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Uncommon Sense Teaching Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn: 9780593329733: Oakley PhD, Barbara, Rogowsky EdD, Beth, Sejnowski, Terrence J.: Books
$15.13
Uncommon Sense Teaching Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn: 9780593329733: Oakley PhD, Barbara, Rogowsky EdD, Beth, Sejnowski, Terrence J.: Books
| Publisher : | TarcherPerigee (June 15, 2021) |
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| Language : | English |
| Paperback : | 336 pages |
| ISBN-10 : | 0593329732 |
| ISBN-13 : | 978-0593329733 |
| Item Weight : | 2.31 pounds |
| Dimensions : | 5.97 x 0.92 x 8.96 inches |
| Best Sellers Rank: | #115 in Biology (Books) |
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| Customer Reviews: | 383 ratings |
C –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great info for teachers, or anyone dealing with kids. Easy to understand explanations
This book is a collaboration by three authors; Barb Oakley and Terry Sejnowski, creators of the popular course “Learning how to Learn,” and Beth Rogowsky, a lifelong educator and expert in behavioral neuroscience. The goal of the book is to give teachers new insights into how we learn, by using the latest neuroscience and cognition research.The book is written using basic language, and oversimplified examples, so that it should be fairly easy to understand even if you have no familiarity with the concepts at all. At first I was surprised by these elementary explanations; in fact many concepts are explained with pictures and analogies that I might use if I were explaining these ideas to children. Later I understood why the authors took this approach, because they actually recommend using some of the same images and analogies to explain certain ideas to your students. This seems like a good idea, because you can’t teach children something if you don’t really understand it yourself; and they have made this information easy to understand.Each chapter starts by introducing concepts, and giving the reader information about an aspect of how we learn and remember. Then there are specific activities and strategies suggested to use with your students. There are also general teaching tips listed, that have something to do with using the information on a daily basis. Each chapter ends with a review list of key ideas in the chapter, to highlight the most important concepts.There are ten main chapters, covering many different topics, including: simple anatomy of neurons, long term memory vs working memory, retrieval practice, active learning, declarative and procedural pathways, procrastination, habits, collaborative learning, online teaching, and lesson plans. Again, teachers should not be intimidated by the names of these concepts, even if they are unfamiliar, because everything is thoroughly explained in simple terms.Overall, I think that this book is a valuable resource for teachers, or anyone that deals with children. Using this information can help you come up with new ways to reach your students, and keep them engaged and learning. I appreciate the authors work in breaking down some advanced neuroscience into simple language and useful activities, so it is easy for teachers to use right away.
30 people found this helpful
hannah –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must-read for teachers!
I teach piano pedagogy and have my ALL students read this book!! It’s so great for teachers!!!!!
3 people found this helpful
Shane –
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you care about teaching well…
We all teach and we all learn, whether it be as a parent, coach, or manager, then this book is for you. It tries to be as clear as possible and give practical advice, I think it does quite well.For example, when you’re trying to teach someone should you lecture/talk at them for an hour or have them do some sort of active learning/immersive learning. Neither, you should intersperse and alternate blocks of each, and if you have complete control they should be in ten minutes blocks.I’ve already used it to help my team learn about healthcare and how to teach my daughter to ride her bike.
16 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Refresher
I’ve been teaching 17 years and have learned most of this either back in college, PDs, or figured it out myself over the years. The brain research aspect in the beginning was very interesting though. While reading, I was constantly thinking of how I could apply the information in new ways. There were some great application examples of techniques I used in the past, but had forgotten about.
6 people found this helpful
Jessica Milintschuk –
5.0 out of 5 stars
In perfect condition with faster than promised shipping.
I am super excited to receive this book as I already had the audio version and just need the physical book so I could make notes. This book is full of amazing lessons and concepts for any learning environment. The seller delivered over my expectations.Thank you
2 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very important skills for anyone classroom teachers, tutors, parents, and paraprofessional.
As a special ed teacher who worked in the juvenile justice system all of the books by Dr. Oakley helped me teach many special needs student.
4 people found this helpful
Sarah White –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading for all educators.
This book contains excellent, accessible information about how our brains process and retain information as well as concrete examples of classroom practices that allow educators to maximize their time in the classroom and ease frustration for students. As a special education teacher who fought the forces that insisted that exploratory learning is always best practice, this is immensely validating. I am also gratified to see learning styles taken off the table as a primary consideration when lesson planning. Any public school teacher will tell you that knowing how many of what kind of learners you have in your class (when you have 150/day) is not useful or practical information. I am also gratified to see retrieval practice as a central component of learning. When I started teaching I argued with administrators who insisted that students no longer needed to retain information because we all have encyclopedias in our phones. They used the phrase “critical thinking” over and over, without exhibiting any ability to actually think critically themselves. My argument was that if a student doesn’t have any context for the new information, accessing it isn’t helpful. I had students who thought the civil war took place in the 1950s. That is not a good base on which to build a critical understanding of history. This book makes it abundantly clear that retrieval practice is essential to knowledge-building, and that the more information students are able to retain, the more nuanced their understanding and critical assessment of the material will be. After you buy the book, do yourself a favor and take the course on coursera.org. It is worth every second of your time, and it will walk you through the book with practical examples and illustrations. The course is in itself an excellent example of effective, asynchronous online instruction.
