Teachers' Beliefs and Practices Regarding Neuromyths

Educators are being called upon to be equal contributors and collaborators within the emerging field of mind, brain, and education, which is a trans-disciplinary field that seeks to unite education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience in a quest to address educational issues. In the wake of the excitement that resulted from the advancement of neuroimaging techniques in the nineties, a flurry of publishing occurred with several manuals being written on how to use the findings of neuroscience in the classroom. As many excitedly and perhaps somewhat desperately embraced these manuals within the context of the Age of Accountability, several neuromyths emerged or collective beliefs in falsehoods about how neuroscientific findings could be applied in the classroom. The literature is rife with assumptions and condemnations of educators for embracing brain-based education without a substantial amount of skepticism and critical consumerism, yet little research exists regarding educators' actual beliefs. So the purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine and explore if and to what extent teachers' beliefs regarding education contained neuromyths and how this has affected teachers' practices in XYZ School District. Of the 161 participants that were surveyed, more than half of the participants agreed with the following neuromyths: (a) left-brained/right-brained thinking (77.7% agreed), (b) the ten percent myth (88.8% agreed), (c) visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning modalities (93.7% agreed), (d) multiple intelligences that are tied to brain differences (72% agreed), and (e) differences in female and male learning that result from significant differences in male and female brains (57.1% agreed). The findings from four qualitative interviews that were conducted with participants that typified the survey results indicated the following themes: (a) the role of the five most popular neuromyths as tools in the participants' teaching and pedagogical paradigms, (b) the limited amount of exposure that participants have had to the five neuromyths, (c) participants' limited knowledge of the brain, (d) the interview participants' rejection of student labeling, (e) participants' struggles with differentiation, (f) difficulty in rectifying the differences between brain-based education concepts, (g) a perception of the brain as functioning in isolated parts, and (h) an overlapping of educational concepts, such as, brain-based education, engagement, and differentiation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]