The Teaching Brain: An Evolutionary Trait at the Heart of Education

by Vanessa Rodriguez, Michelle Fitzpatrick

Overview

“A significant contribution to understanding the interaction among teachers, students, the environment, and the content of learning” (Herbert Kohl, education advocate and author).
 
What is at work in the mind of a five-year-old explaining the game of tag to a new friend? What is going on in the head of a thirty-five-year-old parent showing a first-grader how to button a coat? And what exactly is happening in the brain of a sixty-five-year-old professor discussing statistics with a room full of graduate students?
 
While research about the nature and science of learning abounds, shockingly few insights into how and why humans teach have emerged—until now. Countering the dated yet widely held presumption that teaching is simply the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, The Teaching Brain weaves together scientific research and real-life examples to show that teaching is a dynamic interaction and an evolutionary cognitive skill that develops from birth to adulthood. With engaging, accessible prose, Harvard researcher Vanessa Rodriguez reveals what it actually takes to become an expert teacher. At a time when all sides of the teaching debate tirelessly seek to define good teaching—or even how to build a better teacher—The Teaching Brain upends the misguided premises for how we measure the success of teachers.
 
“A thoughtful analysis of current educational paradigms . . . Rodriguez’s case for altering pedagogy to match the fluctuating dynamic forces in the classroom is both convincing and steeped in common sense.” —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595589965
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	11/11/2014
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Vanessa Rodriguez is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who has presented her award-winning work in educational neuroscience in the United States and abroad. After teaching history, science, and English for over a decade in New York City’s public schools, she now resides in Cambridge, MA. This is her first book. Michelle Fitzpatrick, a graduate of Harvard’s master’s program in Mind, Brain, and Education, has co-authored over thirty non-fiction books, including What’s Eating Your Child? and the New York Times bestseller Transition by Chaz Bono. She lives in Dover, MA.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part 1 What Is Wrong with Our Definition of Teaching?

1 The Theories That Have Led Us Astray 3

2 Cookie-Cutter Solutions and Other Missteps of Education Reform 26

Part 2 It's All About Systems

3 Understanding the Learning Brain 43

4 Why Do We Need Teachers? 63

5 Teaching as a System of Skills 82

Part 3 The Teaching Brain

6 Becoming an Expert Teacher 103

7 Developing the Teaching Brain 134

8 Your Teaching Brain 155

9 The Teaching Brain and Next Steps for Education Reform 176

Appendix A Abbreviations 189

Appendix B Methods Used to Investigate the Cognitive Processes of the Teaching Brain 191

Appendix C Types of Teaching Ability Developed Across the Life Span 195

Acknowledgments 199

Notes 205

Index 221

About the Authors 233

Editorial Reviews

09/08/2014
Rodriguez, a 10-year veteran teacher from the New York City public school system, explains the evolution of the learning mind, and though she is not as successful in translating the consequences of this process for the use of teaching brain, she nonetheless provides a thoughtful analysis of current educational paradigms. Avoiding an academic tone, she presents scholarly findings that compare behavioral models of instruction, which posit that students learn best when treated as “empty vessels,” with more cognitive methods, which recognize learning as a dynamic process beginning at birth. Rodriguez uses ample evidence from her own teaching experience to buttress her assertion that teachers must incorporate students’ innate knowledge into the classroom to be effective. She argues that a greater degree of flexibility in educational policy is required for this type of teaching. Rodriguez’s case for altering pedagogy to match the fluctuating dynamic forces in the classroom is both convincing and steeped in common sense. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Vanessa Rodriguez has a truly original mind. Her experience, empathy, and insight have inspired and provoked me."
—Deborah Meier, author of In Schools We Trust

From the Publisher