Roger and Bodo,
Thanks for sharing this great online resource based on Medina’s book, and for generating the discussion. I purchased an eBook copy some time ago, and browse it from time to time. The 12 Brain Rules seem to confirm what we have been learning about learning from other forms of research for some time. I highly recommend it, with the caveat that one should look beyond neuroscience research to learn more. More on this comment at the end.
I think all the Rules are worth paying attention to, but the ones that I think challenge our traditional modes to teaching, especially via online learning, are
#3 All brains are wired differently, and
#12 We are powerful and natural explorers
3. Too often we explain things in only one way, and we have too few activities that allow for individual decision-making processes. A simple way around this is to decide to use multiple approaches to explain the more complex things, which is a form of repetition (Rule #5) but not in a way that makes learning boring. Some quick examples to address this Rule is to use multiple case studies, a variety of illustrations of conceptual models, explain things in both words and pictures, and also, perhaps even more important, get the students/participants to explain things back in their own words. This allows students to hear even more forms of explanation, but allows students to articulate their unique way of understanding, which they might not even be aware of unless asked to state it.
12. Authors have been arguing for more than 100 years that inquiry can be the most powerful form of learning, because, as Medina says, it is our natural way of learning about the world. Not that we learn everything this way, but almost everything critical we learn this way, even language to some degree. There are many forms of inquiry, not just scientific inquiry, as in the analogy Medina makes. Art, design, narrative, criticism and social debate are also forms of inquiry—ways of making the uncertain more certain or meaningful.
Mark already mentioned the Exploration strategies of Simulation and Cases, which can be done online as much as in the classroom—although the form gets a little trickier. A real-time weather briefing is a great example, and a similar approach can be to teach historic cases to make the theory real. Asynchronous online cases are very possible as well. You can just build in the questions and decisions points as quiz items or discuss forum questions, and spread the completion of the case out over a long period of time.
Discussion is another form of inquiry in which people work toward consensus or diversity of understanding. As an example, in our most recent Online Seminar for Trainers, instead of just telling learners what we thought were the advantages and disadvantages of Online learning and Classroom learning, we used padlet to gather their comments and lists of these, then compiled them into a summary. The group was exploring their ideas, experiences and biases toward the modes of learning, not just hearing ours. It was much more effective, and we all learned more as a result.
As Roger points out, neuroscience research has really taken off in recent years as methods for collecting data about brain processes have matured. But personally, I am surprised that the research results are taken by some people as the final word on cognition and learning. Looking at the brain is a bit too reductionist to me, a bit too small for the unit of analysis. People learn within social systems and have complex personal and cultural histories. Even individually they are more complex than their brains, larger than their nervous systems, and more than just their bodies as well. Still, learning is such a complex phenomenon that we need to take every possible perspective to wrestle with the challenge of understanding it. Medina’s book is a nice summary of one perspective, and there is a lot more to come.
Patrick