Faculty of Education - Theses

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MicroWorlds, children's writing and visual learning style preference

Vincent, John T ( 1998)

The work of neuropsychologists in the area of brain hemispheric specialisation has led to a greater understanding of children who have either a strongly verbal or strongly visual learning style preference. It has also given an understanding of the asymmetrical process of the brain's hemispheres. Recently both neuropsychologists and educators have touched on the understanding of the interactions of the brain hemispheres and particularly the possibility of the right hemisphere mediating language for the left. The availability of notebook computers on demand has given children intensive access to software such as MicroWorlds which is both-visually rich and language rich, and allows a constructionist style of learning environment to be established. Under these conditions, children with a strongly visual, or right hemisphere, learning style who are encouraged to use MicroWorlds to visualise as they write show considerable gains in writing structure an d fluency. Writing skills have generally been considered largely a function of left hemisphere processing. The students also show behavioural changes that affect other aspects of use of language.