Middle School Life
Welcome to Middle School Life, where innovation meets education! Join us as we explore the latest trends, share inspiring ideas, and discuss strategies to create an enriching middle school experience for all.
In each episode, your hosts, Assistant Principal Victoria Hammond and middle school teacher Dr. Jennifer Erdmann, will bring their wealth of knowledge and passion for education to the forefront.
Middle School Life
The Myth of Learning Styles and the Reality of Brain Power
Ever clung to the idea that we're either 'left-brained' or 'right-brained'? Prepare to have your mind expanded as we dissect and dismantle some of the most stubborn educational myths out there. Our conversation takes a deep dive into the fallacy of learning styles—auditory, visual, kinesthetic—and how they fail to hold up under scientific scrutiny. Despite their popularity, these categories don't necessarily enhance educational outcomes, and we explore the negative impact of pigeonholing students based on this myth. We also unpack the myths' influence on teaching materials and dialogue with parents, pushing for a teaching approach that incorporates a rich tapestry of learning modalities instead.
Then, say goodbye to the myth that we only use 10% of our brains! Neuroscience has come a long way, and we're excited to clarify just how much of our grey matter is at work, even during the simplest of tasks. We tackle the misconceptions surrounding brain usage and the unfounded concept of tapping into latent cerebral powers to become superhuman. Also on the chopping block is the binary of the left-brained analytical thinker versus the right-brained creative—together, we'll explore why this is not only inaccurate but also a gross underestimation of our brain's incredible capacity for adaptability and growth. Join us as we challenge these outdated notions, embracing the true complexity and dynamism of the brain in the process.
Welcome back to middle school life, the podcast, your trusted source for navigating the challenges and triumphs of middle school education. And today we're going to dive into the fascinating world of educational myths as we work to debunk and provide some clarifications on some very common popular educational myths, some myths that even when I was looking at today I was like who, who? This isn't true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because a lot of the stuff that we're going to talk about today is so, so pervasive throughout education that many people that are going to listen may not.
Speaker 1:When I looked at your paper and saw your topic I was like that's totally a thing. I give my kids surveys every year.
Speaker 2:Everybody does it. So we'll get to that in a second. So I'm going to go ahead and start and I think that that we've kind of taken the safe route a little bit and we've talked about a lot of stuff that may not be I don't want to use the word controversial but lend itself to great debates.
Speaker 2:Right so but I think, maybe today, that it can, and that's what I'm hoping for, because the reason behind this whole podcast is to start these conversations. So one of the myths that I've believed is a myth is this myth of learning styles, and typically the what we define the learning styles refers to the concept that individuals differ in regards to what mode of instruction or study is most effective for them, and you mentioned earlier that you've given your kids surveys, and I think we've either all taken this survey or given our students these surveys to determine whether or not they are auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners. And that's actually it's a myth, and I'm going to hopefully debunk it and explain why it's a myth. One of the key arguments against the validity of learning styles is the lack of empirical evidence supporting this idea. There have been numerous studies that have failed to find consistent and reliable evidence that tailoring instruction to match individual learning styles somehow improves the learning outcomes. I think the one of the reasons why it is so pervasive through education is it makes it easier.
Speaker 2:I guess We've talked about that on almost every episode about labeling students. This is just another one of those ways that you can label a kid a visual learner and auditory or kinesthetic, and it's not to say that they don't learn that, but it's not. The myth is that they don't learn any better. I have a preferred way I like to learn things. You have a preferred way you like to learn things, but it's your ability, not your preference, that we need to focus on.
Speaker 1:And just to add in, exactly what you're saying is something that just came to mind from like an admin perspective and I'm pretty sure as educators you have also heard. This is when you have a parent email or a parent come to you and say, well, they're just, they don't learn from that teacher's teaching style, or they only learn when they have images, or they only learn auditorial. And I think that's one of the things that kind of came to mind and I'm really interested to see what your research says about this, because I think it could also be useful for parents to know.
