#Positive points brain gym professional#
Social workers in South Africa can even receive continuous professional development (CPD) points for completion of Brain Gym courses (Brain Gym South Africa, 2016). According to Brain Gym South Africa (2016) this learning track is certified by Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA) ETDP10122 and the South African Council For Educators (SACE) PR10846. The training consists of various prescribed and elective modules on levels i to iii (Brain Gym South Africa, 2016). The route to become a certified Brain Gym practitioner (Brain Gym South Africa, 2016) consists of a 750 hour learning track, which includes 250 prior learning, 250 training and 250 hours practicum hours. The cost of other courses were not clear from the website. According to the website of Brain Gym South-Africa (2016) they charge R2800 for a training course presented by Dr Carla Hannaford on the physiological basis of learning. If you, like me, as a teacher once believed or maybe still believes in any of the neuromyths, you certainly are not alone.īrain Gym was originally developed by Dennison and Dennison in 1970s to assist children with learning difficulties (Stephenson, 2009). Interestingly, Brain Gym South Africa (2016), agrees with Gray (2013) that Brain Gym is still widely used in Britain's state schools. Gray (2013) found that 88% of teachers believed the central claim of Brain Gym (Dennison & Dennison, 1994) that specific, short, simple exercises can improve brain functioning, despite the then department of education (in Britain) admitting that studies have found no support for such a claim (Gray, 2013). I will be discussing the neuromyth behind Brain Gym or educational kinesiology (Dennison & Dennison, 1994) in this post. This combined with a lack of formal training in neuroscience and rigorous research methods, as well as demanding workloads and a vast number of new initiatives all competing for teachers' attention, and some ingenious marketing of some of the neuromyths, makes education an easy breeding ground for neuromyths.īrain Gym or educational kinesiology (Edu-K) I contend that the popularity of these neuromyths are in part because most teachers want to do the best for their learners.
Organisations and marketers of the neuromyths are remarkably good at convincing parents, teachers and even academia into believing the neuromyth, and sadly often to pay a hefty fee for enrolling their children in such programs.Īs I stated in a previous post, I am of the view that teachers believing in these neuromyths do so without any malicious intent. Neuromyths often are cleverly disguised over-generalisations or distortions of facts in neuroscience (Howard-Jones, 2010), which fool teachers, even those with a greater general knowledge of the brain and its workings (Tardif, Doudin and Meylan's, 2015) into believing the neuromyth. These are called neuromyths (Lethaby & Harries, 2016). In short, I encourage teachers to study neuroscience and critically examine claims others may make regarding the use of neuroscience in education, comparing it to findings reported by other authors.Īs in any field, there are also often misconceptions, half truths and pseudoscientific information floating around in the education field regarding neuroscience (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2002). However, as Ansari, Coch and De Smidt (2011), I encourage using individual neuroscientific findings carefully, with understanding of the context and limitations as well as with academic scrutiny of the sources, research methodology etc. Similarly, I think educationalists have a unique and valuable perspective to offer to neuroscience.Īs stated by Ansari, Coch and De Smedt (2011) I too aim in the long run to use neuroscience findings to inform classroom practice. I am a firm believer that neuroscience has a lot to offer for teachers and learners alike.
As professor Deheane indicates in a 2013 WISE talk on neuroscience and reading teachers work with the brain and therefore can benefit from understanding the neuroscience of learning. Neuroscience is not just an important area of consideration in education, it is also rapidly gaining popularity.
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