Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

Although the brain often seems to be the most overlooked tool in trainer-teacher-learners' toolkits, great writers like developmental molecular biologist John Medina are doing a lot to move us past that that oversight through books like "Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School." Medina is never less than completely engaging, and his 12 rules about how the brain functions in learning are drawn from well-documented research, his own very funny observations, and his continual call for more research to help fill in the numerous gaps we still have in our knowledge: "This book is a call for research simply because we don't know enough to be prescriptive," he disarmingly admits (p. 4). Among the rules he show more documents: exercise boosts brain power; every brain is wired differently; stressed brains don't learn well; and stimulate more of the senses simultaneously to stimulate more effective learning. This is not a book for those comfortable with the status quo; in fact, Medina clearly expects us to approach his work with minds completely open to ideas that might initially strike us as ludicrous. And he encourages us to imagine (and create) learning spaces that inspire and sustain curiosity as opposed to the age-old model of lecture halls where learning is an instructor-centric endeavor. show less

One of the best books I've read this year. I greatly enjoyed reading Medina's easy narratives. Admittedly, biology and neuroscience is not an easy topic to talk about, much less lecture on ---and I say that as an HS science teacher. Medina's principles and anecdotes made for a fun and engaging refresher on concepts we've all learned in bio and psych class.

The best thing about this book is that Medina also offers explanations as to why learning and becoming familiar with how the brain works is very important to education and business. I picked this up mainly to have a basic understanding of cognitive development and comprehension. The author goes well beyond explanations, but also gives useable ideas and strategies to implement in the show more classroom and workplace. It's mind-boggling how the education system has not yet integrated the research on brain studies into its format and curriculum... pity, actually.

I love, love, love this book. I will definitely use his strategies on comprehension and memorization in my classroom, as well as his narratives. Science is my first love, and the way he explains it all so easily reminds me why I love it so much. This is a must read for other educators. show less

Brain Rules is an excellent overview of some key principles to optimize your brain's performance. Medina does a great job of mixing the science behind how your brain works with practical takeaways. While there is a lot of science discussed, Medina manages to present the information in a very engaging and easily digestible format.There are so many things we should be doing to optimize our cognitive abilities at work and in the classroom that are currently being ignored for the sake of tradition. The adjustments sometimes sound fairly radical (Medina proposes that companies should block out 1/2 hour each day for employees to nap for example) but they are also fairly simple to execute, and well supported by scientific evidence of their show more potential impact.This should be a must read for anyone in business or education. show less

Short, but informative and engaging. I appreciate that Medina explains the biology clearly, tries not to generalize too much (even the "principles" of the title are more suggestions and ideas for future research), and emphasizes that there is so much about the brain that we still don't understand. This would be too basic for those who already know some neuroscience, but for me it was about right.

My advisor for grad school gave me this book as a graduation present. As a researcher, I have read about many of these studies but it was still interesting and engaging. I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed this book to some degree. I found some of the anecdotes and personal stories fascinating, but overall the book was just too dry. Perhaps it’s my fault for reading right before bed, but I couldn’t get further than a couple of pages each time before getting too tired to continue. I also felt the book lost momentum as it got closer to the end. It started out strong, but then I think the author lost steam - or interest (much like I did). I was also hoping for some new or unique takes on what we all already know, and I didn’t get that. I mean, seriously - exercise improves brain function? Ummm… yeah. Male and female brains are different? Duh. Repetition improves memory? No doubt. I was looking for some interesting tips I show more could apply practically to my own life, and in that aspect I found the book lacking. show less

Finished Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and the directory of the Brain Center for Applied Learning research at Seattle Pacific. He wrote this book to communicate to the rest of us some of the results of recent research on the brain. In my opinion, Medina succeeded.

I like the structure of the book. Each chapter is built around a particular "brain rule", a rule of thumb for effectively using your brain. Most of the chapter discusses research and tells stories to convey what the rule means and the scientific basis for believing that rule. Each chapter contains a discussion of ways these rules could be applied at home, work, and show more school and suggests ways to objectively test the translation of these rules into real world recommendations. At the end of the chapter is a summary of that brain rule.

This structure makes the book easy to read, and makes it easy to navigate when you want to refresh your memory. The book also has a pretty spiffy website which discusses the 12 rules in more detail than my summary (although, obviously, not as much as the book).

The short version of the 12 brain rules (straight from the back of the book) are:

Exercise: Exercise boots brain power.
Survival: The human brain evolved too.
Wiring: Every brain in wired differently.
Attention: We don't pay attention to boring things.
Short-term memory: Repeat to remember.
Long-term memory: Remember to repeat.
Sleep: Sleep well, think well.
Stress: Stressed brains don't learn the same way.
Sensory integration: Stimulate more of the senses.
Vision: Vision trumps all other senses.
Gender: Male and female brains are different.
Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers.

You'll have to read the book or the website to figure out what each of these means. =) show less