Visual-Spatial Learners: Differentiation Strategies for Creating a Successful Classroom

AUTHOR

Introduction

What Does the Latest Brain Research Tell Us?: A Primer on Brain Lateralization, or Hemisphericity

The theory of two distinct hemispheres (what many have referred to as our right brain and left brain) and its premise that humans strongly prefer one over the other gained widespread and long-lasting popularity in the 1990s. The pop psychology notion of left-brained individuals excelling at language, math, and sequential thought, while right-brained individuals are creative, intuitive, and empathic, however, has largely been debunked. For most cognitive tasks, both hemispheres are required. But the idea of lateralization, or each hemisphere specializing in specific tasks, has roots in research that continues to fascinate and hold true. The anecdotes of teachers, parents, and students about the successes they’ve realized when addressing the strengths of preferred learning styles cannot go unnoticed. According to Vlachos, Andreou, and Delliou (2013), Although the human brain acts as an integrated whole, each of the two cerebral hemispheres appears to be specialized for qualitatively different types of cognitive processing (para. 3).

The idea of lateralization, or brain hemisphericity, has its origins in the work of Drs. Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga and their split-brain research on epileptic patients (Gazzaniga, 2015). They discovered the capabilities of each hemisphere when the connective fibers of the corpus callosum—the band that joins the two hemispheres—were split (done to curb seizures from spreading across the patient’s brain). In monkeys and eventually in humans, it was evident that the left hemisphere managed tasks involving communication while the right hemisphere managed spatial awareness tasks (much more about the capabilities of each hemisphere follows). And so, the idea of a left brain and a right brain was born.

As I learned from my time studying under Dr. Linda Silverman, Director of the Gifted Development Center, however, use of the terms left brain and right brain implies we have two brains, as opposed to the physiological reality of two hemispheres of a single brain. As such, and barring a dramatic evolutionary feat of our species, I prefer the terms left hemisphere and right hemisphere instead.

Although it is now understood that both hemispheres of the brain are needed for nearly every cognitive task and that significant research remains to be completed before we can definitively map every one of the brain’s areas to specific tasks and capabilities, there is still substantial and ongoing research to support that addressing what we know about the brain’s hemispheres can yield significant results in terms of instructional design and delivery. There remains evidence of … an individual’s propensity to use a mode processing associated with one hemisphere or the other when a choice is given (Vlachos, Andreou, and Delliou, 2013, para. 3). Language skills, for example, continue to prove to be a left-hemispheric capability for most people. Using positron emission tomography (PET) scans, researchers can view the activity of the hemispheres as patients engage in specific tasks. They have confirmed that for 97% of right-handed people language areas reside in the left hemisphere (Boeree, 2004, para. 2).

If we accept that specific cognitive tasks are managed by either the left or right hemisphere, it follows, then, that it may be of significance to understand if a learner possesses greater strength and ability in one hemisphere over another. Let’s begin by understanding what is known about brain lateralization.

Text Versus Context

The left hemisphere manages the functions of language (from reading, writing, and spelling to translation of the written word), while the right hemisphere provides context to language—the tone, intonation, and body clues—for interpreting language. Individuals with damaged right hemispheres do not understand plays on words or puns and can struggle to comprehend a speaker’s intent. According to Branucci, Lucci, Mazzatenta, and Tommasi (2009), Stronger involvement of the right hemisphere in coding some aspects of person perception seems to be the rule (p. 906).

Table 1 is an example of the subtlety of word emphasis and the critical role the right hemisphere plays in understanding language. The words of the sentence never change, but the modification of the emphasized word renders an entirely different meaning, so long as the listener has a healthy right hemisphere to assist in the interpretation. This subtle distinction is not understood by individuals with damaged right hemispheres where the ability to provide context—not just text—from body language and intonation resides.

TABLE 1

Understanding Language and the Right Hemisphere of the Brain

Note. Adapted from Organizational Behavior (15th ed., p. 342), by S. P. Robbins and T. A. Judge, 2013, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

An individual with a damaged right hemisphere cannot make a distinction from the statements in Table 1, and the speaker’s intent is lost without the required context. An individual with a strong right hemisphere, however, not only receives and interprets intent from the emphasized words, but also from any corresponding body language, emotional ties (or lack thereof) to the speaker, and so much more. It’s why those with strong right hemispheres are often described as sensitive.

As an educator, you are likely to have encountered students who, though clearly bright or even intellectually gifted, have struggled with particular skills: reading, spelling, handwriting, organization, sequential tasks, and so on. As you’ll read in the next chapter, it was from the observations, teacher and parent anecdotes, and even IQ tests of such students that the theory of visual-spatial versus auditory-sequential learners was born.

The keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning-makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys. (Pink, 2005, p. 31)

These people are what others and I refer to as visual-spatial learners. Daniel Pink (2005) is right. The qualities he notes above—creativity, empathy, the ability to recognize patterns and to make meaning out of seemingly disparate pieces of information—are characteristics of those with strong right hemispheres, or visual-spatial learners, and are increasing in value, particularly as we become a more visual, image-oriented society.

