How children's brains think: Not left or right but both together

Abstract

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.

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John Geake

John Geake lectures at the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University, UK.