“The teachers categorised 32 statements about the brain as true or false. Embedded among these items were 15 neuromyths related to education. Overall, the teachers endorsed half of the myths (or put differently, seven of the 15 myths were endorsed by over half the teachers).

Most strongly believed were: the idea that pupils learn better when they receive information via their preferred learning style (e.g. visual vs. auditory); the idea that there are left-brain and right-brain learners; and that co-ordination exercises improve the integration of function between the hemispheres. While proving gullible to neuromyths, the teachers fared relatively well in terms of their general knowledge about brain facts, answering 70 percent correctly.

Worryingly, myths related to quack brain-based teaching programmes were especially likely to be endorsed by the teachers. Perhaps most worrying of all – greater general knowledge about the brain was associated with a greater belief in educational neuromyths. It’s as if a little brain knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Dekker and her colleagues said that the teachers’ level of knowledge clearly wasn’t expert enough for them to recognise the difference between brain facts and brain myths. Consistent with this, teachers with more general brain knowledge tended to report reading more popular science magazines. It seems they are acquiring true facts about the brain, but at the same time can’t tell when they’re being sold neuro-nonsense. “This is troublesome,” the researchers said, “as these teachers in particular may implement wrong brain-based ideas in educational practice.”

Extract from School Teachers Believe One In Two Brain Myths