Product Description
When the first edition of Teaching with the Brain in Mind was published in 1998, it quickly became a bestseller, and it’s gone on to inspire thousands of educators to apply the latest brain research in their classroom teaching. Now, author Eric Jensen is back with a completely revised and updated edition of his classic work. In easy to understand, engaging language, Jensen provides a basic orientation to the brain and its various systems and explains how they affec… More >>
Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Revised 2nd Edition
#1 by G. Abraham on March 18, 2010 - 12:52 am
The book was delivered as promised and it was in great condition. I am very pleased with this transaction!
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by teacher on March 18, 2010 - 3:50 am
I’m rating this book a 3 based upon my need for the information. I was looking for a more condensed version of information in order to quickly gleen and gather information for a workshop. However, the book includes good information, especially for newer teachers.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by P. Gardner on March 18, 2010 - 5:49 am
Jensen has a negative and insulting stereotype in mind when he states on page 100, “The negative effects of social isolation suggests troubling implications for …home schooling.” Families who homeschool do not do it in isolation. We network with others, set play times with other children (both public and home schooled friends), participate in group activities from co-ops to clubs of all sorts (chess, Spanish, debating, chorus, specific sports, and dozens more). Children learn social skills in part from their parents who model mature social skills instead of mainly from peers who have immature social skills not worthy of emulation.
Again on page 123-124, the author states that “Children in quality early-childhood programs have better social and emotional intelligence than …children who stay at home with a parent.” You’ve got to be kidding! One of the very best preschool experience is in a small co-operative setting with one to three other dedicated mothers who take turns providing an enriched preschool for their children.
A home preschool experience (whether leading up to public schooling or homeschooling) provides individual attention in a very small social group. This is much more age-appropriate than being lost in a large group of strangers.
Jensen needs to do some “error correction” and revise his inaccurate prior knowledge of home education and parenting in general.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by Avid Reader on March 18, 2010 - 6:08 am
Why do I keep doing this to myself? I swear on a stack of Bibles I will NOT read another self-help book again and then someone BEGS me to try “just this one”. What can I say when I am beseeched with “Mr Reader, you’re a smart guy so this is the book for you.”?
Well, right off the bat I had the same question as other reviewers. Is Eric Jansen a neurologist or a physician or is he involved with cutting edge technology mapping neurons and the synaptic flows? Well, the answer is No, he is not any of the above but, like most of us, he has read a lot and has some ideas about improved learning using a carrot and stick aproach to our brain. There are some reasonably good ideas here but nothing startling, original or life-shattering.
One thing that I began to detest was the refrain that we must learn with the brain in mind, as if there were some secret ways human beings learn without using the brain. We get a round of memory techniques, why we retain some data and lose other, effective methods for instilling long-term retention, “tricking” the brain. What the author is attempting to do is suggest that the brain operates in certain patterns and our attempts at learning should incorporate those “known” patterns. But I found absolutely nothing new here (of course), no startling discoveries or deep insights about how the brain works. There are some common sense suggestions but beyond that I think most teachers are aware of methods for teaching children that optimizes normal thought patterns.
Much of this is editorializing over the sorry state of schools and I agree that our educational system needs a radical makeover for the future. What I cannot accept is the fluff he throws out (with the occasional factoid about the workins of the brain) as if he had answered some ageold question. Think with your brain and avoid getting this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by C. Mead on March 18, 2010 - 8:24 am
This book was for a psych course at my college. I looked into the college bookstore but the prices were just too high, then I found amazon had a new copy for cheaper than I would have paid for a used. It is an easy reading and the company shipped it very fast.
Rating: 5 / 5