The Identification Of Right Brain Children And The Application Of Teaching Strategies To Improve Their Academic Achievement

The author identified students with a right brain dominance through surveys and questionnaires. These students\u27 past academic records were scrutinized and on the basis of repetitive low test scores, poor social and scholastic achievement and a pattern of apathetic behavior, a target group of five students was compiled for this study. Based on their mode dominance, a series of teaching strategies were created to strengthen the dominant mode and stretch the subdominant mode. The strategies were formulated for daily implementation and were specific activities that called on reaction from either the left or right hemisphere of the brain, and the mutual contribution of both to all cognitive processes. These strategies were tailored for the five children of the target group to reduce levels of frustration, decreased apathy and increased individual success. Some strategies were of a repetitive nature requiring daily implementation and made up the core of activities. To these were added sequential activities that drew from past experience and mastery. They included tactile, psychomotor, visual/ oral learning innovations. These activities improved cognitive thinking, overall academic achievement, and affective behavior towards school work. They also revealed possible artistic potential. The teaching strategies became an integral part of daily instruction throughout the remainder of the school year and thereafter. They were recommended to the faculty at the school level as innovative substitutions to routine methods, possible solutions in disciplinary and/or apathetic situations, and as a mode for self-improvement and insight in the development of a more balanced psyche. (Appendices include a parent consent form, a questionnaire on students\u27 feelings toward school, and a teacher self-assessment survey.