We're Born to Learn

Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum
Second Edition
Rita Smilkstein - Western Washington University, Woodring College of Education, Bellingham, USA
We're Born to Learn
March 2011 | 272 pages | Corwin
Create Flyer

Purchase

eBook
ISBN: 9781452295657
Available from January 0001
Paperback
ISBN: 9781412979382
Available from January 0001

Description

"Applying the natural human learning process described in the book transformed my students' ability to learn. No teacher, new or experienced, should enter any classroom without a copy of this book."
—Patricia Jamie Lee, Educational Consultant
Many Kites Press, St. Paul, MN

Teach students to take responsibility for their own success!

This updated edition of the bestselling book on the brain's natural learning process brings new research results and applications in a power-packed teacher tool kit. Rita Smilkstein shows teachers how to create and deliver curricula that help students become the motivated, successful, and natural learners they were born to be. Updated features include:

  • Guidelines for using the six-step Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) for lesson planning and test preparation
  • New information on how technology and Internet research affect student learning
  • Practical methods for giving all students the tools they need to achieve

The author translates her unique research on students' critical and creative thinking into classroom strategies and sample lesson plans that will help to create a successful learning environment. Building on the content that earned the author an Educator's Award of the Year from the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, We're Born to Learn provides teachers with practical methods for giving all students the metacognitive, motivational, and technological tools they need to take responsibility for their own achievement.

Contents

Foreword by James H. Berry

Foreword by James H. Berry

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

Introduction

  • What This Book Is About
  • Why Study the Brain?
  • Experienced Educators and the Research
  • The Learning Paradigm
  • Assumptions
  • Where We Have Been
  • Where We Are Today
  • This Book

PART I: Research in the Classroom and in the Brain Lab

  • 1. Learning and Teaching
  • Eye-Opening Experiences in the Classroom
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and Brain Research
  • The Breakthrough Classroom
  • The Research-Based Stages, Curriculum, and Lesson Plans
  • 2. How People Learn: The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP)
  • Critical and Creative Thinking by Infants and Children
  • An Example of Children’s Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Critical and Creative Thinking in School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) Research
  • After the Research Is Over
  • Research Reports
  • The Importance of Making Mistakes
  • Where We Go From Here
  • 3. How the Brain Learns: The Brain’s Natural Learning Process
  • Introducing the Brain
  • Getting to Know the Brain
  • How the Brain Learns
  • Convergence of Ceiling Levels and Neural Networks
  • Pruning
  • Experience and Brain Growth
  • Constructivism
  • How the Brain Thinks and Remembers
  • The Brain’s Innate Resources and Rules
  • Children’s Brains and Adults’ Brains
  • The Brain Grows Holistically with Plasticity
  • Implications for Curriculum Development
  • What About Piaget?
  • The Breakthrough Theory of Learning
  • 4. Personal Experience, Individual Differences, and Learning
  • Emotions and the Brain
  • Negative and Positive Self-Image Networks
  • Learning from Experience
  • Learning Styles, Preferences, and Multiple Intelligences
  • Gifted Students
  • Aptitudes
  • Special Needs, Learning Differences, Autism, ADD, and ADHD
  • The Seven Magic Words: See If You Can Figure It Out
  • Tests
  • Beyond Individual Differences
  • A Handout for Students
  • 5. The Student’s Experience: Metacognition, Motivation, Self-Evaluation, Achievement, and Technology Self Taught
  • Metacognition and Motivation
  • Intrinsic Rewards
  • Removing the Barriers
  • Self-Evaluation and Metacognition
  • Another Metacognitive Experience
  • Achievement
  • Writing Samples
  • Age and Achievement
  • Technology Self Taught

PART II: Theory and Application

  • 6. Sequencing of the Curriculum
  • Challenges
  • The Missing Link
  • Two Problems
  • Neuroscience and Education
  • Converging Research
  • The Theory and Guide
  • Putting the Theory into Practice
  • Thinking at Higher Levels
  • Constructing New Knowledge
  • Planning the Sequence of the Units or Topics in a Curriculum
  • Using a Causal Sequence
  • Learning Activities for Units and Topics
  • The First Activity
  • Two Classroom Examples
  • Students and the NHLP
  • Developing a Curriculum
  • Young Students Thinking at a High Level
  • The NHLP in the Classroom
  • 7. The Pedagogical Model and Guidelines
  • Transfer
  • Four Effective Instructional Practices
  • NHLP Pedagogical Guidelines
  • Assessment
  • Education Courses or Faculty Development Programs
  • Good News

