DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Can Teaching Be Reduced to an Applied Science of the Brain?

The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning
By James E. Zull. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2002. xvi + 263 pp. Paper, $24.95.

In The Art of Changing the Brain, James Zull sets out to uncover some of the pedagogical implications of recent research in the cognitive sciences, particularly the cognitive neurosciences. The writing is framed by the assertion that learning is not about taking things in or soaking things up. Rejecting commonsensical acquisition and container-based metaphors, Zull works from the principle that learning entails physical transformations of the brain. It is thus a biological phenomenon that, as he attests in his subtitle, might be explored to enrich the practice of teaching.