Book excerpt: An instructional leader who understands how people learn has the power to transform a school and raise student achievement. Brain pioneer Margaret Glick weaves the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience, educational leadership, and instruction into a cohesive framework for understanding how the brain learns, and shows how to apply this knowledge to teacher and student learning. Understanding the five elements that affect how we learn results in the following benefits: increased understanding of the learning process, improved communication, enhanced relationships, better interpersonal skills, new tools for giving effective feedback, and an inner compass for continuous improvement. Included are brain illustrations, rubrics, implementation ideas for teachers, step-by-step pedagogy, and assessments to help instructional leaders understand how brain functions inform instruction, and how to teach these principles to their teachers.