How the Brain Works: Learning Differences for Genders and Intelligences

The educational world of the past took little stock in how student's learned.  Instead, the focus in education was rote memorization and repetitive practice.  Educational experts looked at what was the best behavioral model and focused little on cognition.  Now, the research on the brain and how it helps/causes learning is vast.  Educators focus on teaching to all levels on intelligence and focus on making the material meaningful to the students.  In the book Biological Differences in Learning, the author goes beyond the standard differentiation in intelligences to look at how each gender processes information.  In the article, it states that a male’s brain is 10-15% larger than a female's due to size of body the brain must maintain.  Furthermore, the article articulates the specific differences in intelligence by showing that females normally outperform males in fine motor skills, computations, multitasking, visual recall, spelling, verbal memory, and social perception while males outperform females in targeting skills, working vocabulary, extended focus and concentration, mathematical reasoning, navigation with geometric properties, verbal intelligence, and spatial tasks.   While I am not sure that I agree with all of these, I have seen the difference between genders in the classroom.  The book's message is clear and relevant to our study of the brain in that it tells us that we must be aware of the different ways students learn.  This book is full of information on the brain and the effects certain elements will have on its ability to encode and retrieve information.  I found this chapter on gender most interesting though because I spend so much time on differentiating intelligence that I often forget about differentiating gender.
The other book I found online was called Making Connections: Teaching the Human Brain.  I was drawn to this article after posting to a few blogs about engaging students in the virtual classroom.  The chapter I focused on in this book deals with brain based learning in action.  It gave ideas for engaging students in their own learning through metacognition.  They suggested reflection journals for this. I liked this idea; however, I struggle with the standard, "What did you learn question?"  I ask my students this often, and while that question is beyond valuable, I want to make it more relevant to my students.  They often struggle with this question.  So, if anyone out there has an idea of how to update this question into a more relevant activity, please post it here. Thanks!  Their other suggestion for engaging students is to get them into the real-life situation.  While I also think this is a great idea, field trips are fading fast in our school district.  I try to bring in speakers and virtual elements to make it more real, but how can I improve this further.  I know that a meaningful connection will help them learn.  Any suggestions?

Caine, R., & Caine, G. (2001). Making connections: teaching the human brain. Wheaton, MD: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Jensen, E.P. (2008). Brain-based learning: the new paradigm of teaching. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.