Neuromyths and Learning Styles

Common Misunderstandings About Learning and the Brain

• A small group of scientists study in detail how learning occurs in the brain, while the general population knows that children need to be taught.
• Teachers are enthusiastic about what cognitive psychology and neuroscience have to offer to education.
• Misunderstandings about learning and the brain often arise when information is taken out of context and condensed into simplified overgeneralizations.
• Neuromyths are common misunderstandings about the brain that start from a grain of truth.
• Two students in Yana’s lab identified ten most common misunderstandings about learning and the brain from 12 empirical papers.
• The belief that environments rich in stimuli improve the brains of pre-school children is a common misunderstanding.
• The idea of enriched environments for children may have come from a misapplication of studies performed in other species, such as rats.
• Overly decorated classrooms can lead to a decrease in learning relative to more sparsely decorated classrooms, due to potential for distraction.
• The belief that individuals have distinct learning styles is a common misunderstanding.
• The idea of learning styles may have originated from the concept of multiple intelligences, which suggests that individuals have different strengths in various areas.
• The belief that we only use 10% of our brain is a common misunderstanding.
• The belief that short bouts of co-ordination exercises can improve integration of the left and right hemispheres of the brain is a common misunderstanding.