3 people found this helpful
Tommy –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Informative
If you’re a teacher this’ll be more in the four stars bracket, especially if you’re new. If you’re just curious how to optimize your learning. It gives a few insights on how your brain works as it grasps a new concepts. The diagrams with how the neuron changes as you learn is pretty fascinating. The 50 or so pages of this book (2 chapters) are really for teachers. At the end of each chapter are also ideas and practices on what you could do as a teacher. Again really helpful if you are, extra page padding if you you’re not.
Make War –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly Written
For a book on learning written by 3 PhDs it’s disappointing to see how dumbed down the writing is, how cliches abound, and how activist nonsense is splattered throughout. I guess I should have expected as much. I feel like they wrote this book thinking the reader would be uneducated and thus used watered down language to help the poor, non-intellectual understand all the concepts.
4 people found this helpful
LilyLily –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging and Easily able to comprehend!
They take complicated ideas and make them so that they easy to comprehend. As a future English educator I’m not always the biggest fan of picking up a book. However, I found this book really easy to read and understand. This book is really beneficial to those who want to learn more about the brain, along with those seeking to be future educators!
2 people found this helpful
J. Raines –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting perspective on learning/teaching
I am a retired physician. Since retirement, I have been in Reading Corps, tutoring students in grades 1-3 one on one. I am about 40% of the way through the book. I’m struck that their discussion of procedural learning is another perspective on what I’d have called subconscious processing. I would have used some different examples–I’d have talked about the transition from toddler to walking without conscious thought and I’d have mentioned the cerebellum. But their discussion and perspective is useful as is Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and his ten thousand hours concept. As is the idea that solutions to difficult problems pop into your mind in the shower. As is the idea that much of the time we first do and then our mind’s ‘narrator’ makes up a story about a decision process. Different blind men describing the elephant.Anyway it is good to see a teaching perspective on the importance and process of getting things into procedural memory or the subconscious or whatever you’re calling it. My perspective for a long time has been to offload as much as I can into habit/muscle memory/subconscious. Maybe the book will help me do that even better. And maybe it will even suggest ways to successfully retrieve some of the things I’ve offloaded, e.g. phonics tricks like ‘cc’ ‘gg’ –> hard consonant, then soft consonant.
7 people found this helpful
PH –
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read for anyone interested in the Science of Learing
This is yet another outstanding book from Barbara Oakley which describes many of the mechanisms by which learning occurs and offers practical tips for making teaching and learning more effective.
4 people found this helpful
awell koo –
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book!
A must read for teachers and educators. A lot of “whys” and “hows”. Great work.
3 people found this helpful
G Soi –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved her insights
I’ve only read the first 3 chapters. Even so, the book has provided all the many questions that I wanted to ask but didn’t know how. It gives answers that I think make sense. It’s science about the human brain and behaviour so the answers would not work for everyone. Nevertheless it’s an enlightening read 🙂
2 people found this helpful
Smith –
Interesting book on the other side
I’ve read a lot of books about learning and this one is just the best for the teacher point of view. It sums up a lot of things I’ve learned along the years.Make it stick is the next read if you haven’t already.
One person found this helpful
Eugenio Galioto –
Amazing book!
This book provides background knowledge and actionable advices that represent a good tradeoff for better understanding the whole learning and teaching process from different perspectives.
birgit –
Interesting
I learned a lot from this book. HOw best to memorize and that there is more to it in habit formation.
Christmas in New York Collector –
Almost identical to the MOOCH course
Well written and easy to understand – not a science textbook at all. If you are debating as to whether to buy the book, it’s a pleasure to read, but unnecessary for the course.
One person found this helpful
Tuca –
Great book
To better understand the learning process, it’s an excellent book.
Daniel DDaniel D –
Great content, came slightly damaged.
So far the content has been excellent, practical, and insightful to this first-year teacher. Unfortunately the actual physical book came slightly damaged, hence the star removed.
One person found this helpful
iswaryarajan –
Sensible teaching tips
Fantastic book with new perspective about learning and it’s applications in teaching.worth the money.rereading the book will help a lot!
Julice Daijo –
Excelente, bem atualizado!
Achei todos os capitulos relevantes, uma linguagem fácil e gostosa de ler. Usei muito os conceitos e questionmamentos em treinamentos para professores.
2 people found this helpful
Ana Ramirez –
Muy interesante
Excelente información
Valerie W –
Great book – Uncommon Sense Teaching
This is a great book for new and experienced teachers and even for students and parents. It clearly and simply explains how people learn linking the neuroscience (with easy to understand terms and metaphors) to teaching and learning techniques. I highly recommend it to people from all walks of like as it will help everyone better understand their own and others’ learning.
Zsuzsanna –
A great book
I bought this book because I participated in the Learning How to Learn MOOC. This book should be essential reading for all teachers. Easily understandable language and explains complex processes. At the same time very practical as well. Also a very good read, I love it. I can recommend it to all teachers who want to improve their teaching methods.
2 people found this helpful
Ronaldo B Salvagni –
Muito bom
Dá algumas idéias novas. Alguma aplicáveis, outras não, dependendo do curso e do alunado.
4 people found this helpful
Puja phukan –
Waste of money
Itz basically basic nothing that u should spend ur money at
One person found this helpful
Margaret Stambuski-Dart –
A must read for all teachers!
Regardless of how long you have been teaching, this book will provide you with more tricks and techniques to reach all your students, and give them the tools to be successful!
CELIA GUZCO –
AWESOME BOOK!
Excellent book for teachers
One person found this helpful