Teach Effectively!

I stumbled across another example of loosely-construed guidance about effective teaching that is full of buzz words and phrases such as the very popular “brain-based learning.” I suppose there must be some sort of learning that is not brain-based, but I have a hard time imagining it. Perhaps I’m thinking with my muscles instead of my brain?

In a press release, Daniel Janik (apparently an M.D., of Intercultural Communications College, Honolulu, HI, USA) touts his ideas about education, “Neurobiological Learning (NL) theory.” The release is chock-a-block with gobblygook. Here is a sample:

Because trauma is historically one of the most effective forms of teaching and learning, I focused on understanding traumatic learning in the clinic, classroom and within the brain. The hardest part of this work was translating neurobiological learning theory into a form of effective, but non-traumatic learning – searching for a second learning pathway if you will. What resulted when we applied NL theory in a distinctly non-traumatic manner was curiosity-based, discovery-driven, mentor-assisted, transformational learning!”

Given the clarity of that description, one could hope for evidence about benefits, no? Those hoping to learn about the outcomes are welcome to review the press release. Before doing so, I recommend lowering expecations to avoid disappointment.