Whole brain teaching

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how the use of the di erent tools and techniques inside the Whole Brain Teaching methodology a ects the process of learning English as a foreign language in mainstream primary education. Whole Brain Teaching is a methodology that was designed to teach subjects through the mother tongue of the students. Nevertheless, the extensive use of gestures, the frequent pair work, the motivational tools and the fact that the learners often have to repeat what the teacher explains, suggest that this methodology could enhance the teaching and learning process of English as a foreign language both in terms of general language acquisition and the motivation of the learners. Two research hypotheses are formulated. The first one explores whether Whole Brain Teaching can enhance the process of language acquisition regarding the language skills of the learners. The second research hypothesis aims to see how the use of Whole Brain Teaching techniques a ect the motivation of the learners.
These hypotheses were tested in a mainstream primary school with an experimental design that involved a control and an experimental group. During three months, both groups received the same content, but only the experimental group received it through Whole Brain Teaching techniques. The study was performed from a mixed- methods perspective, with a quantitative part that measured the changes in the English command of the learners and the changes in their motivation, and a qualitative part that explored the whole process and the impressions of the teacher to support or question the quantitative results and to give a better insight of what happened in the process. The changes in the English command were measured through listening, reading and writing tests designed by the publisher of the textbooks used in the school and through a speaking test to check the fluency, use of vocabulary and pronunciation of the learners. The changes in motivation were assessed through an adaptation of the mini-AMTB (Attitude Motivation Test Battery). The mini-AMTB was adapted to suit the characteristics of nine year-old learners and was piloted in the same school with two other groups. Nevertheless, the results after the experiment suggested that the test was not as reliable as it had seemed and it was piloted again, this time in a pre-test/post-test situation that proved the unreliability of the test.
The results partially support the first hypothesis, showing significant di erences regarding the listening and the reading and writing skills of the learners. Regarding the speaking skills, however, that was not the case. As far as the second hypothesis is concerned, the quantitative results are, although non-significant, negative for the experimental group. On the other hand, the qualitative part of the study and the reviewed literature question those results.
Enough evidence has been found to support the potential of the Whole Brain Teaching method for the instruction of English as a foreign language in primary school.

Improving students' academic performance requires the teacher's knowledge on different classroom instructions based upon how the brain gathers and stores knowledge. One classroom instruction that engages different parts of the brain in an active instructional setting is a method known as Whole brain teaching. This study was conducted to determine the impact of Whole brain teaching or WBT on academic performance of grade 8 students in Algebra. Quasi-experimental research method, specifically, pretest-posttest with control group using matched-subject design was employed in the study. Two heterogeneous classes were randomly selected and assigned as experimental and control groups. Pretest and posttest were used in measuring the academic performance of the students. The experimental group received instructions using WBT techniques whereas the control group underwent the same pacing and content using conventional teaching techniques. Based on the data gathered, the students' academic performance increased significantly after subjecting them to WBT techniques and conventional teaching techniques. However, results of the posttest comparison of both groups showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the academic performance of experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. Thus, Whole brain teaching has a positive impact on academic performance of grade 8 students in Algebra.

This research investigates the use of action research and Whole Brain Teaching© for beginner teachers’ professional development through the use of peer mentoring.  Five beginner teachers formed part of a peer mentoring group.  Whole brain learning and action research provided the theoretical framework for the informal mentoring project.  Action research was used as a theoretical lens for professional learning and as core theory for the research design.  Action research principles were applied by the mentor and the participants.  In the first instance action research was used by the beginner teachers to investigate their own teaching practice while Whole Brain Teaching© was implemented as an innovative idea to consider its effect on learning and classroom management.  The mentees were empowered to transform their teaching practice by implementing the principles of whole brain learning as a means to acting out the role of facilitator and to take responsibility for developing scholarship of teaching as it is aligned with the role of scholar and lifelong learner.

