ERIC Number: EJ939648
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0300-4279
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Available Date: N/A
How Children's Brains Think: Not Left or Right but Both Together
Geake, John
Education 3-13, v32 n3 p65-72 2004
The burgeoning interest over recent decades about the human brain, and possible implications for education, has, perhaps not surprisingly, fostered a suite of urban myths about brain functioning. The prize for the barmiest goes to the one about using only 10% of the brain, but there are plenty more that deserve dishonourable mention. The most insidious from an educational perspective is that children engage exclusively in either left- or right-brain thinking. Regrettably, such nonsense is commonly pedalled in CPD presentations, at quite some expense to schools and LEAs, by enthusiasts who apparently lack the scientific background to interrogate the relevant neuroscience literature at the depth necessary to convey both the real complexities of brain functioning, and the caveats on extrapolating from laboratory to classroom. The brain processes which do underpin thinking, learning, creating and feeling are far more interesting and wondrous than is recognised in such over-simplistic accounts as left- and right-brain thinking. Teachers deserve to be treated as the sophisticated professionals that they are; presentations to teachers of accounts of brain functioning which have implications for education should acknowledge the complexities involved, and embrace the attendant caveats. (Contains 1 note.)
Descriptors: Brain, Child Development, Brain Hemisphere Functions, Misconceptions, Cognitive Processes, Cognitive Ability, Neurology
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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