The brain-based approach to learning is based on work from cognitive psychology and both educational and neurophysiological research. It stresses the importance of developing an awareness and understanding of how students learn so that instructors can design teaching approaches conducive to the brain's natural abilities in order to promote student learning and achievement. This approach leads to an understaind of how students store, sort, and retrieve information.


12 Principles of Brain Compatible Learning

  1. The brain is a parallel processor.
  2. Learning engages the entire physiology.
  3. The search for meaning is innate.
  4. The search for meaning occurs through patterning.
  5. Emotions are critical to patterning.
  6. The brain processes parts and wholes simultaneously.
  7. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.
  8. Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes.
  9. We have at least two different types of memory.
  10. We understand and remember best when facts and skills are embedded in natural, spatial memory.
  11. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.
  12. Each brain is unique.
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