Whole Brain Teaching

 

Kayla Bourgeois, PharmD 

PGY1 Pharmacy Resident 

University of Maryland Medical Center

Whole Brain Teaching is a relatively new method of teaching that requires high-enthusiasm mixed with constant stimulation of both the left and right sides of a student’s brain in an attempt to foster deeper learning by increasing classroom engagement.¹ This way of teaching aligns with the movement over the last few decades which recognize that children often come to school with all types of disparities, abusive homes, racism, classism, neglect, you name it, which often puts these students at a deficit. Research indicates that there is a strong relationship between the learning process of the brain and emotion, so when we heighten emotions whether good or bad, it reinforces learning.¹ This knowledge has begun to influence educators across various backgrounds and settings.

The basis of this style is built upon seven core teaching techniques to repetitively active most of the brain. Number one, “Class – Yes,” is meant to grab the learner’s attention by utilizing a common phrase to address the class and for that to warrant a response of some form of “yes” at the beginning and throughout the lesson.² This is aimed at the prefrontal cortex and prepares the brain to be receptive and induces reasoning.³ Number two, “The Five-Rules,” incorporates rehearsed rules and gestures that go hand-in-hand which requires up to seven areas of the brain associated with speaking, listening, generating emotion, memory, visualizing and kinesthetic.^2,3 Number three, “Hands and Eyes,” is a way to regain attention where saying this will elicit the class to repeat back these same words and give you their attention in the form of doing something with their hands and locking focus on the teacher.² Number four, “Teach-ok,” involves mimicry and partnering among students to teach one another.^2,3 Number five, “Switch,” involves pulling a chord, or flipping an imaginary light switch to signify switching roles where it is time for another student to speak and teach something to the others.^2,3 Number six, “Mirror,” means you have the students mirror you in every way.^2,3 This allows for story telling or complex tasks that require multiple steps to capture the audience and keep them active throughout. Lastly number seven, “Score board,” is a method of incentivizing students with games or competition by splitting the class into teams with a plus and minus system which aggregates throughout the day or weeks and at the end yields a reward.² By keeping these games close, it activates the reward pathway while having continuity of engagement.³

Traditionally, these tactics have been used in younger-aged children kindergarten to fifth-grade when students’ attention spans run on the shorter end and the responsibility of ensuring learning is felt more heavily on the side of the educator.² Unbeknownst to me, throughout pharmacy school, I would always watch videos on YouTube on a channel “KISS: Keep it simple stupid” who in some degree employed very similar tactics and to this day when the topics come up I can remember the songs or rhythms or gestures behind the knowledge. This wasn’t necessarily due to me spending more time on this subject than any others, I was having fun while I was learning and although it was over the internet, I participated in speaking aloud and being engaged as if I were actually there.  To an extent, those cores seven techniques can be adjusted to a more mature audience and achieve the same results. Even though as one gets older, the responsibility for the learning shifts toward the student having more autonomy over their learning it is important for educators not to lose sight of the goal.

Whole Brain Teaching may be especially beneficial in courses like pharmacology, communication, and select skills labs or mock learning scenarios where the basis of establishing key concepts comes through repetition before real world application. For instance, imagine a patient counseling scenario where you would like three main questions answered: What is this medication for? How did your prescriber tell you to take this medication? And What can you expect from taking this medication? In this scenario, the “Teach-ok” method may be useful in utilizing the mimicry and partnership to solidify usage of these cornerstone counseling questions. Now imagine the engagement that could arise from using the “Scoreboard” method in a course such as pharmacology where some students may find it more challenging and are reluctant to participate. Perhaps, encouraging the entire class to be involved by incentivizing them with points for participation and additionally correct answers may assuage the fear of getting an incorrect answer. Additionally, this can reveal to a professor areas and topics that they need to re-address once seeing where lapses in learning may exist.

These are just a few examples of how Whole Brain Teaching could be incorporated into pharmacy education. I encourage educators of all levels to push the envelope and continue looking for signs that a student or classroom may need a little more attention and may benefit from a rather non-traditional way of thinking. Always be willing to evolve your methodology and teaching styles as new research and helpful tactics arise in the world of education. 

1. Brophy, J. E. (1986). Teacher influences on student achievement. American Psychologist, 4, 1069–1077.

2. Biffle, C. (2013). Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. Yucaipa,CA: Whole Brain Teaching, LLC.

3. Willis, J. (2007). Brain-Based Teaching Strategies for Improving Students' Memory, Learning, and Test-Taking Success. Childhood Education, 83(5), 310-315.