{"id":2454,"date":"2018-02-02T16:05:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T20:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dacha.com\/?p=2454"},"modified":"2018-02-02T16:05:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T20:05:36","slug":"neuromyths-or-there-is-no-right-brainleft-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/?p=2454","title":{"rendered":"#Neuromyths &#8211; or There is No Right Brain\/Left Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dacha.com\/?attachment_id=2459\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2459\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2459\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dacha.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/AMERICANED_MC2_034-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/AMERICANED_MC2_034-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/AMERICANED_MC2_034-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/AMERICANED_MC2_034-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I overheard someone the other day talking to a companion about my &#8220;right brain&#8221; and was struck by how much detail this person went into &#8211; detail that is, scientifically speaking, completely untrue. The left brain\/right brain dichotomy that we ascribe to learners and learning typically translates into people think you&#8217;re left-brained if rational and objective or right-brained if intuitive and creative. Well, no, the brain does not work that way. It&#8217;s a neuromyth, which is a common misconception about the brain and brain research that we often ascribe to people and learning.<\/p>\n<p>I touched on this issue in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dacha.com\/?p=2410\">a post back in June<\/a>. What are some other common neuromyths?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A common sign of dyslexia is seeing letters backwards.<\/li>\n<li>Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style, such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.<\/li>\n<li>We only use 10% of our brain.<\/li>\n<li>The eating of sugar has a detrimental impact on attention.<\/li>\n<li>Playing brain-training games can help improve your memory, concentration, or intelligence.<\/li>\n<li>Brain development is finished by the time children reach puberty.<\/li>\n<li>Learning happens when new cells are added to the brain.<\/li>\n<li>Listening to classical music increases a child&#8217;s reasoning ability &#8211; also called the Mozart Effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can find more. Just Google &#8220;neuromyth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now, why bother worrying about this stuff? Well, there are teachers that hold on to these myths, even though they fly in the face of the research. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2012.00429\/full\">This 2012 study<\/a> conducted in the UK and Netherlands showed that 80% of teachers believed in the left brain\/right brain and learning styles myths. Think of the impact that those beliefs have on teaching, on how a classroom is constructed to be the most effective for students. Think too about how teachers might categorize students. That person that I overheard talking about his &#8220;right brain&#8221;? Did he have a teacher that put him in that bucket many years ago and he&#8217;s been there ever since, no matter that those buckets are not based in fact and research?<\/p>\n<p>Let me try and end this quick post more positively: Teachers that are well versed in the science of learning, that understand their students neuro-developmentally &#8211; it is they that will be more effective than those that do not. But understanding is just one important step. Crafting a classroom and pedagogy that align with this understanding is a next step &#8211; and a much more critical one &#8211; and arming students with knowledge about their own neuro-development is an important part of this work. There is a lot of talk these days about student agency, and to me the ultimate student agency is knowing how the brain, the organ of learning, works best.<\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of Allison Shelley\/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I overheard someone the other day talking to a companion about my &#8220;right brain&#8221; and was struck by how much detail this person went into &#8211; detail that is, scientifically speaking, completely untrue. The left brain\/right brain dichotomy that we &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/?p=2454\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,26,5,7,71],"tags":[649,648,644,647,650],"class_list":["post-2454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classroom","category-parents","category-school","category-school-district","category-teachers","tag-left-brain","tag-mozart-effect","tag-neuromyth","tag-neuromyths","tag-right-brain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2454"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions\/2462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dacha.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}