The Neuroscience of Learning and Development: Enhancing Creativity, Compassion, Critical Thinking, and Peace in Higher Education by Marilee J. Bresciani Ludvik
Is higher education preparing our students for a world that is increasingly complex and volatile, and in which they will have to contend with uncertainty and ambiguity? Are we addressing the concerns of employers who complain that graduates do not possess the creative, critical thinking and communication skills needed in the workplace? In the face of the evidence that our colleges and universities are failing to do so, this book harnesses what we have learned from innovations in teaching and from neuroscience to change how we deliver and create new knowledge, and indeed to transform our students, and develop their capacities for boundary spanning.
Starting from the premise that our current linear, course-based, educational practices are frequently at odds with how our neurological system facilitates learning and personal development, the authors set out an alternative model that emphasizes a holistic approach to education that integrates meditative inquiry practice with self-authorship and the regulation of emotion as the cornerstones of learning, and demonstrates how these align with the latest discoveries of brain science.
This book presents the science that informs the practice of compassion and peace - the science that explains the very real benefits of an intentional movement and meditative inquiry; and demonstrates its application to the classroom, to the co-curriculum, and its implications for administrative leaders who make the decisions that impact student learning and development and the environment within which faculty, administrators, and students reside.
Experts in neuroscience, learning and development theory, and health practitioners outline their research and insights into how providing seemingly unintellectual learning and development opportunities for students actually stimulate portions of the brain that are needed in order for them to become problem-solvers, creators of knowledge, and effective social collaborators.
The book closes by offering practical ideas for implementation, showing how simple refinements in classroom and out-of-classroom experiences can create foundations for students to develop key skills that will enhance critical thinking, creativity, overall wellbeing, compassion, and ultimately world peace.
Starting from the premise that our current linear, course-based, educational practices are frequently at odds with how our neurological system facilitates learning and personal development, the authors set out an alternative model that emphasizes a holistic approach to education that integrates meditative inquiry practice with self-authorship and the regulation of emotion as the cornerstones of learning, and demonstrates how these align with the latest discoveries of brain science.
This book presents the science that informs the practice of compassion and peace - the science that explains the very real benefits of an intentional movement and meditative inquiry; and demonstrates its application to the classroom, to the co-curriculum, and its implications for administrative leaders who make the decisions that impact student learning and development and the environment within which faculty, administrators, and students reside.
Experts in neuroscience, learning and development theory, and health practitioners outline their research and insights into how providing seemingly unintellectual learning and development opportunities for students actually stimulate portions of the brain that are needed in order for them to become problem-solvers, creators of knowledge, and effective social collaborators.
The book closes by offering practical ideas for implementation, showing how simple refinements in classroom and out-of-classroom experiences can create foundations for students to develop key skills that will enhance critical thinking, creativity, overall wellbeing, compassion, and ultimately world peace.