reseņas educativas (Spanish)    
resenhas educativas (Portuguese)    

This review has been accessed times since May 21, 2007

Blakemore, Sarah–Jayne & Frith, Uta. (2005). The Learning Brain: Lessons for Education. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 216     $60     ISBN 9781405124010

Reviewed by Keith S. Taber
University of Cambridge, U.K

May 21, 2007

This is a useful and timely book that will be welcomed by many in education. ‘The learning brain’ provides a very readable overview of current knowledge in brain science. This is timely for two reasons. Firstly, in recent years we have seen major attempts to forge links between researchers in neuroscience and the education community, and this informative volume provides a useful guide to the current state of knowledge to all those lecturers and researchers in education looking for a straightforward guide to the field. Secondly, teachers are increasingly being asked to adapt their practice to respond to claimed advances in brain science, and yet few teachers can feel qualified or informed enough to know whether such recommendations are based on reliable scientific findings. Learning styles, gender differences, brain-gym, neurolinguistic programming – these are just a few of the topics that may be presented with a veneer of neurological authority that most teachers will not be a position to either authenticate or confidently rebuff.

Blakemore and Frith identified the lack of suitable material to support the non-specialist in this area, and have done a good job in writing for this general audience. Their book is based on a dozen tight chapters, that present the issues with limited jargon, but with the use of familiar analogies, engaging anecdotes and examples, and simple line diagrams.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

I suspect that many in the field might find some of the approach over-simplistic, e.g. reading about how teachers are a bit like gardeners in sowing seeds in the learner’s brain that can be nourished, and weeding out misconceptions! However, for the general reader, the book is welcoming, informative, and reassuringly straightforward. No doubt there is considerable simplification of some of the science, but enough technical detail is given to satisfy the general reader. Indeed there is sufficient technical information to offer an authentic flavour of the science. Blakemore and Frith offer outlines of some key studies that support current knowledge, including much recent work. Although these studies are not referenced in an academic style, enough information is given to allow an interested reader to seek out the original research. The authors also provide diagrams to show where the various key areas referred to are located in the brain.

Uta Frith

Although to some extent such detail is less relevant than the nature of the findings, it is certainly a fascinating part of topic. Similarly, the authors have a real enthusiasm for the techniques used in studies, and convey this their readers. This is understandable, as recent advances (and surely forthcoming breakthroughs) have been possible because of the developing instrumentation in the field. An informative appendix outlines some of this technology – which offers the great advantage of exploring brains whilst they are still whole and under the conscious control of their owners, rather than attempting to draw inferences from post-mortem examinations.

The book covers a range of topics including the existence of sensitive periods (when development is especially supportive of certain types of learning); brain plasticity (an area where earlier views about the difficult of changes in adults brains were both false and particularly unhelpful to education); learning to speak and to write; key developmental conditions like dyslexia and autism, and much more. Inevitably there is limited detail on each topic – but certainly enough as a ‘primer’ for someone with a more general interest. The authors link the neuroscience to learning and educational issues wherever possible. The book draws out many examples of how brain science can inform educational practice (in schools and beyond).

In many areas the conclusions are tentative: we do not know yet; it seems likely; it may prove to be the case. Yet such tentativeness is useful for teachers being recommended particular approaches supposedly based on brain science. So when teachers are fed claims based on when it is too late to learn language; what ‘right-brained’ students need; the differences between male and female brains; or the characteristics of a learner whose thinking style derives from the dominance of their left limbic quadrant (and sadly I have not just invented this last example); they will now have a useful source to explore the scientific basis of such claims.

In fact my own reading of the book reinforced an existing view that neuroscience is only beginning to make a significant impact on everyday educational practice. At the moment it is able to debunk a good deal of folk-science (often based loosely on valid scientific ideas that do not support the over-generalised and over-simplistic inferences drawn by enthusiasts), and to offer enormous promise for what more may be learnt in coming years. Blakemore and Frith’s book offers a general guide to the state-of-the-science for the non-specialist reader. If their view of the field is correct then a new edition will be needed in the not-to-distant future. If their enthusiasm for the field proves well-judged, that new edition may need to be somewhat more substantial. For now, however, this edition offers ideal background reading for the teacher and others concerned with education.

Keith S. Taber About the Reviewer Dr. Keith S. Taber is Senior Lecturer in Science Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, U.K. He works with trainee teachers, teachers, and research students, and he is currently convenor of the Science Education Academic Group and Programme Manager for the part-time PhD in Education. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review. Editors: Gene V Glass, Kate Corby, Gustavo Fischman ~ ER home | Reseņas Educativas | Resenhas Educativas ~ ~ overview | reviews | editors | submit | guidelines | announcements | search ~