A publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries
A division of the American Library Association
Editorial Offices: 575 Main Street, Suite 300, Middletown, CT 06457-3445
Phone: (860) 347-6933
Fax: (860) 704-0465

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Please do not link to this page.

January 2015 Vol. 52 No. 5

Olson (clinical psychologist) indicates that a teacher’s primary job is to impart information to relatively passive recipients.  The value of the felt experience of school and classroom culture is minimized, even made invisible, by this assumption.  This book is part of "The Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education."  The author seeks to provide an understanding of the invisible web of relationships in schools and the classroom with a focus on neurosciences.  He weaves an intricate pattern that is based on research and practical stories across eight chapters.  There is an awareness of the hidden details of students’ lives and the web of interpersonal connections that reside in the human brain.  Each of the chapters builds on his work in neuroscience, relationships, leadership, memory, nurturance, and mindfulness. The final chapter ends with vignettes from the author’s research in classrooms in the US.  He concludes with the statement that “keeping the metaphor of the river of integration in mind can help create a state of mind for educators from which effective interventions and techniques arise.”

--H. B. Arnold, University of the Pacific

Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections.