The Left Brain Vs the Right Brain: How Does This Impact Learning - Research Paper Example

The Left Brain Vs the Right Brain: How Does This Impact Learning? The human brain is the most complex organ; composed of roughly 100 billion nerves which communicate through connections known as synapses. The brain is made up of various specialized parts that work jointly (Maed & Ba, 2011). It controls movements, senses, behavior and intelligence. The brain consists of two hemispheres- the “right brain” and the “left brain." The two sides are responsible for different functions and use a band of nerves to pass information between them. The hypothesis of the left and right brain emerged from the work of Roger .W. Sperry, who received the Nobel Prize in 1981.the brain’s right side is mostly responsible for the movement and functioning of the body’s left side while the brain’s left side is responsible for the function and movement of the body’s right side (Roger, 2013). Brain dominance is a term that is used in distinguishing individuals; whether they are right brained or left brained. Individuals tend to have a natural preference of using either their left or right side of the brain in processing information. This is what is referred to as brain dominance. Brain dominance gives clear explanations as to why someone acts the way they do, reacts the way they do, learn the way they do and feel. Each and every cell is controlled by our brain making our brain control the way we think, see, hear, learn and understand things. The left and right brain impact learning in various ways. Individuals who use their left hemisphere of the brain are considered to be: time cautious when in class, to be analytical, organized in their work, tend to be more cautious, are guided by rules and schedules, are very good in topics such as mathematics and sciences and are quick in answering questions (Iaccino, 2014). For left brain students, they tend to perform well when they are learning on their own. They prefer to study independently and use done research when compiling their work. The reason as to why they incorporate research in their work is because they make their decisions based on Logics. Left brain students also prefer learning in classrooms that are not noisy and have minimal distractions. They are considered to be better when it comes to writing. This is based on the knowledge that the left hemisphere of the brain is attentive to writing skills such as punctuation, sentence agreement and also word spelling. Left brain students also find it easier to learn subjects such as mathematics and science. This is because of their nature of dealing with things in reality and their urge to know rules and follow them. Mathematics is a subject that has formulas and science deals with facts, making the subjects easy for them to learn. Individuals using their right hemisphere of the brain are considered not to be time cautious, are daydreamers, deep thinkers and very intelligent, perform very well in art subjects and social sciences, tend to be guided with their gut feeling when making decisions, spontaneous in their actions, are able to discern lies or tricks easily, find it easy to recognize faces, are creative and can easily express themselves verbally (Iaccino, 2014). For the right brain, students favor working in groups. They get more involved in projects. They are more creative in class, example being a right-brained student may favor designing a mobile instead of writing a tiresome term paper. When it comes to writing, right-brained students are attentive to sentence meaning and coherence. When learning, the student may have a clue of what they want to say but in many occasions have difficulties in getting the right words to use. They enjoy subjects like art. This is because they tend to back up almost everything visually. Example being, and one may find that each time a right-brained student is taught a new concept they tend to draw so as to understand the concept they are being taught. The neurological profile of teachers also has an impact on learning. Left brained teachers are likely to teach their students using the “left brain style” and the same goes for right-brained teachers who tend to teach using “right brain style”(Iaccino, 2014). When a student and teacher have the same neurological strength, the learning process is made much easier since it requires little effort to reach the students. When they have different neurological strengths, like a left-brained teacher and a right-brained student, the teacher will be required to put in more conscious effort so as to be able to reach the student effectively. The neurological profile of a teacher may impact the learning process either negatively or positively. Left brained students and right-brained students prefer to learn in accordance to their neurological strengths. Even though they are able to learn to use various methods, they participate more and are more excited when they are able to learn by their neurological strength. By using the left brain style in teaching the teachers favor teaching by giving lectures and discussions. To include sequence in their methods, the teachers put outlines on boards and give handouts to the students and prefer giving lectures according to the agreed time schedule. The teacher's present problems to students for them to solve independently. They give their students assignments that deal with research and more writing as compared to their fellow right brained teachers. They give their lectures in quiet classrooms that are well organized with everything in place and very tidy. Right brained teachers basically favor to employ hands-on activities rather than giving lectures or discussions. They like students to get involved in the learning process so as to gain practical experience. They include more art, images, manipulative, and music in their lectures. They also prefer to give their student group projects to get each and every one of them to participate. They like giving their lectures in classrooms that are more active, quite noisy and busy. The classrooms are not that organized and one may find books scattered everywhere. According to research, we can be able to strengthen the weaker side of our brains. This is because brains are constantly looking for new ways and adding more neural circuits so as to make connections (Hopper, 2012). Teachers can be able to modify their teaching methods so as to suit all students. Left brained teachers can incorporate videos, art, group work, images, overheads, group projects and music in their teaching plans. Right brained teachers can also include lectures and give more individual work. The teachers can also give various assignments for the students to chose. To sum this discussion up, recent research has show that or brains are not as dichotomous as once perceived (Rogers, 2013). An example of a research that has been used to prove this is; the competence of students in subjects such as mathematics is greatest when both hemispheres of the brain function in unity. Neuroscientists are aware that the two hemispheres perform various tasks together and use the corpus callosum to communicate. References Hopper, C. (2012). Practicing College Learning Strategies. Cengage Learning. Iaccino,J.F.(2014).Left Brain-Right Brain Differences: Inquiries, Evidence, and New Approaches. Psychology Press. Maed, S.J.D &Ba. (2011). Whole Brain Learning Theory in Education. Author House. Rogers,M.(2013). Researchers Debunk Myth of Right Brain and Left Brain Personality Traits. University of Utah. Read More