Learning about Brain Rules

I recently watched John Medina’s Keynote at Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting

  Who’s John? A molecular biologist who studies how our brain learns. He wrote “Brain Rules” ( the 12 ways our brain really works.) He is a role model for translating research in to practice.

My top take aways:  

Loved his Introduction: He started out“ I am skeptical that brain science has anything to offer education”  

Why I think this was an effective way to start: Ever presented to faculty? These are people pride themselves on knowing their field. They are skeptical of anyone telling them anything....so quite clever on his part to beat them to the punch.  

Why is he skeptical?
  • We don’t know much about how the brain works. The research is new and we are still learning.
 • Academic silos are getting in the way: educators and brain researches don’t work together. They speak different languages and use different mental models. ( sound familiar?)  

What we know about how people learn: People have evolved to solve problems outdoors in a variety of weather conditions and in constant motion. ( he repeated this a couple of times)

 Based on what we do know about how people learn, if you wanted to create an environment that was the exact opposite of what supports learning...you couldn’t do better than our current classrooms. (made me wonder if this is also true about how we “provide” TA?)  

The two brain rules John shared.....

1. Exercise boosts brain power: We learn best when we are in motion. The research on this is solid. If you want to see John’s take on it: http://www.brainrules.net/exercise  

What can we do in our office to support and encourage movement? 

2. Repeat to remember If you are sharing information because you want people to remember it, you need to include repetition: at 30 seconds, at two hours...and lots more after that.

We vastly underestimate what support people need to remember new information. If we really want to apply what we know about how people learn, we would invest less of our resources in presenting and more in creating high quality resources that are easily accessible.

Most people won’t remember what we tell them...what we can do..is make it easier for them to access accurate, useful information when they need it. 

Want to learn more?
 • Brain Rules: John Medina’s book ( we have a copy in the office)
 • Brain Rules website