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How the Brain Learns: Putting Brain
Science to Work in the Classroom
What if “first grade” began before
a baby was even born? And
what if the students in this
first grade were not the children,
but the parents, who studied how to
create an emotionally stable home environment
conducive to learning? I was part of the
overflowing audience when John Medina, one
of the nation’s most unorthodox developmental
molecular biologists, posed these and
other equally provocative questions at Seattle
Pacific University on October 22, 2003. His
energy, nothing short of explosive, was contagious
as he envisioned a day when brain scientists
and educators might work together,
researching how the brain learns and re-imagining
the very concept of “school.”
Three years later, Medina is pursuing that
dream at SPU as director of the newly
launched Brain Center for Applied Learning
Research. In this issue of Response, Medina
writes about the fascinating relationship
between sleep and learning, exploring just
one of 12 “brain rules” — principles he
believes could guide research that transforms
education. You’ll also read about initial braineducation
research projects being conducted
by Seattle Pacific faculty and students.
Why launch such a momentous project as
The Brain Center at Seattle Pacific University?
One reason is SPU’s longstanding
reputation for graduating outstanding educators.
Just as Response was going to press,
Seattle Pacific received official notice that its
School of Education had been approved —
again — for national accreditation by the
National Council for Accreditation of
Teacher Education (NCATE). This is a
well-earned achievement reserved for only
the finest schools in the nation, and reflects
the rigorous standards not only of SPU’s
program, but also of its faculty. According to
NCATE, these professors “model best teaching
practices … and offer extensive service to
their unit, university, and broader community.”
They are the same individuals who, in
collaboration with colleagues in psychology,
business, and science, are carrying out the
activities of the new Brain Center.
Another reason Seattle Pacific was poised
to take on the important work of The Brain
Center is its recent more than $34 million
investment in the sciences, including a new
Science Building for the study of biology,
chemistry, biochemistry, and psychology. At its
dedication in 2003, Medina told visitors the
facility was “a great witness — both to the community
of faith and to the secular world — that
religion and science don’t have to be fighting.”
Of course, the primary reason for opening
The Brain Center is that the dream of John
Medina — and his colleagues at SPU — is
yet another expression of the University’s
vision for engaging the culture and changing
the world. How better to fulfill that vision
than by helping to improve the nation’s schools
and, in so doing, the lives of its children?
To read John Medina’s essay “Brainchild: Stress,
Learning, and the Human Brain” in the
Autumn 2003 issue of Response, click here.
JENNIFER JOHNSON GILNETT
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