ERIC Number: ED345240
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1992
Pages: 21
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Educational Implications of Brain Research Applied to Teaching Language Arts for Creative and Critical Thinking in Writing.
Davis, Wesley K.
Contemporary findings of brain research and language function can be analyzed and related to the teaching of creative and critical thinking and active learning through writing. A great deal of work has been carried out concerning the integration of the cerebral hemispheres for heuristic procedures in writing invention. In the integrated brain, the functions of one hemisphere are immediately available to the other, thus allowing a greater balance between the two brains during mental operations. Today, the notion of teaching to the whole brain is gaining more credence, being particularly significant to language arts educators since language production is a whole-brain activity. There are neurolinguistic implications for individual learning and language communication in both the writing lab and the composition classroom. These implications focus primarily on the concept of "active learning." Composition teachers can facilitate active learning by having students engage in the composing process frequently and by encouraging them to discuss their own writing freely with others. The degree of the brain's response depends on an active atmosphere in the classroom. Finally, a number of heuristics based on current research have been developed for writing teachers. The increasing knowledge of how the brain works suggests techniques useful to language arts teachers for the discovery of meaningful ideas and insights, and the effect of these writing strategies in a process-centered approach to composing and communicating strongly suggests that students are actively employing the operations of the whole brain to produce insightful and meaningful pieces of writing. (Thirty-three references are attached.) (HB)
Publication Type: Information Analyses; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A