Water is brain food.
Right-brained learners are more creative.
Boys and girls have different brains.
Which one of these statements is a fact, and which are “neuromyths?” Brain-based learning claims abound in the popular press, challenging anyone searching for the best ways to nurture children.
Twenty-six experts in the new field of Mind, Brain, and Education Science joined forces in 2008 to sort the facts from the myths about the brain and learning (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2008). They found only five well-established facts and dozens of “neuromyths.”
Facts:
1) Human brains are as unique as faces; the basic structure is the same though no two are identical. Though general patterns exist regarding how learning transpires and which brain areas are involved, each brain is uniquely organized.
2) Brains are not equal in their ability to solve problems. Context and abilities influence learning. Context includes the learning environment, motivation for the topic of new learning, and prior knowledge.
3) The brain is a complex, dynamic, and integrated system that is constantly changed by experience, though most of this change is only evident at a microscopic level. This means you will go to bed tonight with a different brain from the one you had when you awoke this morning.
4) Human brains have high degree of plasticity and develop throughout the lifespan, though there are major limits on this plasticity, and these limits increase with age. Plasticity means that the brain molds to what it is exposed to most (which has major implications for attention spans and children who spend a great deal of time with screens rather than books or people).
5) Connecting new information to prior knowledge facilitates learning.
What about the other claims listed earlier?
Water is brain food. Myth. This stemmed from the fact that about seventy-five percent of the body and brain is water. Some researchers suggest that allowing students to drink water in class helps restore the body to its natural state. This presumes that the body is “out of balance” due to a lack of water, which in some cases may be true. Some teachers encourage their students to drink in class. It has been argued, however, that students seem more alert after having a drink of water not because they needed to re-hydrate their brains, but rather because the water break provides a chance to refocus.
Right-brained learners are more creative. Myth. Humans have only one brain, consisting of a right and left hemisphere. Ninety-five percent of right handed people and seventy percent of left handed people have similarly structured brains. However, there are many learning systems in the brain, most based on skill areas, not on left and right hemisphere division. According to Bruer (1998; 1999), the right-brain, left-brain claim is an “educator’s myth” (e.g., Freed & Parsons, 1998; Halary & Weintrayub, 1991) and is used as a convenient way of boxing instructional theory.
Boys and girls have different brains. Fact. It is logical to presume that just as men and women’s overall physiology differs that parts of the brain differ as well. Neuroscientists have offered the most information in this area, while psychologists have debated the genus of differences between genders, and educators have worked hard to eliminate them. Neuroscientists have noted that a small area of the prefrontal cortex, a part of the limbic system (the hypothalamus), and the corpus callosum are larger in women. On the other hand, a small area of the amygdala related to arousal and threat response is larger in men (Kimura, 2002). Also, men’s brains are slightly larger than women’s on average. However, there are no conclusive studies showing that these physical differences translate into different learning abilities.
Enthusiasm for new information is good, but we need to avoid the allure of “quick fixes” in education unless they have solid evidence behind them. Suzanne Begley noted in her article, Beware of the cognitive brain paparazzi lurking in brain science labs (2005), that educators are sometimes guilty of grabbing onto cure-alls offered in the popular press without properly judging the quality of the information. Enthusiasm should partner with healthy skepticism in the careful examination of new instructional practices.
References:
Bruer, J. (1998). Brain science, brain fiction. Educational Leadership, 56(3), 14-19.
Bruer, J. (1999). In search of … brain-based education. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(9), 648-657.
Retrieved on July 20, 2007 from www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbru9905.htm
Begley, S. (2005). Beware of the cognitive brain paparazzi lurking in brain science labs. Wall Street Journal, Science section, (Mar 18). Retrieved on 14 September 2007 on http://agelessmarketing.typepad.com/ageless_marketing/2005/03/beware_of_cogni.html
Freed, J. & Parsons, L. (1998). Right-brained children in a left-brained world: Unlocking the potential of your ADD child. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Halary, K. & Weintrayub, P. (1991). Right-brain learning in 30 days. New York: St. Martin’s Press Kimura, D. (August 2002). Sex Differences in the Brain. Scientific American, 32-34.
Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2008). The scientifically substantiated art of teaching: A study in the development of standards in the new academic field of neuroeducation (mind, brain, and education science). Dissertation (Ph.D.), Capella University, MN. AAT 3310716. Retrieved from http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/pqdt.shtml on 27 December 2008.
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Thanks, this is a new interest for me and I appreciate the explanations here.