Over the years of my career in teaching and professional development, I have participated in many workshops on brain hemisphericity. (Say that fast three times and see what part of your brain you use!) In reading through the articles on right brain/left brain, I was reminded how much our teaching strategies are informed (and formed) by our own brain preference. In every right brain/left brain assessment I ever took, I am far to the left leaving me as an almost no-brainer on the right side. I can see this preference in the way I prepare materials for instruction. Lots of linear instructions. Lots of handouts. Lots of prescribed structure. In an increasingly hyperlinked world, I have had to struggle at times to adapt both my thinking and my instruction. I am sure that in many situations in my classroom and workshops, predominantly right-brained participants struggled to adapt to my format.

And speaking of format, one of the most interesting uses of right/left brain research in instruction is the system of lesson development created by Bernice McCarthy called 4MAT (http://www.aboutlearning.com/). McCarthy takes the two sciences of learning styles and brain hemisphericity and combines them into a lesson design that incorporates all four learning styles with a brain preference within each style to create eight lesson segments. By incorporating these elements, McCarthy hopes to engage all students in both their learning comfort zones as well as providing them with activities that stretch their learning and thinking.

Taking the 4MAT assessment to determine my learning and brain profile helped me consciously work to include the other styles to create an instrucitonal whole over the course of a lesson or unit. My profile also helped me understand how I worked with colleagues who did not share my preferences but brought different strengths to our professional discussions and collaborations.