PART III: Using the Brain’s Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum

  • 8. Brain-Based, Natural Learning Across the Curriculum
  • The Seven Magic Words in Action
  • Safety
  • Respect
  • The Opportunity to Learn Naturally
  • The Critical First Stages
  • The Introduction-to-Poetry Unit
  • Front Loading
  • A Science Learning Activity about the Concept of Buoyancy
  • A Unit for Library Orientation
  • A Unit for Introduction to Safety Procedures
  • A Science Learning Activity about Water
  • A Unit for Learning How to Take Lecture Notes
  • The NHLP Planning Guidelines and Pedagogy
  • 9. Curriculum Development for Units, Courses, and Programs
  • Where to Start
  • Curriculum Development Guidelines
  • A Unit on Literal and Inferential Meaning
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Egypt
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Fractions
  • A Basic Grammar Curriculum: A Sequence of Units for a Whole Course
  • A Developmental English Curriculum: Courses in a Program

References

References

General Bibliography

General Bibliography

Index

Index

Description

"Applying the natural human learning process described in the book transformed my students' ability to learn. No teacher, new or experienced, should enter any classroom without a copy of this book."
—Patricia Jamie Lee, Educational Consultant
Many Kites Press, St. Paul, MN

Teach students to take responsibility for their own success!

This updated edition of the bestselling book on the brain's natural learning process brings new research results and applications in a power-packed teacher tool kit. Rita Smilkstein shows teachers how to create and deliver curricula that help students become the motivated, successful, and natural learners they were born to be. Updated features include:

  • Guidelines for using the six-step Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) for lesson planning and test preparation
  • New information on how technology and Internet research affect student learning
  • Practical methods for giving all students the tools they need to achieve

The author translates her unique research on students' critical and creative thinking into classroom strategies and sample lesson plans that will help to create a successful learning environment. Building on the content that earned the author an Educator's Award of the Year from the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, We're Born to Learn provides teachers with practical methods for giving all students the metacognitive, motivational, and technological tools they need to take responsibility for their own achievement.

Contents

Foreword by James H. Berry

Foreword by James H. Berry

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

Introduction

  • What This Book Is About
  • Why Study the Brain?
  • Experienced Educators and the Research
  • The Learning Paradigm
  • Assumptions
  • Where We Have Been
  • Where We Are Today
  • This Book

PART I: Research in the Classroom and in the Brain Lab

  • 1. Learning and Teaching
  • Eye-Opening Experiences in the Classroom
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and Brain Research
  • The Breakthrough Classroom
  • The Research-Based Stages, Curriculum, and Lesson Plans
  • 2. How People Learn: The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP)
  • Critical and Creative Thinking by Infants and Children
  • An Example of Children’s Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Critical and Creative Thinking in School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) Research
  • After the Research Is Over
  • Research Reports
  • The Importance of Making Mistakes
  • Where We Go From Here
  • 3. How the Brain Learns: The Brain’s Natural Learning Process
  • Introducing the Brain
  • Getting to Know the Brain
  • How the Brain Learns
  • Convergence of Ceiling Levels and Neural Networks
  • Pruning
  • Experience and Brain Growth
  • Constructivism
  • How the Brain Thinks and Remembers
  • The Brain’s Innate Resources and Rules
  • Children’s Brains and Adults’ Brains
  • The Brain Grows Holistically with Plasticity
  • Implications for Curriculum Development
  • What About Piaget?
  • The Breakthrough Theory of Learning
  • 4. Personal Experience, Individual Differences, and Learning
  • Emotions and the Brain
  • Negative and Positive Self-Image Networks
  • Learning from Experience
  • Learning Styles, Preferences, and Multiple Intelligences
  • Gifted Students
  • Aptitudes
  • Special Needs, Learning Differences, Autism, ADD, and ADHD
  • The Seven Magic Words: See If You Can Figure It Out
  • Tests
  • Beyond Individual Differences
  • A Handout for Students
  • 5. The Student’s Experience: Metacognition, Motivation, Self-Evaluation, Achievement, and Technology Self Taught
  • Metacognition and Motivation
  • Intrinsic Rewards
  • Removing the Barriers
  • Self-Evaluation and Metacognition
  • Another Metacognitive Experience
  • Achievement
  • Writing Samples
  • Age and Achievement
  • Technology Self Taught

