This document summarizes key points from a book on neuroscience and education. It discusses three neuromyths - that learning styles must be matched, drug use creates holes in the brain, and games keep the brain young. It also notes that genes, environment, and socioeconomic status all impact intelligence. The conclusion emphasizes that teachers directly influence students' brain development and can help children who face challenges overcome them through education.

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Plan of my Talk
1. Some Reviews of the book
2. Discuss Some Neuromyths(Chapter-9)
3. Your hands in their brains(Chapter-10)
4. Conclusion
5. References
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Reviews
• Is the education system up to the job of preparing young
people for a world that is so radically different from the
one that existed when it was set up? This text shows
teachers how to be ready for the challenges that the
21st century is presenting.
• This book takes the reader through twists and turns of
relevant brain research, pedagogical methodology, and
simple, no-nonsense suggestions for teachers. The
mantra repeated frequently (to teachers) is 'Do you
believe your job is to teach children or help them to
learn? Do you believe your school is - or should be - a
teaching school or a learning school?' (Gilbert 2011, p.
126).
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Reviews
• Wonderful book written in an entertaining style! The
book effectively captures the need to move away from
the industrialization model of education so that it
caters to the needs of the 21st century. It abounds in
thought provoking ideas like; why teachers should
teach less so that pupils will learn more as well as why
teachers should teach children and not subjects – so
that learning becomes authentic, sustainable and
effective. A must read for every practicing teacher and
brave school leader.
My favourite quote: (In the classroom) "Don't be a
control freak, be an influence freak." :) (Page 180)
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CHAPTER-9
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• It is no surprise that many teachers have an
interest in neuroscience and psychology
since areas such as memory, motivation,
curiosity, intelligence and determination are
highly important in education.
• Although progress is being made towards
understanding what helps and hinders
students, there is still a disconnect between
the research in labs and what happens in
many schools.
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There are several reasons why neuromyths gain
traction: “They seem to persist because
• they are easy to understand,
•fit everyday observation, are heavily promoted
or
•are easy to implement.
However, unfortunately they often have little or
no evidence supporting the impact they will
have on learning.”
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How it caught on
• Each student is unique and has a different personality,
experience and genes.
• Teachers are often encouraged to differentiate to
ensure that each child is making as much progress as
they can.
• This, combined with the fact that students may have a
preference for how they are taught, has morphed into
the belief that if you match your style to their
preference, it will lead to better grades.
Teaching
new information to students using a variety of senses result
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Myth: The bigger your brain, the smarter you are.
TRUTH: Having a bigger brain does not guarantee
more cognitive power.
Myth: Drinking alcoholic drinks always kills brain
cells.
Truth
•Moderate amounts of alcohol do not kill brain cells.
•Alcohol threatens your brain because of its addictive
qualities and its ability to alter brain function, as well
as its ability to shrink cells.
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Myth: Drug use makes holes in your brain.
Truth
•Only physical trauma can create a hole in your brain.
• Key brain regions in drug addicted people are reduced in size,
but no actual holes are formed as a result of drug use.
• Drugs hijack the brain’s chemical communication system by
interfering with the way cells send and receive messages.
•They target brain regions that produce pleasant feelings,
overwhelming them and flooding the body with euphoric
feelings.
•With chronic use, progressively more drugs are needed to
achieve the same effects over time and pleasure becomes
more difficult to achieve naturally.
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Myth: Playing games keeps your brain young.
Truth
•Crossword puzzles and similar games can help you learn words
and improve specific skills, but they won’t enhance overall brain
function.
•If you want to preserve your mental abilities, exercise your
body.
•A healthy diet and regular exercise can help maintain memory
and general cognition, particularly later in life.
•Studies show that foods rich in nutrients and antioxidants
appear to reduce the risks of age-related impairment.
•Aerobic exercise increases blood flow to the brain, and even
lessens the rate of tissue loss during aging.
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CHAPTER-10
(Your hands in their brains)
• Child is ‘intelligent’. Which brings us back to genes. No-one
has yet discovered an ‘intelligence gene’.
• For example, there is a correlation between brain volume and
IQ of around 40 per cent. Having a big brain doesn’t
guarantee you are a genius but it starts to tip things in your
favour.
• But there are other factors at play too, as research shows that
how well you inherit your parents’ IQ depends on your socio-
economic status too. If you’re middle class or well off, your
environment doesn’t make much difference to the
brainpower you were born with. If you’re poor, that poverty
outweighs practically any of the IQ-related potential you were
born with.
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• The brain’s yearning to be great, stifled by both
genetic and environmental factors in our most
needy young people, can be addressed if we
can be bothered to do so.
• How?
• Well, apart from specific training in how to use
our brains, a curriculum that actually responds
to the needs of the individual will help.
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• You are a teacher.
• You are one of the most powerful people in
the world. You mould young minds.
• Your actions (or lack of them, remember
we are often marked out by what we don’t
do as much as by what we do) directly
impact on the actual physical architecture
of the brains of the young people in your
care on an hourly basis.
• You are directly influencing the
neurological structures of the future of the
world.

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• Maternal rejection or trauma early in life, for
example, may affect a person’s emotional reactions
to stressful events later on, potentially
predisposing them to depression and anxiety
disorders.
• And, according to the World Health Organization,
depression is currently the leading cause of
disability in the world, is fourth in the world in
terms of productive days lost and lives shortened
by it and is heading to the number two slot by
2020.
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CONCLUSION
• Who we are is a complex series of interactions between what
we were born with and what we were born into, none of
which is written in stone.
• If to be poor and stupid is your fate then what is the point of
school?
• I am often asked by teachers if there really is anything they
can do to help children who have already suffered at the
hands of the people and life they were born into and, even
before I came across this research, I felt I had to say yes,
absolutely, or else what’s the point! What the latest research
findings are showing teachers everywhere is that yes there is
a point, you don’t just make a difference; you make
everything different.
• Because, as Ian Robertson points out: Schooling and
education, without doubt, physically change the brains of
children. (Robertson 1999)
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References
1. Nature vis Nurture, Matt Ridley, Haroer Perennial,
London, 2003
2. Flynn Effect - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
3. ‘g’http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_intelligence_factor
4. Arthur Jensenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Jensen
5. Genes and IQ New Scientist 18/7/09
6. Roberston, I (1999) Mind Sculpture, London: Bantam Press
7. Epigenetic changes -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8346715.stm
8. Maternal trauma -
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227022.800-
the-five-ages-of-the-brainchildhood. html
9. WHO & Depression -
http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depres
sion/definition/en/
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