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 You may be asking yourself…what does whole-brain teaching look like and what are its benefits? These are good questions and to begin with let’s look at a definition of whole-brain teaching - an instructional methodology arising from neurolinguistic research. Neurolinguistics is the study of the mechanisms of the human brain that support the development of comprehension, production and abstract knowledge of language - spoken, signed or written.
As you have learned from previous readings on neuroscience and cognitive science, the brain is an integrative organ and uses many interrelated parts to make meaning. Even though neurolinguistics – whole-brain - learning is about how the brain processes language, the process of language development is critical for learning. Learning in all academic content areas requires the ability to use and understand language.
A couple of interesting pieces of information about neurolingusitcs are:
 1) within the integrated brain - both left and right hemisphere’s working together - the functions of one hemisphere are instantly accessible to the other hemisphere and
2) this integration, or working together of the two hemisphere’s of the brain, makes language learning more balanced.
The whole-brain teaching technique called active learning relies on providing students instruction that facilitates making connections that tap both hemispheres. In addition, whole-brain instruction focuses on teaching students how to manage their emotions while learning in order to reduce the amount of downshifting their brain does when stressed.
An earlier Neumind article describes how, when a student is stressed, their brain shifts from the neocortex of the brain to the limbic system (emotional brain) to deal with the stress. When this happens, a student’s ability to learn is reduced and if the stress is perceived as “danger”, learning can stop completely. Teachers provide classroom supports to reduce the potential for downshifting using such techniques as offering clear precise and realistic information about the difficulty level of the learning task and creating a calming, peaceful environment that is free of distraction and which supports learning.
One of the main principles of whole-brain learning is the “imaging” or creation of a picture in the “minds eye” about what is being taught. Visualizing, drawing and role playing are often encouraged during the learning process because these techniques are known to help students retain and understand information better. In traditional classroom instruction, the use of these facilitative techniques is often minimal.
In conjunction with providing techniques to enhance whole-brain learning teachers also consider the types of curriculum they implement and they provide a holistic approach to learning that includes opportunities for immersion in the arts, creativity and applying skills in imagination and synthesis. Words that describe the synthesizing process are: adapt, anticipate, categorize, combine etc.
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