Twas the eve of............

Tool using octpii, chimps and fire, chimps and teaching. Ok, maybe some of these links demonstrate the type of research that yu wuld expect from a Second Year Undergraduate - copy and paste and there's "my" argument, but there are deeper veins running underneath all of this, and there is very good research in the peer reviewed literature supporting a lot of these observations.

RHB and I were discussing these matters while shpping yesterday. More specifically, we were discussing the dangers of taking information like that presented above ie a shorthand reportage of primary source evidence and resurrecting that evidence to say something entirely different. An example of this type of stupidity might be the burgeoning belief in Brain Gym, the newest fad to sweep Educational Circles. Check out this quote from Brain Gym UK, describing one part of their programme:

"Repatterning: A sequence of movements, unique to Brain Gym, which involves co-ordinated eye and motor movements to encourage fluid whole body movement."

THe actual movements consist of rubbing your noodle vigourously in order to stimulate your "thinking buds"....but under the section "How Brain Gym Works":

The investigation of the neuroscience that underpins Brain Gym is an eagerly awaited project for the future. We can only at the present time hypothesise about why without actually knowing.

Then there is the frequently answered questions page of another Brain Gym website, which makes very scary reading.

This is all scary, because, as with Learning Styles, some educators have adopted Brain Gym with frightening speed.