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Strengths and benefits of learning styles
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Is There Such a Thing as Two Brains?
The human brain has always been a mystery. For many years researchers and scientists have ventured into the daunting task of understanding how the brain works. Even though they have accomplished to unearth new ideas and theories there is still an overwhelming abyss of the unknown. There is one theory that stands out the most from all others known as the right brain-left brain theory which originated from the work of Roger W. Sperry and who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1981. Since then there have been scientific research that suggest that the brain for the most part works as a whole rather than independently divided by two hemispheres. With all of these new discoveries emerging everyday there are still many educators and scholars that believe in the right brain-left brain theory and have found ways to incorporate new teaching strategies focused around the idea of students being dominate by one or the other side of the brain. According to Webb (1983), schools and society are most concerned in understanding the brain and in this way try to improve man’s ability to learn, to think, to solve problems, and to create (p. 508).
Science has determined that the brain can be divided into two hemispheres and that the two hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is a body of nerve fibers that serves as a communication bridge between the two hemispheres. If science has already determined that the two hemispheres do communicate with each other, why then do educators support the theory of a dominate side? For many years teachers in the classroom have noticed that each student learns differently and also tend to have strengths in certain subjects while weaknesses i...
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...etrieved December 21, 2013 from APA website http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2004/04/interhemispheric.aspx
Leesmann, L. (2012). Do you know if you’re right- or left-brained? It could help in school. Retrieved December 08, 2013 from Web address: http://blog.grantham.edu/blog/bid/128827/Do-You-Know-If-You-re-Right-or-Left-Brained-It-Could-Help-in-School
Nielsen, J., Zielinski, B., Ferguson, M., Lainhart, J., & Andereson, J. (2013). An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. Plos One, 8(8), 1-11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071275.
Pritchard, A. (2008). Ways of learning: Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Webb, G. M. (1983). Left/right brains, teammates in learning. Exceptional Children, 49(6), 508-515.
Some do not believe that we have a left and right brain. However, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future by Daniel H. Pink explains that the left and right hemispheres of the brain control different abilities. I have learned from this book how society and the economy have shifted from the “Information Age” to a “Conceptual Age,” how the arguments of left brain theorists (L- directed) differ from those of right brain theorists (R-directed), the three A’s of abundance, automation, and Asia, and the six essential aptitudes or “six senses” of Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.
The poem “Students” by Tom Wayman, shows four different learning styles: The Vaccination Theory of Education, The Dipstick Theory of Education, The Easy Listener Theory of Learning, and The Kung Fu Theory of Education. Wayman is a teacher that has noticed that every person devolves into one of these different learning styles. The four different theory of education are used every day even if we do not know.
Mook, D. G. (2004). Roger Sperry and the Bisected Brain. In D. G. Mook, Classic Experiments in Psychology (pp. 67-71). Westport, Connecticut, United States: Greenwood Press.
The left-brain / right-brain theory believes that different people are either more dominant using the left hemisphere or the right hemisphere of the brain. According to this theory, analytical, detailed, and logical are all considered common traits of a left-brained learner. Deliberate, original, and creative, are all how right-brained learners may be described (Rodgers).
hemispheres of the brain in which he stated that " . . . left - hemisphere style
A classroom of thirty is filled with a diverse group of students that think in all different ways. Each child’s brain processes informat...
Brain Lateralization is a complex and ongoing process by which differing regions of the brain “take over” the functioning of specific behaviors and cognitive skills. Lateralization literally means that certain functions are located (in part or total) on one side of the brain.
Sims, R. & Sims, S. (1995). The importance of learning styles: understanding the implications for learning, course design, and education. London: Greenwood Press.
Roger Sperry is one of the big Neurobiologists in the 1950’s. Sperry studied the relationship of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. In one of his experiments he flashed the word “Fork” in front of the patient. If the patient was asked to say the word he could not but if asked to right the word he would start to right the word “Fork”. This happed when the two brain hemispheres were disconnected from each other. At an another experiment he placed a toothbrush in the patients left hand and blind folded the patient and was asked to identify it they could not do it. But if placed in the right hand the patient would know right away what it was. That is just one of the types of study he did in his time.
Schunk, D. H. (2000) Learning theories. An educational perspective. (3rd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
“A learning style is a way of learning and refers to the way that you learn new information” (2). Most people have one preferred learning style and perform to a lesser standard when learning in a different style than what they’re used to. Nowadays, children are told to take a quiz in school to determine what their preferred learning style is, but after a few years, not many of these children remember what their preferred learning style is, or even if they do, they don’t apply it to their learning.
The outlook of a dominant right brain visual person is sporadic and frantic at times but can serve beneficially because of the advantages that right-brained people have due to specific learning styles that allow these individuals to excel in and outside the classroom.
...re of the brain is just half of the brain so why is it the only half being explored in school? This failure to confront the other hemisphere causes weakening in the right hemisphere since the right hemisphere isn?t being exercised.
Cognitive theory states that learning capacity is what going on inside student’s mind. According to cognitive theory, learning is not just a difference in behaviour, it is a modification in the way a learner thinks. Following it is the information processing model which describes that one’s brain has internal structures which select and operate incoming material (Dynamic Flight 2003). According to studies performed by the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l'Education de l'Enfant (CNRS/Université Paris Descartes/Université de Caen Basse-Normandie), in collaboration with the NeuroSpin Center (CEA), brain shape does affect learner’s learning capacities. Everyone has cognitive control which is a crucial component of intelligence and learning capacity. However, the difference of our brain does affect it and therefore it differs from individuals. The scientists explained that if the asymmetry of the right and left hemisphere corresponds to more lateralization, the greater specialization of each hemisphere. This helps to improve the ability to resolve tasks. Learners whose two hemispheres were asymmetrical at the level of the cingulate cortex achieved better results and displayed greater capacity for cognitive control. From this, we can know that everyone may have different
Thought out our lives, we are faced with many different learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. This can be attributed to everyone’s different multiple intelligences or learning styles. A persons learning style is the method though which they gain information about their environment. As a teacher, it is our responsibility to know these styles, so we can reach each of our students and use all of the necessary methods.