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Right Brain Teaching Technique |
Left-brain dominant people have the advantage in today's classroom. Over the years we have adapted very left-brain teaching techniques. There are several reasons why this has occurred. In New England the Puritans were first to establish a standardized educational approach in the United States. Their "spare the rod, and spoil the child" ethic demanded strict adherence to learning protocols of the day, which emphasized logic, lecture and rote memorization. Additionally for many years, males have dominated our educational institutions. As a function, learning in this system has become more hierarchical and competitive rather than collaborative and social. We can't forget an even earlier influencer (1450), when Gutenberg invented the printing press. Books would now become our primary learning source. It is not that books are not wonderful, but they do dispense learning in a very linear, verbal and left brain style.
Right-brain learners crave teaching methods that play to their creative thinking patterns. Visualization, lab experimentation, hands-on workshops, role-playing, and demonstrations work best for them. Here are some suggested right brain techniques for trainers and teachers who might want to mix it up a bit: Visualization: Beef up your learning materials by adding visuals; pictures, graphs, charts, diagrams, flow charts, mind maps. Have you heard of a technique called guided imagery? Put on some soft music and take your students on an imaginary journey into your subject matter. For example, the biology teacher that has his class becoming images of light which transform and travel through the receptors in the back of our retina, through the optical nerve and into our brain. Perhaps, the history teacher, who takes us on an imaginary journey through a field hospital during the civil war.
Incorporate and challenge participants to develop metaphors and analogies. Metaphors forge connections between two seemingly unrelated things. A car's fuel pump and the human heart, the kaleidoscopic nature of the right brain and the digital computer that is representative of the left brain. This is exactly how our brains process. We take what we already know and hook together, or assimilate it with the newly introduced knowledge. What results is a growth in our overall knowledge base. We rearrange our neural networks and establish new synaptic connections. Hey, a metaphor is a metaphor for how we learn! Introduce learning through auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic learning. Sometimes we just need to do a thing to understand it. Imagine twelve sticks all of equal size. Arrange them to form three squares. Do you see them? Now, can you use the sides of the squares (the sticks) to create eight squares? It is difficult to do in your mind, but given the sticks, the task becomes much easier. I recently did this in a classroom setting. I posed the problem, and then tried to hand out sets of twelve sticks (a helpful prop). The first three people refused them. Why? Kids need help to learn with sticks and colorful learning aids. We're adults, and we are suppose to use logic, our minds or so says our left-brain educational system.
One final idea from the right! Collaborate, be social, and learn in groups. H. M Levine of Stanford University experimented with computer learning. He found that when peers worked together, to mentor and support one another as they learned, this technique was (4) times more effective than individual computer-based instruction. It was also more effective than reducing class size or lengthening the time dedicated to instruction.
| You might be a right brain thinker if you… |
You might be a left brain thinker if you… |
1. When speaking, you use many gestures.
2. In the past you've wonder if you just might be psychic.
3. When you're shopping and see something you want to buy, you BUY IT.
4. You and clutter appear to be close friends.
5. You find yourself often juggling many projects at once.
6. Words at times exit your mouth before reaching your mind.
7. Liars don't like you because you usually know they're lying |
1. Come hell or high water, you stick to the schedule.
2. You measure twice, and then cut once.
3. Neither math nor science is a match for you.
4. Are never late, NO NEVER!
5. You have a place for everything and put everything in its place.
6. …and those who move things from their proper place are taking their lives into their own hands.
7. Sit up when you read, doesn't everyone? |
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