A Mind at a Time: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Every Child Can Succeed by Mel Levine Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Mind at a Time: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Every Child Can Succeed
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Benefits of this book: Dr. Levine makes what can be difficult concepts to explain, easy to understand. He can cite many examples of kids who fit those concepts. However,.....
Minuses:
At first I was happy to find this book at the library. The table of contents looked interesting. Much of what the book would discuss would be in my area, cognitive psychology, specifically how people read. I went to the back of the book to see who Dr. Levine referenced. I was surprised and dismayed to find that he had not given credit to anyone whose work was the basis for all the concepts he discusses in his book. Dr Levine says "I think it appropriate to write this book based purely on objective clinical observation" (pg.16), and I agree that it is important and useful to cite specific examples to supplement research. Plus, he has worked in this area for many years. However, I think it is also important to give credit to others.
So, why should this concern you? What works for one person may not work for another, but research can tell you what works for most people. If you know who developed certain concepts, you can find out more about those concepts by reading his or her work. If you have references, you can get a second opinion.
I think many people can learn from Dr. Levine's work, but I hope that this review helps to put his work in perspective.
Book Review: Good reading to understand how a mind works
Summary: 4 Stars
The book illustrates how the mind of a child works and learns. It is clear and well written and can be also entertaining. It applies to children with or without learning disabilities. The main thesis is that for better or worse, everybody is afflicted by a learning disability, even if that can be minor and didn't give rise to any problem at school. Defects can be unnoticeable and go undetected. Sometimes those problems lies in unexpected places. We can develop, consciously or unconsciously, strategies to come around those little difficulties. However, the book does not provide practical guidance to detect those difficulties or to cope with them. It provides an useful background but not a roadmap. Sometime the author comes up with commonsensical advise. However, it is a very good starting point.Book Review: Great book
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a wonderful book that emphasizes the need to look at the individual needs of students.Book Review: Great! It'll change your perspective!
Summary: 5 Stars
In this book you realize that there is really no such thing as dumb, that all brains work differently. It helps focus on the REAL issues of learning, instead of lumping your understanding into ADHD or some other category. You should read it!Book Review: Highly overrated
Summary: 2 Stars
Mel gave a presentation at our school a number of years ago. He was am impassioned, motivational speaker. Last year this book was required reading for all the teachers at the school where I am employed. Most of us did not read very much of it because we were put off by the book. In fact, there is a running joke among the teachers that Mel really thinks "there are no lazy students". Other reviewers have mentioned the lack of literature research. Personally, I think that Howard Gardner's work on learning styles is far more useful that Levine's.