THE BIOLOGY OF LEARNING
I have been reading Dr. James Zull's book The Art of Changing the Brain and actually using findings from the research he cites as "brain tips" for my CSSK class. The students have enjoyed the information and have become so accustomed to it that one night I forgot to post the tip and they reminded me that I owed them one. Since it was so important to them, I rewarded them by posting four to the Blackboard site of our class. Back to the Zull book. He explains that he wrote the book because there was a gap between the biology of learning and turning that discovery into useable information. Educational scientists are a grow group as more people are excited about how science can help us understand teaching and learning. Zull defines learning as being about change. He says that learning is a living, growing thing that comes through different routes and leads to different ends as out lives evolve. He then concludes that his definition of learning is also evolving. There is a copy of his book in the BRCC Library (LB1057 .Z85 2002). I encourage you to check it out if you are interested in learning more about the brain and learning.

BRAINSTORMING HELPS MEMORIZATION
There are times when memorization cannot be avoided and is the most appropriate way to learn something. If you are looking for an active teaching method to help in this area, you might want to try this one from the BRCC Active Learning Manual. Brainstorming Recall has been proven to help when students are required to recall a list of items. Take a set amount of time during class and ask your students to call out each item, while you, or perhaps a fellow student, notes them down on the board, flipchart or into a projected electronic document. Depending on the size of your class, you might break the class into groups and have simultaneous brainstorming recall going on, returning to the whole group afterwards to compare lists. It helps learning through repetition as well as aural and visual representations.

MOTIVATING YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN
Dr. Ronald C. Jones has written a fascinating article about a thorny issue that many of us have expressed on the faculty development evaluation surveys. In addition, many of you have asked how to resolve this problem when I have met with you about classroom observations. Jones writes, "When it comes to student motivation, does the axiom, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink' apply? Although I believe that, as instructors, we cannot force motivation and learning upon students, we do play a vital role regarding student motivation and a student’s ability to gain knowledge and proficiency in the subject matter." He concludes his article writing, "Can we motivate every student to succeed? Certainly not, but we must never stop trying."