Understanding the distinctions between the left and right hemispheres, particularly in individuals who exhibit a strong preference for one over the other in the way they learn and communicate, can have profound implications for the classroom. Since the publication of Visual-Spatial Learners: Differentiation Strategies for Creating a Successful Classroom, the first edition of this book, I’ve heard from many educators and parents about the profound results in classroom behavior, attention, attitude toward learning, and overall engagement of students of all ages and backgrounds. Many of them write about how the strategies promoted here have inspired and motivated bright but disengaged students. Thank you for investing in your own learning journey about this fascinating topic. I hope you discover a deeper understanding of the preferred learning style of many bright but disengaged students and a number of ways to reignite their passion for learning within these pages.

Chapter 1

Learning Styles Differentiation

Auditory-Sequential and Visual-Spatial

As a classroom teacher, you’ve probably been exposed to a number of theories on learning styles and perhaps several ideas about differentiation. Some approaches can be complicated and involve lengthy assessments to fully understand each student; others require a complete revamping of the curriculum you’re currently using or that your school already has approved; still others keep changing and evolving so that just when you’ve learned how to apply the construct, the parameters change and you’re left to start all over. You won’t find anything like that within these pages. This book provides strategies that are easy and fun to implement; they are essential for your visual-spatial learners and will serve as reinforcement for your auditory-sequential learners—the only two learning styles involved!

I wrote the first edition of this book because I wanted to share just how easy differentiating for students’ learning styles can be. I was a classroom teacher myself, I homeschooled for many years, and I worked with teachers and schools throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. I know how challenging it is to try to meet the unique needs of each and every child. In her book, Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner, Silverman (2002) wrote:

Today’s teachers must be superhuman and adapt to the children, instead of the other way around. To be a modern teacher, you must be part entertainer, part social worker, part special educator, part police officer, part ringmaster (to accommodate the range of abilities and learning styles and backgrounds and needs of all your students) and, oh yes, part enthusiast—knowledgeable of your subject matter and of the fine art of teaching. (p. 55)

In the years since I left the classroom, I have worked in the field of corporate adult education, designing and developing computer-based business simulations for use in leadership development, business acumen, and organizational transformation. I can confirm that hands-on, experiential learning remains the most powerful method of acquiring and retaining new skills and knowledge—no matter the age of the learner. We learn best by doing. We have taught that way—from observing, doing, then showing others—for far more centuries than an alphabet has existed. The move toward a text approach was profound in its ability to communicate across greater numbers, but, for the vast majority of humans, it has rarely, if ever, proven to be an effective, permanent way to gain new knowledge.

When I present to teachers, I often begin by asking them to draw a rectangle, 2 inches wide by 1/2 inch tall—a space similar to the signature line on a personal check. Then, I ask them to place their writing instrument in their nondominant hand and sign their name within the box. I almost always hear a lot of groaning as they perform this uncomfortable task. I then ask for feedback about how it felt to sign their name this way. Awkward, messy, uncomfortable, and I can’t wait to switch back are some of the most common responses. Those who’ve broken their dominant hand or arm and had some experience with this task report that, although unpleasant, it wasn’t as awkward as it was for their peers. Everyone reports that it wasn’t their best work, nor the most efficient means of writing their name. This is what every school day feels like to a right-hemispheric, visual-spatial student sitting in a left-hemispheric, word-dominated classroom.

I became immersed in the concept of visual-spatial learners while working for Dr. Linda Silverman, director of the Gifted Development Center in Colorado (a resource center for developmentally advanced children and their parents). In the late 1990s and early 2000s, her theory was based on the current understanding of the functions of the hemispheres. Silverman began using the term visual-spatial learner in 1981 to define students who think in images and the term auditory-sequential learner to include students who think and learn in words, sequentially, and who typically do well in traditional classroom environments (these are not the students for whom parents and teachers seek my advice). In the process of testing children’s intelligence, she discovered a pattern among children who scored in the highest ranges. They did so with their phenomenal abilities to solve problems presented to them visually and by excelling in the spatial tasks of intelligence tests. Analyzing hundreds of children’s test results, Silverman observed two distinct learning styles: auditory-sequential and visual-spatial. Kinesthetic learners, those who learn best with hands-on activities, who often need movement to improve focus, and who learn by doing, not just watching or hearing, are included within the construct of the visual-spatial learner. The strategies recommended within this book incorporate techniques that will successfully serve your kinesthetic students, as well.

Silverman’s theory boils down to this: We each have two hemispheres of the brain. However, much like handedness, many of us prefer one hemisphere to the other. That preference can have dramatic implications in the classroom. It is important to reiterate that both hemispheres work together to accomplish most cognitive tasks. It would be wrong and, in fact, silly to conclude that a student is exclusively right- or left-brained, functioning with only half of a brain! As Hardiman (2003) noted, we "know that the two hemispheres are continuously working