1. WikiVet Workshop, LIVE Centre 31st July 2007
Thinking Styles - Herrmann’s Creative Brain Playing the Diversity Game (Cognitive preferences)
WikiVet Workshop, LIVE Centre
31st July 2007
Thanks to Julia Atkin for input (

2. Julia Atkin’s work www.learning-by-design.com
Educator since 1970s (chemistry)
Herrmann (1989) The Creative Brain
Interested in:
Left brain thinking vs. right brain thinking
Deep meaning
Constructivist, experiential approach to learning
Helping learners to be self-directed, independent, intrinsically motivated, learner-centred, collaborative/cooperative

3. Herrmann’s Creative Brain model
Concerned with “ways of knowing”
‘Left-brainers’ and ‘right-brainers’
“For people whose preferred mode of knowing is visual, what is presented in pictures will get through to them better than a lecture or book with text only”
(Herrmann 1989)

4. The Brain - right versus left
Right mode
processing
Left mode
• serial/sequential
• focal/convergent
• verbal/symbolic
• logical/analytical
• parallel/simultaneous
• diffuse/divergent
• image/spatial
• intuitive/holistic
the wood
© Julia Atkin, 2007

5. MacLean’s Triune Brain
The Brain - cerebral versus limbic
Neocortex - conceptual, cerebral, reasoning “thinking cap”
neocortex
limbic system
Limbic - emotional, registers rewards & punishments, controls ANS (fight or flight)
reptilian
Trinune brain – lowest level is instinct, followed by emotion, with conceptual thinking at the top. When we feel threatened control moves down to the limbic system, which is why learning is impeded when learners feel threatened. Need to be challenged but not threatened.
Research in the 50s involving severing the two hemispheres in epileptic patients revealed the two sides of brain processing. The right mode is instinctive, total, holistic, we don’t need to think about it, it just happens. Left mode processing is more logical and sequential. In Julia’s terms, like solving an anagram, you go from A to Z without thinking when the RHS is working, whereas for the LHS need to go from A to B to C to D etc.
The ‘a-ha’ moment is when the two sides converge.
MacLean’s Triune Brain
Reptilian - instinctive, most ancient part of the brain

6. Herrmann’s Creative Brain model
Some rules …
No cognitive preference is better than another
“Every [one] brings critically important contributions to living and working”
Not a measure of intelligence
“The [model] is a metaphor describing how a person prefers to acquire and process information, not how fast or accurately they do it.”
Over 90% of people have >1 preference
“Profiles tend to remain constant, but they can and do change.”

7. The Diversity Game
Arrange your five cards in order, starting with the card that best describes yourself, and ending with the one that is least like you …
What was your immediate response to the cards that were dealt?
Would you be comfortable finishing the game with these cards?

8. The Diversity Game
Move around the other players and trade cards to “improve” your hand ...
Were there any noticeable patterns in the kinds of cards other players wanted to keep and those they were willing to trade?
What might patterns suggest about the preferences of the group?

9. The Diversity Game Discard your two least preferred cards …
What reaction did you have when you had to give up two cards?

10. The Diversity Game
Examine all the discarded cards and make any exchanges you want to …
Were those choices easy or difficult?
Were you able to put together a hand that closely represented you?

11. The Diversity Game
Remember a personal story to share with the group that illustrates a time when all three of the qualities in your hand came into play and influenced your behaviour …
Does your story reflect the way you are much of the time?

12. © Ned Herrmann, The Creative Brain, 1989

13. Limbic modes - thinking stimulated
Ned Herrmann’s Whole Brain Processing Model
Cerebral modes - abstract thinking
Thinks and acts
holistically &
randomly
Thinks and acts
step by step
Limbic modes - thinking stimulated
by emotions and senses
© Julia Atkin, 2007

14. © Julia Atkin, 2007

15. We speak different languages or dialects.
© Ned Herrmann, The Creative Brain, 1989

16. Communication & Learning Likes & Expectations
“If a learner is highly inclined towards one mode of processing … he or she will tend to approach tasks in that mode even when it’s not the more appropriate.”
(Atkin 2000)
Communication & Learning Likes & Expectations
“Learning requires moving outside our comfort zone.”
(Atkin 2000)
© Julia Atkin, 2007

17. Discuss …
Can we use this model as a basis for collaborative work with WikiVet?
To facilitate teamwork?
As a model for learners?