Arts with the Brain in Mind


Book Description

How do the arts stack up as a major discipline? What is their effect on the brain, learning, and human development? How might schools best implement and assess an arts program? Eric Jensen answers these questions--and more--in this book. To push for higher standards of learning, many policymakers are eliminating arts programs. To Jensen, that's a mistake. This book presents the definitive case, based on what we know about the brain and learning, for making arts a core part of the basic curriculum and thoughtfully integrating them into every subject. Separate chapters address musical, visual, and kinesthetic arts in ways that reveal their influence on learning. What are the effects of a fully implemented arts program? The evidence points to the following: * Fewer dropouts * Higher attendance * Better team players * An increased love of learning * Greater student dignity * Enhanced creativity * A more prepared citizen for the workplace of tomorrow * Greater cultural awareness as a bonus To Jensen, it's not a matter of choosing, say, the musical arts over the kinesthetic. Rather, ask what kind of art makes sense for what purposes. How much time per day? At what ages? What kind of music? What kind of movement? Should the arts be required? How do we assess arts programs? In answering these real-world questions, Jensen provides dozens of practical, detailed suggestions for incorporating the arts into every classroom. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.







Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain


Book Description

Presents a set of basic exercises designed to release creative potential and tap into the special abilities of the brain's right hemisphere.




The Art of Changing the Brain


Book Description

Neuroscience tells us that the products of the mind--thought, emotions, artistic creation--are the result of the interactions of the biological brain with our senses and the physical world: in short, that thinking and learning are the products of a biological process.This realization, that learning actually alters the brain by changing the number and strength of synapses, offers a powerful foundation for rethinking teaching practice and one's philosophy of teaching.James Zull invites teachers in higher education or any other setting to accompany him in his exploration of what scientists can tell us about the brain and to discover how this knowledge can influence the practice of teaching. He describes the brain in clear non-technical language and an engaging conversational tone, highlighting its functions and parts and how they interact, and always relating them to the real world of the classroom and his own evolution as a teacher. "The Art of Changing the Brain" is grounded in the practicalities and challenges of creating effective opportunities for deep and lasting learning, and of dealing with students as unique learners.




Reductionism in Art and Brain Science


Book Description

Are art and science separated by an unbridgeable divide? Can they find common ground? In this new book, neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, whose remarkable scientific career and deep interest in art give him a unique perspective, demonstrates how science can inform the way we experience a work of art and seek to understand its meaning. Kandel illustrates how reductionism—the distillation of larger scientific or aesthetic concepts into smaller, more tractable components—has been used by scientists and artists alike to pursue their respective truths. He draws on his Nobel Prize-winning work revealing the neurobiological underpinnings of learning and memory in sea slugs to shed light on the complex workings of the mental processes of higher animals. In Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, Kandel shows how this radically reductionist approach, applied to the most complex puzzle of our time—the brain—has been employed by modern artists who distill their subjective world into color, form, and light. Kandel demonstrates through bottom-up sensory and top-down cognitive functions how science can explore the complexities of human perception and help us to perceive, appreciate, and understand great works of art. At the heart of the book is an elegant elucidation of the contribution of reductionism to the evolution of modern art and its role in a monumental shift in artistic perspective. Reductionism steered the transition from figurative art to the first explorations of abstract art reflected in the works of Turner, Monet, Kandinsky, Schoenberg, and Mondrian. Kandel explains how, in the postwar era, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Louis, Turrell, and Flavin used a reductionist approach to arrive at their abstract expressionism and how Katz, Warhol, Close, and Sandback built upon the advances of the New York School to reimagine figurative and minimal art. Featuring captivating drawings of the brain alongside full-color reproductions of modern art masterpieces, this book draws out the common concerns of science and art and how they illuminate each other.




The Arts and the Creation of Mind


Book Description

Learning in and through the visual arts can develop complex and subtle aspects of the mind. Reviews in: Journal of aesthetic education. 38(2004)4(Winter. 71-98), available M05-194.




