Synopsis
What is intelligence? Is our success in life predetermined by the level of intelligence with which we are born? If not, if intelligence can be influenced by life experience, what can a parent or an educator do to help raise the intelligence of a child?
Learning to Learn: Ways to Nurture Your Child's Intelligence is the provocative response to these and other important questions posed by concerned students, parents, and teachers, as these issues take on international significance. Dr. Angela Browne-Miller, an esteemed educator and clinical social worker, offers important guidance to promote cognitive development in children and to help adults investigate the potential of their own intelligences. She describes methods of stimulating mental abilities and intellectual performance. Dr. Browne-Miller contends that children can be taught how to concentrate, to think, to organize their thoughts - and, ultimately, how to be intelligent. The essence of this excellent book's message is that parents and teachers can create a reality in which children's spirits and minds flourish, providing we all develop our own understanding of mental ability and consciousness. To this end, the author explains how common assumptions regarding intelligence affect parents' views of their mental capabilities and those of their children. Dr. Browne-Miller delves into a number of controversial biological and genetic views regarding intelligence and examines their influence on the development of mental ability.
After a close look at the influence of family life on children's mental ability, the author describes in depth the vital criteria for selecting preschools and elementary schools, taking special care to delineate signs of abuse and neglect as found in a number of such settings. She examines the transitions a child makes from the home to the educational setting, where school success and school problems emerge. For example, the author illustrates how "educational labeling" and "tracking" and the identification of gifted children can have negative psychological and emotional impact. Devoting significant attention to the more cognitive aspects of mental ability, Dr. Browne-Miller carefully describes methods of developing mental ability in young minds, including instruction in strategy selection, concentration, memory, and other functional elements of cognitive ability, as well as processes of association and inquiry that are instrumental in the development of creativity. Learning to Learn concludes its plan for raising mental ability with a fascinating explanation of Dr. Browne-Miller's consciousness technology - the practical methodology for attention, focus, and commitment to mental efforts.
Learning to Learn is an invaluable resource for anyone dedicated to the enrichment of a child's mind, including parents, teachers, early childhood educators, psychologists, counselors, sociologists, and pediatricians.
About the Author
Angela Browne-Miller lectures in social welfare and education at the Schools of Business and Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.
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