Brain function and the mentor's role

Some years ago, as a member of Sandra Johnson’s doctoral committee, I found I could not respond effectively to her thesis unless I read several of her citations to research on how the brain actually learns. I was excited to discover that many “best practices” in adult learning correspond to emerging understandings about brain function. This article, which is adapted from a chapter in the recently published New Directions volume on brain function and adult learning I subsequently co-edited with Sandra (Jossey-Bass, 2006), will describe a few of these connections.