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According to Herson (2006), brain-based learning is the learning process of identifying a primary educational environmental impact on the human brain. He points out that there is a relationship between the learning process and the capacity of the individual’s brain. That is, the learning process normally helps to identify the individual brain’s capability, which in turn also helps in the learning process. Herson (2006) noted that excelling schools usually deployed this process to manipulate their learning ability and improve their academic performance.
Both components and functioning of the brain are primarily important for the learning process. Caine & Geoffrey (2011) point out that for the brain to fulfill its normal functions a suitable environment is required. According to this argument, it is obvious that the level of the fulfillment of normal functioning of the brain is an indication of the level of success of the learning process. They note that the theoretical aspect of the learning process that usually exhibits the notion that everyone can learn is usually suggestive. Their argument is that checking is based on the principle that everyone can learn. However, they note that this can only be achieved by an individual through proper correlated brain functioning and good learning environment.
Caine & Geoffrey (2011) point out that brain-based learning normally depicts how teachers can design their teaching methodology to suit student’s interests. They note that through effective learning methodology, students are in most cases encouraged to learn not only in a classroom but also outside it. According to Cane & Geoffrey (2011), brain-based learning enhances the student’s assessment level, which is significant for excelling the learning process. They point out that evident children’s failing at learning is normally the indication of poor structure and functioning of their brains, which impair the learning process to various degrees. What are the reasons why children and schools fail at learning?
Reasons why Children and Schools Fail in their Learning Process
Cost of Brain-Based Learning on Curriculum Structure
According to McCloud (2009), the ineffectiveness of curriculum activities is a result of high costs of brain-based learning. He points out that each and every student normally encounters challenges having psychological and social effects that adversely affect their learning. He notes that brain-based learning could not address various challenges facing every student because of its costs. According to him, it involves a costly process of effectively understanding the brain’s capacity of a student. He concludes noting that it is these high costs that have resulted in poor performance of schools and pupils, since teachers cannot fully utilize brain capabilities of the student’s brain.
McCloud (2009) points out that most schools and children fail because of poor teaching methods resulting from the inability of teachers to fully utilize student’s brain capabilities. He notes that most schools input ineffective programs that do not address underlying issues that affect students’ performance and the overall school performance. According to his argument, it is ineffective teaching methods that are deployed by teachers because of the need to cut cost that prevent teachers from adequately assessing and understanding capabilities of the students’ brain. He observes that the effectiveness of this process has not been achieved, since teacher’s efforts to compact on brain-based learning process is normally hindered by high costs of engaging students.
High costs of this process have also led to the implementation of ineffective curriculum activities, which have it turn resulted in poor student and school performance. McCloud (2009) observes that teachers have been complaining over the ineffectiveness of education programs for a year. The major concern of teachers has been the inability of their present curricula to offer programs that utilize student’s brain capabilities. As it has been pointed out by McCarthy (2010), brain-based learning helps a teacher understand student’s capabilities. She points out that teachers cannot device proper teaching methods that can fully engage students’ minds because of the inability to use appropriate programs. Thus, it results in poor performance.
McCloud points out that most teachers have changed their classroom curriculum to suit their respective students’ learning abilities in an attempt to improve the learning process. He notes that similar to the brain-based learning process, teachers continue organizing interclass orientation activities, which tend to exploit students activities. He points out that teachers can deploy better teaching methods based on respective student’s abilities through such interdisciplinary activities. Further, he points out that student’s performance is based on the brain's ability to learn and emphasizes the need for proper facilitation of this process to allow teachers to utilize without worrying about possible costs.
Teachers play a primary role in structuring and instilling good learning methodology in regard to children to suit their learning interests. Caine & Geoffrey (2011) note that instilling appropriate learning methodology among children can be effective, if educators or teachers are can understand child’s brain working ability and meet its costs. They point out that varying learning structures that teachers must deploy in teaching must take into account varying capabilities of the child’s brain. They further agree that the relevancy of a subject taught in a class is in its ability to depict different students’ brain capabilities.
Lack of Student’s Participation in the Brain-Based Learning Process
McCarthy (2010) points out that the great number of students in a classroom normally prevents the effective execution of brain-based learning process. She notes that teachers usually find it difficult to exploit students’ brain capabilities because of the large student population. She points out that because brain-based learning is meant to help a teacher understand respective students’ brain abilities and to enable them to exposure students into various subjects, it may not be effective under such circumstances. She notes that brain-based learning should also help students actively participate in discussing different subjects, which enable them to solve complexities arising from the subject matter. However, she observes that the inadequacy of a teacher or an educator to understand students’ brain learning capabilities has resulted in poor learning structures and poor performance.