Speaker 2:Right, and so going along with that, there's another the reason why we've embraced the learning styles. It's really cool and appealing to think that all people have the potential to learn effectively and easily, if only instruction is tailored to their individual learning. So if you label students oh they're auditory, so well, I'm teaching them in that style, obviously they're going to learn it. That's not necessarily the case, and I think that's that's actually very dangerous.
Speaker 1:That is so dangerous. And the way you just said that and explained it like even me sitting over here I'm like, wow, that's so impactful, even if I'm a student listening to this or a parent, I'm like, oh well, no, I guess sometimes I can learn when I am watching something, or maybe I can learn when I'm doing something. Or maybe sometimes I listen to something and I don't understand it and I need to see it in another modality. And I think keeping things diverse is probably going to be.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think our classroom should be multi modalities. I mean, I think that if you give kids a survey to see how they learn, that's really a waste of your time. Right, and the classroom should be let them learn in various ways and a total variety of ways.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If there's no evidence that states that matching or meshing instruction to someone's self reported learning style positively affects their ability to learn new information. Wow, think about how wide widely that is believed. Oh, I've got that. So it is incredibly widely believed. And here you go. Participants in this one particular study believe that people learn better when instruction is matched to their learning styles. Nearly 100% of educators, either veteran or trainer trainees, believe that learning styles is real. And I will tell you this I can't. I just recently took my reading K through 12 tests, became reading certified. I probably inappropriate for me to tell you whether or not there were learning styles questions on that test, but what I will tell you for sure is all of the study materials discuss that. All the study material, books I purchased and did online reference learning styles. So people are out there making millions of dollars on professional development, on training for teachers, on surveys.
Speaker 1:when it is all, a myth, I know because it's a podcast you can't see right now. But literally my jaw is to the floor, mouth wide open. I hope there are no flies in here.
Speaker 2:It's often promoted by districts and I just think that that's it's a bad, really bad path to go down.
Speaker 1:I agree, and I think it's. It sometimes leads people to be like, oh well, this teacher isn't teaching them auditorily, so now they're not going to learn it. And I also think that maybe sometimes the teacher our teachers are finding good results when they do teach kids in different varieties, but maybe that's just because they're a good qualified teacher and they're teaching the material to the standard in an engaging way and that's why the students are learning it. It's not necessarily the modality, because in life you have to be able to learn things in different ways. And so, even though some kids maybe because they're more energetic, like learning things more kinesthetically, does that really mean that they don't learn auditorial or visually like or visually Any better? Like?
Speaker 2:again. Getting back to the research, thing which I love is there's no research Exists, no research exists that say that these work, that it it's actually helps learning and it's so widely believed, which is, yes, mind-boggling. Yep, and again it gets. We've all, we've all used these like it just really start.
Speaker 1:I know I'm going down a complete conspiracy rabbit hole right now, but looking at the educational myths today and listening to what you just said just makes me think so much about how many things are just so culturally prevalent or so Engrained in the stories that have been told to me or you throughout our lives that we believe to be true because we've heard them over and over Again to be fact, and how many of those things we believe to be fact are actually more opinion-based but because we've heard it over and over and over again, our minds like trick us into thinking some things are fact that really are not.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, exactly, and I know what Tori's gonna talk about. Is is such a deep, deep topic that in our 30, we try to keep these into 30 minutes and there's just no way we're just hitting it, barely scratching the surface on this. So, you know, I encourage you to look it up yourselves, and I'll share some of this and on social after we release the episode, but I'd love to hear what everybody else is thinking on this. Maybe you totally disagree with me, and that's great. Just let's have a conversation about it. So you've got some really great Myths that you're going to debunk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I'm extremely excited about this episode because it marries like two of my favorite things, which happens to be education and the brain. Some of the stuff I was reading today was like reminding me of my good old days in science, and actually I don't know if I've shared this with our listeners yet, but prior to becoming an educator actually got a degree in health sciences. So whenever we start talking about science pseudo science, mri, I'm like what did she just say?
