Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education – serie

A neuroscience revolution is making its way into classrooms around the country, changing the way we understand how emotions influence thinking and learning. This book makes available the most pertinent scientific information in a way classroom teachers can understand and apply.

This book explains how the brain, as a social organism, learns best throughout the lifespan, from our early schooling through late life. Positioning the brain as distinctly social, Louis Cozolino helps teachers make connections to neurobiological principles, with the goal of creating classrooms that nurture healthy attachment patterns and resilient psyches.Cozolino investigates what good teachers do to stimulate minds and brains to learn, especially when they succeed with difficult or “unteachable” students. He explores classroom teaching from the perspectives of social neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology, showing how we can use the findings from these fields to maximize learning and stimulate the brain to grow. The book will have relevance to anyone concerned with twenty-first century learners and the social and emotional development of children.

How is expanding students’ strengths more effective than improving their weaknesses? Why is creating a school where staff and students feel safe necessary for learning? How can anchoring with simple mindfulness practices prevent classroom behavioral problems?There is more to a classroom than just a teacher and a group of students. All classroom interactions have “invisible” neurobiological, emotional, and social aspects—the emotional histories of students, the teacher’s own background and biography. In this book, Kirke Olson takes lessons from brain science, mindfulness, and positive psychology to help teachers understand the full range of their students’ school experiences. Using its classroom-ready resources, teachers, administrators, parents, and policy makers can make the invisible visible, turning human investment in their students into the best possible learning outcomes.

This book shows teachers how to use the evidence-proven technique of mindfulness to manage the stressful demands of the classroom, cultivate an exceptional school environment and revitalise their teaching and their students’ learning. Drawing on basic and applied research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and education, as well as the author’s extensive experience as a mindfulness practitioner, teacher, teacher educator and scientist, it provides exercises in relaxation, movement, deep listening, and more, all with real-time classroom applications.