Eric Jensen at Jensen Learning jensenlearning.com, claims that scientists no longer refer to left brain or right brain labels , but now use the term ‘relative lateralisation’ because the brain is designed to process spatially from left to right hemispheres and also from the back to the front of the brain. On most days we use most of our brain most of the time, however the left and right hemispheres have very different functions, which Jensen has demonstrated in this table below.
| Left brain dominant learners
usually |
Right brain dominant learners
usually |
|
|
Jensen states that the left hemisphere processes information in parts, in sequence using text and language representations and the right hemisphere tends to process information as a whole, in random order within a spatial context. Richard Davidson (1992) found that the right hemisphere is activated by negative emotions and the left hemisphere is activated by positive emotions. People with more left hemisphere activations tend to be more positive than people with right hemisphere dominance.
The left hemisphere controls movement on the right side of the body and the right hemisphere controls movement on the left side of the body.
Some left and right brain myths:
- the notion that some people are ‘left brained’ and some people are ‘right brained’
- assumptions such as the ‘left brain being logical and the right brain being creative’ are outdated.
- music is a right brain activity
(REF: JENSEN, E. BRAIN BASED LEARNING)
Tracey Hand
C0-Founding Director
Optimise Learning Australia