PART II: Theory and Application

  • 6. Sequencing of the Curriculum
  • Challenges
  • The Missing Link
  • Two Problems
  • Neuroscience and Education
  • Converging Research
  • The Theory and Guide
  • Putting the Theory into Practice
  • Thinking at Higher Levels
  • Constructing New Knowledge
  • Planning the Sequence of the Units or Topics in a Curriculum
  • Using a Causal Sequence
  • Learning Activities for Units and Topics
  • The First Activity
  • Two Classroom Examples
  • Students and the NHLP
  • Developing a Curriculum
  • Young Students Thinking at a High Level
  • The NHLP in the Classroom
  • 7. The Pedagogical Model and Guidelines
  • Transfer
  • Four Effective Instructional Practices
  • NHLP Pedagogical Guidelines
  • Assessment
  • Education Courses or Faculty Development Programs
  • Good News

PART III: Using the Brain’s Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum

  • 8. Brain-Based, Natural Learning Across the Curriculum
  • The Seven Magic Words in Action
  • Safety
  • Respect
  • The Opportunity to Learn Naturally
  • The Critical First Stages
  • The Introduction-to-Poetry Unit
  • Front Loading
  • A Science Learning Activity about the Concept of Buoyancy
  • A Unit for Library Orientation
  • A Unit for Introduction to Safety Procedures
  • A Science Learning Activity about Water
  • A Unit for Learning How to Take Lecture Notes
  • The NHLP Planning Guidelines and Pedagogy
  • 9. Curriculum Development for Units, Courses, and Programs
  • Where to Start
  • Curriculum Development Guidelines
  • A Unit on Literal and Inferential Meaning
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Egypt
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Fractions
  • A Basic Grammar Curriculum: A Sequence of Units for a Whole Course
  • A Developmental English Curriculum: Courses in a Program

References

References

General Bibliography

General Bibliography

Index

Index

SAGE Publishing Logo

We're Born to Learn

Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum

Rita Smilkstein
Cancel Print

March 2011 | 272 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 27/02/2023 9781412979382 $43.95
Lifetime 27/02/2023 9781452295657 $40.00

"Applying the natural human learning process described in the book transformed my students' ability to learn. No teacher, new or experienced, should enter any classroom without a copy of this book."
—Patricia Jamie Lee, Educational Consultant
Many Kites Press, St. Paul, MN

Teach students to take responsibility for their own success!

This updated edition of the bestselling book on the brain's natural learning process brings new research results and applications in a power-packed teacher tool kit. Rita Smilkstein shows teachers how to create and deliver curricula that help students become the motivated, successful, and natural learners they were born to be. Updated features include:

  • Guidelines for using the six-step Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) for lesson planning and test preparation
  • New information on how technology and Internet research affect student learning
  • Practical methods for giving all students the tools they need to achieve

The author translates her unique research on students' critical and creative thinking into classroom strategies and sample lesson plans that will help to create a successful learning environment. Building on the content that earned the author an Educator's Award of the Year from the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, We're Born to Learn provides teachers with practical methods for giving all students the metacognitive, motivational, and technological tools they need to take responsibility for their own achievement.


Table Of Contents:

