You've probably heard the terms right-brained and left-brained, but have you ever considered how being right- or left-brained affects your students' learning? While having right or left brain dominance, also called hemispheric dominance, influences the way an individual learns, it does not mean that a left-brained person, for example, uses only the left side of his brain. Each one of us uses both hemispheres of the brain, and most activities and thoughts use both sides of the brain simultaneously. At the same time, we do have a preference for using one particular side especially when learning new or complex information.
Knowing your students' hemispheric dominance can be helpful is guiding them toward understanding and enjoyment of a subject. Right-brained learners differ from left-brained learners in the way they process information. Taking a new approach in your teaching methods can often make the difference between success and frustration.
The traditional approach of public schools greatly favors the left-brained learning process. You will probably find that most of your current methods of tutoring will nicely engage left-brained learners. You may also find that many students who need and seek tuition are right brain dominant. Let's take a look at how these two 'processing' styles work in the thinking and learning of an individual.
Right Brained
People who are dominantly right-brained tend to process information visually and intuitively. They look at information as a "whole" and have more difficulty breaking data down into parts or small details. These people enjoy creative outlets, such as painting, drawing, and music.
An important aspect in helping a right-brained student retain information is to give an overview or broad picture of a lesson before introducing the details. Find out what chapters or topics will soon be covered in your students' classes. Encouraging them to read the entire chapter beforethe teacher begins to cover the material in class. Reading to a student or taking turns reading to one another can be quite helpful, especially for younger children or students who need to improve their reading and comprehension skills. Giving this overview of the information will enable your right-brained student to grasp more of the small details during the teacher's lectures.
Those with right brain dominance are 'random' in their thought processes. You may find these students jumping from one topic to another in a seemingly haphazard fashion. (If you're predominantly left-brained, this can get confusing fast!) Try to be patient in your responses. Remember that this is the nature of your student's hemispheric dominance and not a defect. Impatience, irritation, or a harsh response will shut your student down and damage your student-tutor relationship.
Compensating for this random-thought pattern takes a little creativity. Sometimes setting up a way to physically walk through the steps of a task or formula can cement the sequence in a right-brainer's mind.
For example, if you're teaching the order of operations in mathematics (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction), a left-brained student will easily grasp the old phrase Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. A right-brained student, however, may have an easier time memorizing the sequence if he can walk through stations of each operation. Set up one table with equations in parentheses, another with exponent problems, and so on. If possible, use magnets, foam shapes, or other properly-shaped manipulatives for your right-brained student to touch and handle. Since the right side of the brain thrives on color, students may find it helpful to color code sequences or details such as dates. Read the article Learning Styles for more information on color-coding lessons.
Left-Brained
As previously mentioned, traditional teaching favors the left brain learning process. For your left-brained students, you may find that you don't need to change anything in your tutoring methods.
People with left-brain dominance enjoy thinking logically and processing words and language. These people remember names better than faces and often understand written directions better than reading a map. Left-brained learners thrive on details and directions. It is important to provide your left-brained students with clear, complete directions for any task.
Left-brained individuals enjoy using language, either written or oral, to express themselves. In mathematics, these people may benefit from applying word problems to all math problems. Talking about each problem and working it orally can be very beneficial.
Making lists is something that most students will left brain dominance will enjoy. Help your students to list upcoming lessons, quizzes, tests, and other class activities. Make lists of steps in a science experiment or the parts of an effective essay in order to help your student memorize the information.
No matter which hemispheric dominance your students have, you can adopt strategies to guide them toward academic success. Take the first tuition session to determine each student's learning preferences. At the next session, you can begin to incorporate teaching designed specifically for that student's needs and abilities.
ْ
________*التــَّـوْقـْـيـعُ*_________
لا أحد يظن أن العظماء تعساء إلا العظماء أنفسهم. إدوارد ينج: شاعر إنجليزي
أمس في 2:16 am من طرف freeman
