Americans on average think two - third of a hardening of myth about the brain and learning . More worryingly , US instructor also hold to a majority of these long - disproved theories , sometimes harmlessly , but in other case making it harder to name and treat learning disabilities .
Kelly Macdonaldworked as a schoolhouse teacher before becoming a alumnus student at the University of Houston . " I run across neuromyths throughout instructor training and saw many teachers using related to practices in their classrooms , " Macdonald said in astatement . She decide to investigate further and demonstrates inFrontiers of Psychologyhow common the problem is .
Macdonald gift a random group of 3,045 the great unwashed , 598 educators , and 234 individuals who had study neuroscience at university with a leaning of claims about the mastermind and asked if each was true . The myth let in ideas such as a common sign of dyslexia is seeing letter rearward , we only apply 10 per centum of our Einstein , and listening to classic medicine enhances children ’s logical thinking ability .
On mean , the world believed 68 percent of Macdonald ’s list , educators 56 percent , and those civilize in neuroscience 46 percent . Senior authorDr Lauren McGrathof the University of Denversaid : " We were surprised to see that these ' classic ' neuromyths tend to cluster together , think that if you consider one myth , you are more likely to believe others . " Puzzlingly , educators who knew more about the genius were actually more probable to believe the neuromyths tested .
Some of these myths may seem harmless , but the authors point out that teachers with misconceptions about dyslexia symptom are improbable to descry cases , preventing children from getting the helper they involve .
The most widely believe myth in the subject field was the now - debunked possibility that “ individuals check better when they obtain information in their preferred encyclopaedism fashion , ” which had the support of 76 percent of teachers and 93 percent of the general public . The paper observe that a commonality in the most widely believe myths is “ an underestimate of the complexness of human conduct . ”
One supporting sign was that younger participants in the view , like those with more education and exposure to match - reviewed skill , were more probable to answer correctly .
Given the prevalence of fairly elementary myth , it is not surprising that more complex one – such as the idea of people being “ right- or left - brain ” ( which necessitate a misunderstand ofgenuine enquiry ) – were also wide believed .
Most of these myth do n’t serve well a picky agenda , they ’re just stories that have been widely repeated without sufficient repudiation . On the other hand , their achiever demonstrate just how difficult it is to kill off even more damaging misconceptions , like differences inmale and femalebrains that make women less suited to programing .
