, are indeed valid.
The author has a verbose but engaging style that explains the scientific rationale for his twelve "rules". "Brain Rules" provides layman commentary on the latest neurological research and theories for improving cognitive and intellectual performance.
Self-help readers are more concerned about the "what" than the "how", and the author spends most of his energy on the latter. While the text lacks formal references and notes, Medina exudes credibility.
Furthermore, the book directs the reader to a really nice website, [.]., which has much supporting material.Unfortunately, as self-help, which is how the title presents the book, "Brain Rules" is less successful. Yet they are also common-sense, and should not require reading 300 pages to ascertain.
Get the book if you want science; go to the website if you want self-help.
Although many of the things discussed in this book are expected or already known things, the author made a great job at explaining the science behind it, either by evolution or genetics arguments, and really explaining the PRACTICAL aspect of knowing this. I was very impressed by the suggestions made in this book for the improvement of society in general, the academic community, and/or the business world.
This book is great, it starts out strong with the basics "you gotta sleep, you gotta exercise". Those are great to hear and it's great to hear the rationale. But the book lightens up a bit with less punch but more good information. You have to read this if your profession requires that you make the most of your brain.
I question the need to include the graphic description. It's facile and lacking in substance. There must be less heinous research studies on stress. He throws out a lot of ideas which sound like they came from research, but where are the references. I returned the book because of the horrifying introduction to a chapter on stress that detailed torture performed on dogs. I question his editor's decision to allow that section. I returned the book and got my money back.
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