Visual Spatial Talent, Neurological Systems, Instrumentation, Education, and the Left Brain/Right Brain Neuromyth

• In Event: Policy Implications for Science and Math Education, Visual Spatial Learning, and Neuromyth

Abstract

Visuospatial talent has been shown to be important for many academic areas and career fields, including but not limited to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. That being said, students’ visuospatial talents have largely been under-identified and underserved in traditional scholastic settings. Students with high visuospatial ability are rarely identified as gifted or talented as the traditional assessments focus on identifying high mathematical and verbal abilities. Therefore, many researchers have begun to establish and define the concept of a ‘visuospatial learner’ in order to aid in their identification and service in schools. This paper is a synthesis of findings reported in a special issue of Roeper Review (in press) on visual spatial talent presenting new information from cognitive science, neuroimaging, grounded theory, and instrument design.
For example, one case study employs grounded theory to find that three 4th grade students with visuospatial strengths and talents excel in and prefer visual ideation, innovation, and holistic problem solving in the way that they approach learning. This clashes with traditional teaching strategies in classrooms that are primarily verbal and rely on serial reasoning and step-by-step problem solving techniques. For this reason, it is recommended that assessments of visuospatial ability be incorporated into procedures involved in the identification of individuals with exceptional gifts and talents identification procedures. The Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University developed a Spatial Test Battery (STB) to assess visuospatial talent. It is currently recommended that the STB supplement mathematical and verbal assessments during searches for the academically gifted and talented.
While these assessments are helpful and necessary, observable behavior, i.e. test scores, is not always the best evidence for assessing cognitive skills. Neuroimaging demonstrates that different cognitive strategies (determined by different patterns of brain activation) support similar or identical behavioral performance, suggesting that individual differences in neurology are able to provide insight inaccessible through behavioral observations and tests. For example, efficient performance on visuospatial tasks involves a complex, distributed, and often variable network of brain regions throughout the whole brain, providing ample evidence that the left brain/right brain neuromyth has no place in the discourse on modern educational neuroscience, nor does it accurately reflect the functional neurology of giftedness in the domains of math and non-verbal reasoning.
With the growing importance of STEM education and the increasing demand for visuospatial capacities in the workplace, it is vital that parents and educators work together to provide more opportunities and programs for the development of visuospatial talents. It is equally pertinent that researchers communicate with parents, educators, and each other about the nature and significance of visuospatial talent in order to cultivate a level of scientific literacy that will result in better cultivated educational environments and processes that encourage the development of these skills and anticipate the context of real world professional demand.

Authors

• Charles Gillmarten, George Mason University

• Mary Layne Kalbfleisch, George Washington University