Many books for educators are emerging out of recent discoveries in the cognitive neurosciences.
The Biology of Consciousness
An important recent book, Antonio Damasio's The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness(1999, Harcourt Brace), establishes a credible framework for the neurobiology of consciousness. The richness of his theory and the depth of his supporting scientific evidence provide a convincing case for how conscious processes may have emerged out of the unconscious systems that regulate emotion. Educators will find the implications of Damasio's theory helpful for understanding the connection between students' emotional and cognitive development.
Early Development
In The Myth of the First Three Years (1999, Free Press), John Bruer asserts that many advocates for early childhood programs misinterpret neuroscience research in their search for support. Bruer, the president of the McDonnell Foundation, which funds neuroscience research, is especially critical of the misuse of research that focuses on synaptic density, critical developmental periods, and environmental enrichment. His views may be controversial, but Bruer is an articulate critic who appropriately urges educators to be cautious in their search for practical applications of cognitive neuroscience research.
The Scientist in the Crib (1999, Morrow) suggests that becoming a scientist involves a long apprenticeship called childhood. Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl weave their roles as parents and respected developmental scientists into a charming and informative book on childhood learning. Exploring the parallels between the investigations of children and scientists, the authors argue that small children's strong, instinctive drive to learn and parents' typical desire to nurture their children's development result in small children knowing far more than we have believed.
Daniel Siegel's The Developing Mind (1999, Guilford) examines the effect of interpersonal relationships on a child's development. Readable, thoughtful, and informative, Siegel's study focuses on the nature of the attachment between parents and child and on the negative impact of a lack of positive attachment.
Brain Organization
Phantoms in the Brain (1998, Morrow), by V. S. Ramachandran and S. Blakeslee, introduces research concerning people who have lost limbs or suffer from neurological disorders. The description of the search for the cause of phantom pain in amputees, for example, reads like a mystery story you can't put down.
Vision is perhaps our most important sense, with almost half of our cortex devoted to its function. Donald Hoffman's Visual Intelligence (1998, Norton) explains how our brain actively constructs its perceptual reality from visual input. Marvelous illustrations and optical illusions enrich the text.
Brian Butterworth is a cognitive neuroscientist and not a mathematician, but in What Counts (1999, Free Press) he explains how our brain is organized to process quantity. He describes how humans have embellished an innate capability to reorganize small quantities into complex mathematical systems. It's a marvelous book for teachers.
Beyond Emotion
Esther Sternberg's The Balance Within (2000, W. H. Freeman) is an excellent background book for educators who are interested in the various roles emotions play. Focusing on the connection between emotion and health, her readable narrative describes complicated scientific phenomena and relationships through her own research and experiences. Those who enjoyed Candace Pert's Molecules of Emotion (1997, Scribner) will appreciate Sternberg's book.
Emotion can trigger violence, and Debra Niehoff's The Biology of Violence (1999, Free Press) provides a comprehensive analysis of the underlying biology of violent and aggressive behavior.
Learning
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (1999, National Academy Press) is a successful attempt to synthesize current knowledge about learning. Almost 20 scientists and educators participated in this National Academy of Sciences project, and educational policymakers will find the project's results useful for validating the claims of educational programs that purport to be based on scientific research.
A quarter of a century ago, the evolutionary scientist Richard Dawkins coined the controversial term meme as the cultural equivalent of gene, the coded replicating mechanism that regulates life and reproduction. In The Meme Machine (1999, Oxford), Susan Blackmore explores fascinating parallels between biological evolution and the human imitative capabilities, with their implications for understanding the evolution of such cultural phenomena as clothing styles, institutions, inventions, and the arts.
