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Thursday stream W Session 16.10 - 17.25 Length 25 minutes

Transferable Thinking Skills Workshop

Erica Bishop

Ampthill, Bedford Andrew.Bishop@waii.com

Abstract

Great ideas, sporting prowess, excellent spatial awareness, and exceptional creativity are all reasons to celebrate being dyslexic. As a dyslexic, you can excel in some of the multiple intelligences, and these "Right Brain" skills can be outstanding. Some individual intelligences are more difficult to acquire, and other "Left Brain" skills are harder to access.

Education can not only accelerate a dyslexic's strengths, for example through the use of colours, sounds, and shapes, but also accelerate the less accessible thought patterns such as comparison and analysis / synthesis through direct transfer thinking skills, cutting out the usual trial and error methods of skill acquisition. This workshop will demonstrate how Transferable Thinking Skills can be directly taught, and how they can work with other programmes such as Instrumental Enrichment and Somerset Thinking Skills in combination with new knowledge on bio-thinking patterns.

The workshop will consist of a presentation, followed by an interactive session to demonstrate two skills: one on "Analysis and Synthesis" from Somerset Thinking Skills, and one on "Orientation in Space" from the Instrumental Enrichment programme.

Delegates will also be shown how to make a model brain out of a pair of socks! Hand-out notes would be provided along with sources of further information. The session could be between 1 and 3 hours long.

This schema has been successfully used as a model to explain to teenage dyslexic students how to get more power out of their brain by understanding how it works.

Objectives

This workshop is designed to show you:

• The brain is designed for survival not for formal learning.
• An understanding of how the brain works will improve a dyslexic student's learning experiences.
• The 3 parts of the brain all perform different specialist functions in learning.
• Accelerate a dyslexic student's learning by stimulating both 'left' and 'right' brain specialities.
• Utilise underused capacity on the logical 'left' hemisphere by transferable thinking skill training.

Understanding the Triune Brain.

The work of Dr. Paul MacLean of the U.S. Institute of Mental Health has firmly established that the brain has three distinct parts whose separate but related functions are active in any learning experience.

(Diagram removed by author due to size)

The three parts are the reptilian brain, the mid-brain or limbic system and the neo-cortex.

By making a hands-on model of the brain out of a pair of socks, we can understand how the three are linked together. In order to process logical thoughts the other two parts of the brain must first be satisfied.

• The reptilian brain:

This is sited at the opening in the bottom of the skull. It is the part of the brain responsible for survival [flight or fight], monitoring motor functions [breathing, balance and instincts], territoriality, hierarchies and rote behaviour. This part of the brain is the oldest in evolutionary terms and is programmed for survival. Under stress, the reptilian brain dominates. A student under stress or anxiety will not learn anything.

• The limbic system:

This is the middle brain controlling emotions, maintenance functions, and is the site for long term memory. This part of the brain runs our emotions, immune system, sleeping, and governs our sexuality. It routes information to where it is processed in the neo-cortex. The limbic brain validates new knowledge. Emotions are more important to the brain than cognitive understanding. The limbic area holds all three parts of the brain in balance, and links long-term memory with emotion.

• The Neo-Cortex:

This is the thinking cap. It is divided into two separate halves - the left and right hemispheres. The two hemispheres are joined by the corpus-callosum. The neo-cortex is the most recently evolved. It is the part of the brain used in problem solving, discerning relationships and patterns of meaning. It is said that humans never really cognitively learn or understand something - until they can create a personal metaphor or model. Much of what we would like our dyslexic students to learn is targeted on the neo-cortex, but it never reaches its goal.

Understanding the hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow's model of the hierarchy of needs shows that lower level needs must be met before the needs on a higher level can be met,

The left and right brain specialities

Comparison of Left and Right Mode Characteristics

The left hemisphere - is used in serial processing, whilst the right is used more in parallel processing (synthesising several units of information simultaneously). The two streams of data are integrated to give a balanced and fuller perspective.

Individuals tend to favour one type of processing. This has been confirmed through CAT scanning.

Dyslexics tend to be right-brained learners. They tend to make sense of sensory information in the right-brain preferred way. Alastair Smith's book has questionnaires to identify your (or your students') preferred learning style.

Mind Mapping and multi sensory techniques are valuable ways of utilising a dyslexic student's right-brained strengths.

Mediated learning, guiding a student towards an answer, is better for a right-brain thinker than giving a direct answer.

Accelerating left brain specialities

Although most dyslexics have a preferred right-brain dominance, they also tend to experience difficulty developing left brain thinking skills e.g. time management. Transferable thinking skill programmes guide a dyslexic student into acquiring logical thinking patterns. Problems with analysis, direction, time, and symbolic representation can be overcome.

The best Thinking Skills programmes is Instrumental Enrichment (IE) The IE programme developed by Feuerstein, Rand, and Hoffman is a thinking skills programme which stimulates the learner and teaches him or her how to learn more effectively. This means learning to generate new information for oneself from existing information, taking decisions, learning to organise, to plan and anticipate future events, learning to take responsibility, and finding solutions to a range problems. The course has 14 Instruments (units of study).

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The training is time-consuming and can therefore be expensive. However, the benefits are outstanding, as one trained teacher can teach one class.

Another programme is Somerset Thinking Skills (STS). This is a visually based programme which highlights develops and generalises specific concepts and skills involved in problem solving and learning-to-learn. The complete course involves a handbook and seven modules. The training is minimal and skills are picked up as you teach. The STS can be introduced as a whole school policy. The teacher's notes and lifelike situations make it easy and enjoyable to teach and to learn.

(Diagram removed by author due to size)

REFERENCES

Edwards, B. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989)

Feuerstein, R. Instrumental Enrichment Programme. International Centre for Education and Learning Potential, P.O. Box 7755, 47 Narkis Street, Jerusalem 91077 Israel.

Feuerstein, R. Instrumental Enrichment Programme (UK) c/o Mrs. R. Deutsch.
Email: ruthdeutsch@cwcom.net. Tel: 0208-922 5049.

Smith, A. Accelerated Learning in Practice (Network Educational Press Ltd, 1998) Somerset Thinking Skills. Nigel Blagg Associates, 39 Staple Grove Road, Taunton, TA1 1DG. Tel. 01823 336204.

The Buzan Centre. Mind Map Training. Suite 2, Cardigan House, 37 Waterloo Road, Winton, Dorset, BH9 1DB. Tel. 0202 533593
Mind Manager Computer Programme. http://www.mindmanager.com/english/support/index.htm