Instead of focusing on how to structure the classroom, they examine how the brain processes information. Books and articles exploring the connections between the way the brain might process information and how schools and classrooms should operate are doing just that exploring. Current brain theory and research now provide only the broad, tantalizing outlines of what the school of the future might be but we can anticipate that the rate of new discoveries will escalate. John T. Bruer, one of the most knowledgeable and vocal critics of the interpretations based on brain-based research, supports the need of educators to know more about how the brain processes information. To the extent that brain-based educators recipe for school and classroom change is well grounded in this behavioral research, their message is valuable.
Individuals learn in different ways.
The current structure of education institutions and classrooms do not necessarily support multiple ways of learning and processing information. The ancient debate of nurture versus nature is alive and well in this interpretation of the brain-based and related research. Researchers agree that environmental factors do make a difference. Many of these studies point to nutrition and its effect on learning from a biological and psychological position. It should be realized at this point that for the nine months of intrauterine life and for a short but undetermined postnatal period, brain growth and development will be largely genetically determined.