ROLE OF HEMISPHERES IN THINKING, LEARNING AND TEACHING STYLE

 ROLE OF HEMISPHERES IN THINKING, LEARNING AND TEACHING STYLE

        The brain is made up of two halves, or hemispheres – the left brain and the right brain. The brain is divided into two distinct and separate parts by a fold that runs from the front to the back. These parts are connected to each other by a thick cable of nerves at the base of each brain, called the corpus collosum. A good analogy is that of two separate, incredibly fast and immensely powerful computers, each running different programs from the same input, connected by a network cable, or the corpus collosum. The left hemisphere of our brain is “wired” to the right side of our body and vice versa. This even applies to our eyes, with information from our right eye going to the left hemisphere and information from our left eye feeding the right hemisphere.

Ø  Both sides of the brain can reason, but may use different strategies and one side may be dominant. This means when the brain is stressed, or asked to perform a function it may go on auto-pilot and reach to the dominant side to solve a problem, learn a skill, or perform a task.

Ø  It is not so much that we are biologically right brain or left brain dominant, but that we are more comfortable with the learning strategies characteristic of one over the other.

Ø   The left side is considered "the brain" of the brain, and controls final decisions concerning information gathered throughout the brain. It inhibits the right side's cognitive and decision-making processes. But because the hemisphere of our preferences probably has more neural connections, learning may occur faster in the dominant side.

 

Left Brain Functions2	Right Brain Functions
Uses logic	Uses feeling
Detail oriented	“Big pictures” oriented
Facts rule	Imaginations rules
Words and language	Symbols and images
Present and past	Present and future
Math and science	Philosophy and religion
Order/pattern perception	Spatial perception
Knows object name	Knows object function
Reality based	Fantasy based
Forms strategies	Presents possibilities
Practical	Impetuous
Safe	Risk taking

Most scientists and researchers seem to agree that there are definite differences in the way each hemisphere of the brain works. Essentially, the right brain is holistic, convergent, and able to ascertain the big picture. The right brain deals with emotions, feelings, creativity, and intuition. The left brain is linear, divergent, and focuses on one thing at a time. The left brain deals with more logical subject areas, such as mathematics and speech. Much of this knowledge is based upon the Nobel Prize winning research of Roger Sperry (Medicine, 1981). In the early 1960s Sperry conducted “split-brain” experiments on an epileptic individual who had undergone surgery to split the corpus collosum, thereby severing the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain. “The surgery revealed what Sperry described as ‘two spheres of consciousness’ locked in the one head, the left-hand side having speech and a rational, intellectual style, while the right was inarticulate, but blessed with special spatial abilities.” As a result of Sperry’s findings and subsequent studies, researchers believed they understood the various functions the right brain and the left brain controlled.

Linear and Holistic: Linear means part-to-whole. The left-brained person takes little pieces, lines them up, arranges them in logical order, and arrives at a convergent conclusion. The right-brained person thinks whole-to-part, holistically. The child with a dominant right hemisphere starts with the answer, a total concept, or perceives the whole pattern and discovers a divergent conclusion.

Symbolic and Concrete: Left-hemispheric children think in symbols; they deal with symbols, they can function with symbols. Right-hemispheric children deal with the concrete; they learn by doing, touching, moving, being in the middle of things

Sequential and Random: The left-brain approaches life sequentially, while the right brain floats randomly through life’s experiences.

Logical and Intuitive: (The) Logical (person) knows exactly where he gets his answers. He starts out with a little piece of information and logically works toward an end result. Right-brained children are intuitive; they are not logical. They pull the answers right out of the air. They can give you the answer to a long-division problem but they may not be able to work through the sequential steps.

Reality-based and Fantasy-oriented: Left-hemispheric children can deal with reality, with the way thing are. Left-hemispheric children are very much affected by the environment and will adjust to it. If something is presented to them, they will shift and react. If something is not there for left-hemispheric children, it doesn’t exist for them.

      Right-hemispheric children will try to change the environment, to make it shift and react to meet their needs in any way they know how. They deal with fantasy, with imagery, with imagination.

Temporal and Non-temporal: Left-hemispheric children have a sense of time. Right-hemispheric children have very little sense of time. They simply do not comprehend when you set time limits. They cannot think in any terms except the here and now.

ü Left brain students are good at linear and sequential processing, such as involved in language and mathematics.

ü Left brain students are also good at planning and following directions

ü Right brain students process information more holistically. They learn by understanding the big picture, not the details

ü Right brain students tend to be visual, not language oriented

ü Right brain students face difficulty following a lecture style class. they must take extensive notes, and use diagrams and drawings to make information more visual, to facilitate learning the information.

ü Left brain students are good note takers and list makers. They are good at planning and scheduling. That means they are good at completing assignments.

ü Right brain students tend to approach things randomly. They tend to not make study schedules, and jump around from one task to another without regard to priorities

ü Right brain students may be late with an assignment, not because they weren’t working hard, but because they were working on a lower priority assignment.

ü Right brain students’ needs extra effort in reading instructions to ensure they understand the assignment

ü Left brain students are better at writing and spelling, since it involves sequencing and organizing of letters and words

ü Right brain students require more time to write a paper and require more revisions to get it to say what they want to say

ü Right brain students must also rely more on spelling checkers and proof reading for their assignments

ü Right brain students tend to be more creative, but have more trouble than left brain students with the mechanics of writing and communicating.

LEFT BRAIN TEACHING TECHNIQUES

       Let’s say, for example, that you are introducing a unit on the solar system. Here are some left-brain teaching techniques that will help strong to moderate left-brain students feel engaged during your lesson:

1. Write an outline of the lesson on the board. Students with left-brain strengths appreciate sequence.
2. Go ahead and lecture! These students love to listen to an expert and take notes.
3.  Discuss vocabulary words and create a crossword puzzle on the Solar System.
4. Discuss the big concepts involved in the creation of the universe, how the solar system was formed, and so on. Left-brain students love to think about and discuss abstract concepts.
5. Assign individual assignments so students may work alone.
6. Ask the students to write a research paper on the solar system that includes both detail and conceptual analysis.
7.  Keep the room relatively quiet and orderly. Many students with left-brain strengths prefer not to hear other conversations when working on a stimulating project.

RIGHT BRAIN TEACHING TECHNIQUES

        Taking the solar system example, here are some right-brain teaching techniques that will help students with moderate to strong right-brain strengths get the most out of your lesson:

1. During the lecture, either write the main points on the board or pass out a study guide outline that students can fill in as you present orally. These visual clues will help students focus even though you are lecturing.
2.  Use the overhead, the white board, or the chalkboard frequently. Since the students are apt to miss the points discussed verbally, the visual pointers will help the students “see” and comprehend the points.
3.  Have some time for group activities during the week of the solar system study. Right-brain students enjoy the company of others.
4.  Let the students create a project (such as a poster, a mobile, a diorama, or paper machine planets of the solar system) in lieu of writing a paper. Right-brained students often have excellent eye-hand coordination.
5.  Play music, such as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Discuss how space might feel to an astronaut. Students with right-brain strengths are intuitive and like to get in touch with their feelings during the day.
6.  Bring in charts and maps of the universe and let the students find the Milky Way. Maps and graphs make use of the students’ strong right-brain visual-spatial skills.