Speaker 1:she was like getting all giddy and we are gonna learn pseudo science Because one of the standards I had to teach was what's the difference between science and pseudo science, the two myths I'm gonna look out today? Is we have proved these to be true, using using pseudo science. And pseudo science is basically a practice of science, where you take a bunch of different Evidences from a bunch of different things and you try to put them all together and say, oh, here's my scientific proof that this is what is occurring, but when in all reality, you do not have enough evidence to support your claim, it's more of a belief based evidence, if you will. So pseudo meaning Non-existent science, when best practices in science mean that this has been proven Over and over and over again to be true. And I could start talking about laws versus theories, but I digress.
Speaker 1:So how many of you have ever watched the movie limitless? I've not seen it. You have not seen it. So any of you who have seen the movie Limitless or if you have not, it has Bradley Cooper in it Very good movie I would recommend. I haven't seen it in a while. But basically, what happens in this movie is that he is given a pill and when he takes this pill he taps into his limitless potential and he can do anything, he can answer anything, he can see anything. He is using 100% of his brain and he is far superior to any other human. So I've watched that movie and I have heard this before and I was just wondering, dr Min, if you've heard of this before, have you ever heard the myth that humans only use 10% of their brain capacity, perpetuating that idea that unlocking the remaining 90% would lead to enhanced cognitive ability or psychic powers?
Speaker 2:I actually have heard that quite a bit and I didn't realize that it was a myth. So that's been around for a long time. That, oh my gosh. Can you imagine what would happen if we actually used more of our brain?
Speaker 1:Right. Because we're only using 10%, correct, I have heard that umpt times I couldn't even tell you how many.
Speaker 2:So I believe it's true. Right, I believed it was true.
Speaker 1:I almost still believe it's true, but listen to this. So science tells us, with imaging and MRIs of the brain, that when you look at the brain, when we're engaged in simple tasks, our brains are actively engaged. Multiple parts of our brains are firing. You can see that there's multiple parts of the brains that are lighting up when they're doing those MRIs, and there's actually no scientific evidence to support the idea that we're only using a small portion of our brains. In fact, our brains are constantly buzzing with activity, even when we're not actively doing anything. So I looked up how can we think of this from an educational perspective? So if it were true that we were using only 10% of our brains, why would we spend so much time learning and studying? Wouldn't it make more sense for us to just focus on unlocking that unused 90%?
Speaker 1:of our brain, because then we would be able to function better. So the truth is that our brains have evolved over millions of years and they become. Every year they evolve even more, they're becoming more specialized and heavily adaptable, and they do. Our brain does everything, but neuroscientists have mapped out the different functions in the different regions of the brain, and while it's true that we can change and adapt over time, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that we are only scratching the surface of the brain's potential.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 1:I know because I've been told my entire life that, no, like, you're only using 10% of your brain.
Speaker 2:So I know you and I both like to think we're kind of smart. We like to think so. Yes, I'm wondering, though how much of my brain am I using? Am I using 95% of this? Is this smart as I'm going to get?
Speaker 1:Right or like. Is there a different percentage or is it basically like I think?
Speaker 2:science I think scientifically.
Speaker 1:They're saying like unless you have some type of a cognitive disability or if there's something else like you, your brain is working at full functioning until there are deficits or chunks taken out of it.
Speaker 2:So what you're saying is we are at max capacity all the time. I don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:I actually kind of um, it almost sits better with me knowing I've only used 10% of my brain, so I mean I.
Speaker 1:There's no damage, really, other than a belief in pseudoscience. But basically, while the idea of unlocking all of this untapped brain potential may be appealing, it lacks significant scientific validity and it can lead to unrealistic expectations or exploitation by scientific claims pseudo scientific claims claiming that if you take this pill you could unlock the other 90% of your brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So educating the public about the true capabilities and limitations of the human brain is essential for dispelling myths and promoting accurate scientific understanding. Okay, but I also would like to say the more you work it and the more you practice it, you are going to be able to grow the brain so that you understand more things. But the basic functioning and capabilities of the brain are what they are, and then what you decide to use and practice would increase your knowledge per se, but not your brain itself.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But the other thing I was going to say was more than ever, do I want our listeners to chime in on what your thoughts are on this. Did you believe this to be true your entire lives until just now? Because I know that I did. And moving into that next one, jen, dr Edmond, are you left brain or right brain? Yeah, okay, so how do you act? What is being seen as called display in the Wash裡面?
