The premise of brain-based learning is that learning is constructed, not received. It's an inside-out experience — learners must construct meaning for themselves; an external party cannot simply transmit knowledge to them.
These two quotations summarize brain-based learning.
"Anything that captures students' attention and gets their minds engaged, has the potential to produce learning. If there is no attention and no engagement, there will be no learning" (Dr. Patricia Wolfe, 1996). "Learning is an active, constructive process that is contextual: New knowledge is acquired in relation to previous knowledge; information becomes meaningful when it is presented in some type of framework" (Barbara Gross Davis).One way instructors can enhance student learning through brain-based learning is by connecting new information to information they already know. Doing so helps create an experience students can engage with.
For more information, read brain-based learning basics, prepared by the Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies.
For further reading, visit ASCD.