Teaching With the Brain in Mind

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The Brain as a
Meaning-Maker
When students say, “School is boring,”
part of the comment reflects a common
adolescent feeling. Yet there’s
more to it: Learners want school to be worthwhile
and meaningful. With so many different personalities,
cultures, and types of students, how can
school be meaningful for everyone? The theme of
this chapter is that you can make learning richer
and more appealing by purposely arranging the
conditions for greater meaning.
The Search for Meaning
Traditionally, schools were a social arena and a
delivery system for information. There wasn’t much
thought about whether the information was meaningful
or not. The Information Age changed all
that. While a 1950s learner was exposed to a few
textbooks, three network television channels, some
novels, and several magazines, today it’s very different.
The sheer volume of accessible information
makes us recoil. Hundreds of television channels
and multitudes of magazines and books are readily
available. There are thousands of Web sites, countless
Internet contacts, e-mail, faxes, cell phones,
KEY CONCEPTS
◗ The natural mechanisms
of making meaning
◗ Three ingredients for
optimal learning
◗ How to encourage these
three ingredients