Speaker 2:You know, I've heard this too, and I tend to be more. I guess I'd be left brained because I tend to be more logical. I'm not artsy. Well, I want to be Right, you try. Right, I do try Anyway. So I tend to be more logical. So I would consider myself left brained.
Speaker 1:Right and listeners. What would you say you are? Are you more? Are you more left brained, more logical and analytical, or are you more creative and intuitive or right brained? Well, the answer to that is wrongo, because the myth that people are predominantly left or right brained, and that's what influences their learning preferences or learning styles and abilities, has been dispelled.
Speaker 2:Dispelled and debunked.
Speaker 1:Debunked and dispelled. This is disappointing to me because, like I'm pretty sure that I have a case on my computer that's like left brain, right brain, which I think is still a good, maybe analogy when we're looking at, you know, fixed mindset versus growth mindset, some mindset more than anything. But I can tell you that I have been very upset after reading this and the 10% or, but also very enlightened. So let's take a second to think about how our brains work while we're learning, when we look into MRI imaging and we're working through tough subjects like math or language arts. Both of our brains, both sides of our brains, rather, if you have two brains, please call us, we want you to be our next guest.
Speaker 1:Both sides of our brains are firing away and even though math is often associated with the left brain when people are studying math, areas in the right side still light up when crunching numbers. Anytime we're processing anything cognitively, there are complex interactions between both hemispheres of the brain. When studied, there was never one side that was predominantly lit up when participating in different activities. Also, individuals may possess a wide range of cognitive strengths and preferences, but that is not necessarily categorized by whether your left brain functions harder than the right side of your brain. The left brain myth has been widely criticized by neuroscientists and psychologists for oversimplifying the complexities of the brain.
Speaker 2:And the psychologists and neuroscientists were also part of the debunking process for learning styles. Absolutely so it's funny how we both kind of come to this circle.
Speaker 1:Right and it just says it. It says it right here. It says basically you're just wrong. It says you're oversimplifying the complexities of the brain and even the most recent scientific evidence and research shows that there is a holistic interaction between both hemispheres for any functioning and, rather than having a left brain or a right brain, we simply have brains, or most of us do.
Speaker 2:And I wonder, hearing you say left brain, right brain, and you know, as long as I can remember, that's been a thing. Yeah, forever, forever. And I wonder how that's limited people over the years, how much that influenced people. It's the left brain, right brain, learning styles, 10% brain. How much that has influenced people in the wrong way?
Speaker 1:Right, that's crazy that you said that, because it literally ties in to some of the final remarks I have to say on the subject. So, if we look at it exactly like you just looked at it, think about at school all of the amazing things we get to learn and explore every day, from solving equations to writing stories, to conducting science experiments. Students minds are buzzing with activity and here's the best part If they can understand that they are using both sides of their brains and that they are capable of learning anything Instead of thinking I'm not a math person, I'm not creative or I can't draw that they can celebrate their brain power and push themselves to try new things and might even discover talents they never had. Perfect.
Speaker 2:Very well said.
Speaker 1:So how do we dispel these beliefs? I feel so strongly that it is now our mission to provide the world with this actual science and rid them of these pseudo scientific beliefs, because how many people's potential could we impact by telling them that you are using more than 10% of your brain? You're more than just left brain or right brain in your learning style. Just goes to how much you want to learn and how much effort and perseverance you put forth, and you are so much more than what anybody ever tells you. You have to be. You do not have to fit in a box. You can reach way outside of that box and become anything that you set your mind to Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We've talked about this so much, but we have to stop putting these kids in boxes, period, stop putting teachers in boxes. But again it just. I'm just totally blown away by left brain, right brain.
Speaker 1:I feel like all of the myths today and all the things we got to talk about were extremely enlightening and we could not thank you guys enough for tuning into today's episode of middle school life, the podcast. Remember that our brains are incredible, adaptable and full of untapped potential. So go out there, help us dispel these myths, keep learning and keep challenging yourselves.
Speaker 2:I just want to say, as always until next time, keep learning, keep growing and keep making a difference in the lives of your students.