According to Caine & Geoffrey (2011), the lack of student’s participation in learning is caused by an inadequate brain-based learning process. They point out that this process nurtures students’ abilities to form learning teams in their classrooms and helps them learn from each other. They note that learning groups of students usually help to actively contribute to the subject matter, which essentially improves learning standards. According to them, most non-performing students and schools basically encounter problems in forming study groups of students. This has resulted in poor learning skills of students and poor performance.
McCarthy (2011) points out that brain-based learning engages students to be active in the learning process. She also notes that brain-based learning usually connects the current learning contents to the previous experiences. In her argument, students perform well in various subjects, in which they can connect learning with their past experiences. She points out that through their past experiences, students can engage their brain and this makes them advance in learning performance. Caine & Geoffrey (2011) also observe that students’ poor performance in a classroom is based on the inability of teachers to incorporate the past experiences in their teaching methodology.
Poor Learning Environment
A learning environment plays an important role in brain-based learning. McCarthy (2011) points out that most schools and students, who perform poorly, are usually those subjected to a poor learning environment that normally affects student’s concentration. She argues that, even though brain-based learning usually tries to establish students’ learning strength, its effective use is dependent on a good learning environment. She point out that through a better learning environment, students can identify and strengthen the weakest points in learning.
Understanding a learning classroom environment is essential for a teacher, as it enables him or her to devices better methods to meet student’s needs. Herson (2006) points out that by means of understanding the classroom environment, teachers can identify both social and emotional challenges that affect various students. Caine & Geoffrey (2011) further add that it is necessary for teachers to enhance a good classroom environment that will fully enable students to actively engage their brains to eliminate any fears that may arise.
However, Caine & Geoffrey (2011) admit that the process of instilling a cordial learning environment has encountered challenges based on ethnicity and gender imbalances. They note that students’ disagreement has made it difficult to enhance their performance through the brain-based learning process. They point out that this has made the creation of a good learning classroom environment more difficult denying students the ability to use their skills to assess their learning capabilities.
Effects of Poverty on Brain-Based Learning
Similar to any other learning process, brain-based learning has not been effective among children from low income families. According to Jensen (2010), most schools could not perform well because of poverty factors, which continue derailing the brain-based learning process. He notes that most students from poverty-stricken families suffer from immense chronic stress, which usually affects their concentration level. He admits that in such cases, teachers usually find it difficult to implement brain-based learning.
Poverty usually affects the thinking capacity of children, since it usually impacts the brain system. Jensen (2010) also points out that children from poor families usually tend to withdraw from classroom participation or even group participation because of their inability to fully contribute. According to McCarthy (2011), students can improve their learning abilities, if they can share and learn basic education concepts from each other. She points out that the intensity of brain-based learning requires total cooperation among students and can be halted in case of any difficulties, such as those resulting from poverty.
According to Jensen (2010), teachers have been forced to come up with appropriate learning strategies to help children improve their performance by countering poverty risk factors. He argues that the effectiveness of brain-based learning requires appropriate teaching methodology that can enhance good performance. He explains that in an approach to counter the poverty of students, teachers have to manage their time well. This will enable them to accomplish their goals without being subject to immense processes, which may add pressure on such vulnerable students.
Lack of Adequate Learning Facilities
According to McCarthy (2011), most schools and students fail to perform because of the lack of adequate facilities to accomplish brain-based learning. She points out that the brain-based learning process engages students in active projects, which are intended to increase their learning skills. Hatfield (2007) also points out that children and teachers are motivated by well-constructed and maintained learning facilities. He notes that the availability of learning facilities is essential for the learning process, especially for brain-based learning.
Brain-based learning requires improved learning techniques, which fully exploit student’s brain capabilities enhancing better results. According to Hatfield (2007), the lack of adequate learning facilities poses threat to learning. He notes that the basic facilities ranging from classroom lightening to classroom air conditioning normally instill a good learning environment. Furthermore, he points out that brain-based learning usually entails study groups that require more learning facilities. This means that the lack of such basic facilities results in poor learning process and poor performance.
In conclusion, it has pointed out that brain-based learning is important for effective learning skills and better performance at schools. However, there are various factors that undermine the implementation of brain-based learning that in turn leads to poor performance. Some intervention is necessary to improve its effectiveness. It can be in the form of the provision of an effective budget for brain-based learning to counter its costs. This has been pointed out to be one of the contributors to poor learning. There is also a need to establish a good learning environment to enhance learning by institutions.