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Well I'm No Einstein but... |
Are you a right brain or left brain thinker? Let me ask you a couple of questions. When speaking, do you use many hand gestures? Or when reading a magazine do you simply jump into whatever article grabs your fancy rather than starting from the beginning and reading to the end? Are you typically running late for your appointments? At work do you juggle ten tasks at once, rather than taking them one at a time? Well, you might be a right brain thinker (Jeff Foxworthy pun).
The reality is of course, we use both the right and left hemisphere functionality of our brain. However it is true that all of us do process information differently from one another. Some of us lean left, using more verbal processing methods. The brain's left hemisphere takes on tasks in sequence or processes linearly. It prefers a more formal study design, responds well to logic and likes to plan ahead. Others are more visual, enjoy conceptualizing, respond to emotion, and have a tendency to be impulsive. These folks would definitely fit into the right brain camp. Most of us use a combination of what I am referencing as right brain and left brain functions.
It should then make good sense to both trainers and teachers that learning can be enhanced for everyone, if we use both right brain and left brain teaching techniques. I recommend a book by Linda Verlee Williams entitled Teaching for the Two – Sided Mind. Williams informs us that a right brain/left brain combination punch is really a win/win for us all. Right brain learners will finally experience teaching techniques that better fit the way they process information. Left brain learners can explore new methods of learning and expand how they learn.
For several reasons however, right brain teaching techniques which include a vast array of interesting approaches (visuals, demonstrations, metaphor and analogy, multi-sensory learning, field trips, problem solving, role-play, music and many more) are not frequently used in the classroom. They are typically more learner-centered, and initially require more work and creativity on the part of the teacher or trainer to deliver. However, the improvement in learner retention would certainly be well worth the effort...
I offer this one outstanding example. It is well known that Albert Einstein, the man who literally rewrote the laws of physics and gave to us his Special Theory of Relativity, was verbally challenged in his childhood. Being deficient in his ability to process verbally, Einstein adapted, developing a more visual and right brain approach. In 1905, Einstein, as a young man, wrestles with the incompatibility of two universally accepted theories (Newton Theory of Light Waves and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism). Riding in a streetcar in Bern, Switzerland (He was employed in the Patent Office) he gazes back at the famous clock tower that dominated this city. He imagined what would happen if his streetcar raced away from the clock tower at the speed of light. He realized that the clock would appear stopped, since light could not catch up to the streetcar but his own clock in the streetcar would continue to tick off seconds. Weeks later he develops his famous equation Energy equals Mass times the Speed of Light Squared... He visualized a solution to the problem and effectively rewrote our understanding of the Universe. Einstein later writes to describe his thought process.
Paraphrased "The words or the language as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs or more or less clear images which can be voluntarily reproduced and combined. These elements are of the visual type. Conventional words have to be sought for laboriously, when the above mentioned (images) are sufficiently established and can be reproduced at will."
Einstein's amazing ability alone seems to suggest good reason to explore right brain teaching techniques. I've listed and explained a few of these techniques below for your consideration. |
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