Leading and Learning in Schools: Brain-Based Practices. - Review - book review

School Administrator, Feb, 2001 by Tom Narak

In days of yesteryear, the effective management of schools was seen as the most important responsibility of school system administrators. Today, most would point to instructional leadership as their primary obligation.

Leading and Learning in Schools: Brain-Based Practices, written by two school superintendents in New Jersey, Henry G. Cram and Vito Germinario, addresses the issue of how children learn and the many important implications this has for teaching. They show how educational policy and practice must adapt to brain-based learning research, while contending that this research is challenging the "underlying principles of current learning theory."

The authors share brain-compatible strategies throughout the book. They also review the evolution of curriculum development from the traditional content-driven model to one that encompasses a brain-compatible curriculum. The latter includes such concepts as absence of threat, meaningful content, choices, enriched environment, collaboration, immediate feedback and mastery. An integrated curriculum founded in brain-based research facilitates teaching and learning, they argue.

Professional staff development in brain-based research is of vital importance for school leaders who want to apply brain-based practices. Modeling of brain-based teaching behaviors must be part of the training of educators. Once teachers experience brain-friendly staff development, they will translate brain research into classroom practices, the authors say.

(Leading and Learning in Schools: Brain-Based Practices, by Henry G. Cram and Vito Germinario, Scarecrow Press/Technomic Books, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706, 2000, 219 pp. with index, $29.95 softcover)