The practical mentoring sessions with the beginner teachers and the effect of the programme were evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively.  As part of collecting quantitative data, the Herrmann Whole Brain Instrument (HBDI) was used to determine the learning styles of the peer mentor and the mentees.  The brain profiles were used as baseline data.  Qualitative data were collected during and after the five mentoring sessions conducted over a period of two months.  Data collection methods included feedback questionnaires, observations, and video and photographic evidence. 

The findings indicate that the peer mentoring programme contributed successfully to the professional development of the beginner teachers.

Keywords:  Mentoring, professional development, action research, whole brain learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of homogeneous versus heterogeneous reading-style grouping on EFL students' non-preferred reading style and reading comprehension. The study used a pretest-posttest experimental design. The original subjects of the study (N=86) were Egyptian English major senior students during the 2005/2006 academic year. At the beginning of this academic year, the Analytic/Global Reading Styles Inventory (AGRSI) was administered to these subjects to measure each student's analytic and global reading styles. Based on their scores on the inventory, strongly analytic and strongly global subjects (N=62) were randomly assigned to homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Afterwards, both groups were tested to measure each student's reading comprehension before treatment using the Reading Comprehension Test developed by the researcher. Each group was then randomly assigned to pairs. During treatment, the members of each pair alternatively exhibited their reading behaviors by thinking aloud while reading and sharing answers to post-passage questions after reading. The study lasted for 28 weeks, one ninety-minute session per week. After treatment, the AGRSI and the Reading Comprehension Test were re-administered to both groups to measure each student's non-preferred reading style and reading comprehension. The differences in the pre-to-posttest improvement between the two groups were then analyzed for significance using ANCOVA. The results indicated that the heterogeneous group students demonstrated significantly greater pre to- posttest improvement in both their non-preferred reading style and reading comprehension than the homogeneous group students [f (1, 59)=60.33, p less than 0.001; f (1, 59)=43.18, p less than 0.001, respectively]. Based on these findings, the researcher concludes that the non-preferred reading style can be developed when students learn with and from others with different reading styles and that reading comprehension is neither a bottom-up nor a top-down process but an interaction between the two. Therefore, it demands the development and integration of both the left and right hemisphere functions of the brain. The study concludes with suggestions for further research.

Keywords: Reading Comprehension; Cognitive Style; Brain Hemisphere; Reading Comprehension; Cognitive Style; Brain Hemisphere

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the application of learning brain-friendly through the whole brain teaching a positive effect on the character of creative students, to study the response of the students, and to determine whether the students' response to the application of learning brain-friendly through the whole brain teaching positively correlated with the character of creative students in mathematics. The research method used is quantitative. The instruments used are student questionnaire responses related to the application of brain-friendly learning through the whole brain teaching and observation sheet on student creativity in the learning of mathematics after the implementation of this method. Results of research with correlation analysis show that the greater significance of the alpha value (5%), which means accepting and rejecting H0 Ha which means students' response to the application of brain-friendly learning through the whole brain teaching is not positively correlated with the creative character of students in the learning of mathematics. The average score of the students' response to this methodology very well categorized in the amount of 85%. The results of the observation of the creative character of the students after the implementation of this method, the average score of 68% were categorized quite creative

In this workshop we want the audience to experiment listening to a story with the visual support of prezi and see its application to the classroom. For doing so we will be using a story by Julia Donaldson and some pre-listening and follow-up activities (also with the support of Prezi). At the end of the workshop we will have some minutes for round-up comments and open questions. The web 2.0 tool we will be using is free and can be found at: www.prezi.com

 There have been various descriptions of cerebellar function in terms of adaptive control. However, a number of recent publications have indicated that the cerebellum is involved in a range of cognitive processes including pure cognitive activity. This review paper relates the concept of cerebellar adaptive control to cerebellar cognition, and explores the relative roles of the cerebrum and cerebellum by considering the issue of representation and processing of information in a systematic manner. It is suggested that the cerebellar cortex and cerebral cortex facilitate two fundamentally different types of information representation and processing which are complementary and which should be able to reciprocally evaluate and correct each other, thereby providing the basis for a self-correcting adaptive control system.