"Neuromyths" in Education

Paul A. Howard Jones in ”Neuroscience and Education: Myths and Messages”  describes the neuromyths that have leaked into teacher education schools and the teaching corps.. (Neuromyth: “a misconception generated by a misunderstanding, a misreading or a misquoting of facts scientifically established [by brain research] to make a case for use of brain research in education and other contexts.”) Dr. Howard further describes neuromyths as stemming from “uninformed interpretations of genuine scientific facts [that] are promoted by victims of their own wishful thinking.”

The paper gets pretty technical, but relevant here is the prevalence of neuromyths among teachers. The paper includes a chart of the percentage of teachers from the U.K., the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, and China who believe in these misconceptions of the way students learn. It’s a pretty fair guess that these that many U.S. teachers, as well as much of the public, fall for these myths too.

Here’s a few education neuromyths:

• We mostly only use 10% of our brain.
• Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (for example, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).
• Short bouts of co-ordination exercises can improve integration of left and right hemispheric brain function.
• Differences in hemispheric dominance (left brain or right) can explain individual differences among learners.
• Children are less attentive after sugary drinks and snacks.