Teach Effectively!

Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) and mini-Annals of Improbable Research (”mini-AIR”) as well as a fellow with a good sense of humor, engaged in extended correspondence with an advocate of “brain-based business.” He published the correspondence in the AIR blog.

For those of us who have to suppress the urge to regurgitate when we hear colleagues talk about brain-based education, this is a delight! Mr. Abrahams asked some great questions (e.g., “How do you go about checking that [people] have never used particular parts of their brains? Which parts, typically, are not used?”) and got non-answers that will sound familiar to educators (e.g., “[W]e help folks to recognize and use their multiple intelligences to solve everyday problems. You could say we transform the theoretic into practical tactics that draw from the neuro and cognitive sciences but which are practical and doable approaches”).

I’m wondering whether there oughtn’t be a list of brain-based activities.

• Brain-based engineering < ==really building from scratch;
• Brain-based computation? < ==quit using those fingers;
• Brain-based reading? < ==go beyond "reading" bedtime stories to children;
• Brain-based thinking? < ==counters thinking with other body parts or products thereof.

Link to the entry in the AIR blog.