  • Foreword by James H. Berry
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
  • Introduction
  • What This Book Is About
  • Why Study the Brain?
  • Experienced Educators and the Research
  • The Learning Paradigm
  • Assumptions
  • Where We Have Been
  • Where We Are Today
  • This Book
  • PART I: Research in the Classroom and in the Brain Lab
  • 1. Learning and Teaching
  • Eye-Opening Experiences in the Classroom
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and Brain Research
  • The Breakthrough Classroom
  • The Research-Based Stages, Curriculum, and Lesson Plans
  • 2. How People Learn: The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP)
  • Critical and Creative Thinking by Infants and Children
  • An Example of Children’s Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Critical and Creative Thinking in School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process and School
  • The Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) Research
  • After the Research Is Over
  • Research Reports
  • The Importance of Making Mistakes
  • Where We Go From Here
  • 3. How the Brain Learns: The Brain’s Natural Learning Process
  • Introducing the Brain
  • Getting to Know the Brain
  • How the Brain Learns
  • Convergence of Ceiling Levels and Neural Networks
  • Pruning
  • Experience and Brain Growth
  • Constructivism
  • How the Brain Thinks and Remembers
  • The Brain’s Innate Resources and Rules
  • Children’s Brains and Adults’ Brains
  • The Brain Grows Holistically with Plasticity
  • Implications for Curriculum Development
  • What About Piaget?
  • The Breakthrough Theory of Learning
  • 4. Personal Experience, Individual Differences, and Learning
  • Emotions and the Brain
  • Negative and Positive Self-Image Networks
  • Learning from Experience
  • Learning Styles, Preferences, and Multiple Intelligences
  • Gifted Students
  • Aptitudes
  • Special Needs, Learning Differences, Autism, ADD, and ADHD
  • The Seven Magic Words: See If You Can Figure It Out
  • Tests
  • Beyond Individual Differences
  • A Handout for Students
  • 5. The Student’s Experience: Metacognition, Motivation, Self-Evaluation, Achievement, and Technology Self Taught
  • Metacognition and Motivation
  • Intrinsic Rewards
  • Removing the Barriers
  • Self-Evaluation and Metacognition
  • Another Metacognitive Experience
  • Achievement
  • Writing Samples
  • Age and Achievement
  • Technology Self Taught
  • PART II: Theory and Application
  • 6. Sequencing of the Curriculum
  • Challenges
  • The Missing Link
  • Two Problems
  • Neuroscience and Education
  • Converging Research
  • The Theory and Guide
  • Putting the Theory into Practice
  • Thinking at Higher Levels
  • Constructing New Knowledge
  • Planning the Sequence of the Units or Topics in a Curriculum
  • Using a Causal Sequence
  • Learning Activities for Units and Topics
  • The First Activity
  • Two Classroom Examples
  • Students and the NHLP
  • Developing a Curriculum
  • Young Students Thinking at a High Level
  • The NHLP in the Classroom
  • 7. The Pedagogical Model and Guidelines
  • Transfer
  • Four Effective Instructional Practices
  • NHLP Pedagogical Guidelines
  • Assessment
  • Education Courses or Faculty Development Programs
  • Good News
  • PART III: Using the Brain’s Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum
  • 8. Brain-Based, Natural Learning Across the Curriculum
  • The Seven Magic Words in Action
  • Safety
  • Respect
  • The Opportunity to Learn Naturally
  • The Critical First Stages
  • The Introduction-to-Poetry Unit
  • Front Loading
  • A Science Learning Activity about the Concept of Buoyancy
  • A Unit for Library Orientation
  • A Unit for Introduction to Safety Procedures
  • A Science Learning Activity about Water
  • A Unit for Learning How to Take Lecture Notes
  • The NHLP Planning Guidelines and Pedagogy
  • 9. Curriculum Development for Units, Courses, and Programs
  • Where to Start
  • Curriculum Development Guidelines
  • A Unit on Literal and Inferential Meaning
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Egypt
  • A Unit on an Introduction to Fractions
  • A Basic Grammar Curriculum: A Sequence of Units for a Whole Course
  • A Developmental English Curriculum: Courses in a Program
  • References
  • General Bibliography
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

"Packs in in practical methods for achievement and is a top pick for any education collection."
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review, August 2011
"Dr. Rita Smilkstein offers a prescription for what ails our developmental students: lack of critical thinking, lack of understanding of the learning process, etc. While the previous edition is a must read, this latest edition is teaching and learning’s pharmacology textbook…a collector’s item for developmental education."
Reneau Waggoner, Associate Professor, Jefferson Community and Technical College, Louisville, KY
"We're Born to Learn is one of the most valuable instructional tools teachers will ever use. Knowing 'how' students learn should be absolutely mandatory, yet is rarely taught in college prep. All teachers believe that they are teaching, but few know how students actually learn, and don't consider how the brain processes new information while developing their lesson plans. Dr. Smilkstein likens the learning brain to twigs on a tree; the twigs grow from a branch that is already there (prior knowledge). After reading this book, the most treasured seven words in every classroom will be, 'See if you can figure this out.'"
Dr. Deborah Daiek, Associate Dean, Schoolcraft College, Livonia, MI
"Dr. Rita Smilkstein has inspired thousands of students and educators with her practical application of the Natural Human Learning Process. This new edition brings us up-to-date, and maintains the clarity and generosity of spirit that is Smilkstein's trademark. Her enthusiasm rekindles the joy of learning that is hard-wired in all of us. If you read one book this year, make it We're Born to Learn, then put it into action."
Laura Symons, Assistant Professor, Piedmont Community College, Charlottesville, VA
"This book is a must read for anyone with ADHD or ADD students who are drowning in the public education system. The author presents recent research that opens the door for teachers to immediately create an environment conducive to helping these students learn."
Karen J. Sides, Dean of Interdisciplinary Programs, St. Philip's College, San Antonio, TX

Recommendations