Bring Your Brain to Work


Book Description

To succeed at work, first you need to understand your own brain If you're in a job interview, how should you think about the mindset of the interviewer? If you've just been promoted, how do you handle the tensions of managing former peers? And what are the telltale mental signs that it's time to start planning your next career move? We know that psychology can teach us much about behaviors and challenges relevant to work, such as making better decisions, influencing people, and dealing with stress. But many popular books on these topics analyze them as universal human phenomena without providing real-life, constructive career help. Bring Your Brain to Work changes all that. Professor, author, and popular radio host Art Markman focuses on three essential elements of a successful career--getting a job, excelling at work, and finding your next position--and expertly illustrates how cognitive science, especially psychology, sheds fascinating and useful light on each of these elements. To succeed at a job interview, for example, you need to understand the mindset of the interviewer and know how to come across as exactly the individual the company wants to hire. To keep that job, it's critical to master the mental challenge of learning every day. Finally, careers require constant development, so you need to be able to sense when it's time to move up or out and to prepare yourself for the move. So many of the hurdles you face throughout your career are, first and foremost, psychological challenges, and Markman shows you how to use your different mental systems--motivational, social, and cognitive--to manage them more effectively. Integrating the latest research with engaging stories and examples from across the professional spectrum, Bring Your Brain to Work gets inside your head, helping you to succeed through a better understanding of yourself and those around you.




Spontaneous Painting


Book Description

"The new scientific paradigm based on the primacy of consciousness is here and the question in everybody's mind is how we access quantum consciousness and its causal power. The artist/author Susan Bello gives us a wonderful and powerful method: spontaneous painting. It is really very enjoyable and is a suitable vehicle for all people who are young at heart and like to play. I recommend this method and this book very highly." Amit Goswami, quantum physicist and author of The Self-Aware Universe; God Is Not Dead; and the upcoming Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative "This is a truly brilliant and significant book - merits joyful reading and treasuring." Prof. Dr. Ervin LAszlO, Founder of Club Budapest; Chancellor-Designate of the newly formed GlobalShift University; author of over 80 books, including The Creative Cosmos: A Unified Science of Matter, Life and Mind The symbol is a universal resource which nature has bestowed upon us to evolve human consciousness. It embodies energy of pure potentiality that lives in a dormant state in our Unconscious. The process of Spontaneous Painting unleashes this powerful life force within. Each person's unique potential, Authentic and Higher Self, life direction and Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences flow forth through the brushstroke onto the paper. No artistic training is necessary. Once our symbols are expressed, a transformative process is activated that initiates behavioral change. Our symbols begin to direct us from within. Our Authentic Self is a core energetic configuration that is like no one else's. Each one of us is a unique individual with special gifts, passions and a life purpose. Our Higher Self embodies such states as love, inner wisdom, centeredness, joy and compassion. The key to creating a new paradigm is to develop these constructive expressions of consciousness in each planetary citizen for personal and social transformation. Symbols express in the form of images. Why are images used to transmit this energy? Images are the primal universal language of humankind. The fact that the ability to make images has been with us since the beginning of time suggests it may possess an important survival function of which we are not yet aware. The name The I.am.I TM Method of Spontaneous Painting was chosen to honor our Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences, hence the acronym I.am.ITM. These intelligences include our: emotional, creative, intuitive, imaginative, symbolic, spiritual, visual and kinesthetic ways of knowing. All of these intelligences are developed during The I.am.I Method. Although we are born with these intelligences and the ability to paint spontaneously, education has focused mainly on the rational intellect and on how to paint the external and not the internal landscape, a vast resource of inner wisdom. Part One of this book is an autobiographical summary of the experiences that led the author to develop The I.am.ITM Method of Spontaneous Painting. The paintings in Part Two document her empirical experimentation with Spontaneous Painting, sourced from the authority of her soul. Part Three is an academic exploration and a theoretical and scholarly documentation of the psychological and quantum states of mind that can be experienced during the Spontaneous Painting Process.




The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st-Century Schools


Book Description

Compatible with other professional development programs, this model shows how to apply relevant research from educational and cognitive neuroscience to classroom settings through a pedagogical framework. The model's six components are: 1) Establish the emotional connection to learning; 2) Develop the physical learning environment; 3) Design the learning experience; 4) Teach for the mastery of content, skills, and concepts; 5) Teach for the extension and application of knowledge; 6) Evaluate learning. --Book cover.




Learning and Memory


Book Description

Brain research is much in the news, but what is its relevance in the classroom? Are there ways to take what brain researchers are discovering about learning and memory and apply it to the situations that educators face every day? Practicing teacher and author Marilee Sprenger tells how to do just that in this book. Sprenger has spent years studying neurological research and training other educators in brain‐compatible teaching methods. This background, combined with her long career as a classroom teacher, has given her priceless knowledge of what works in a multitude of classroom situations. Current brain research is as amazing as it can be confusing. This book discusses in plain terms the structure, function, and development of the human brain. The author describes the five "memory lanes"--semantic, episodic, procedural, automatic, and emotional--and tells how they function in learning and memory. She offers dozens of practical suggestions for teaching and assessing in brain-compatible ways. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, the book offers valid, usable, "What you can do on Monday" ideas to incorporate into the classroom. This is an approach to brain research that educators at all levels can apply in their daily work. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.