The Art Institute of Vancouver has this Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity Test. Results will let you know the percentages of dominance. The questions are very dependent on accurate self-assessment.

This quiz reminds me of the Gregorc Learning Style. I have no idea if the two theories sync or are compatible. You can take an online Gregorc Style Delineator. For the record, I took a Gregorc assessment at Frontier Charter a few years ago and am concrete sequential.

Any experts out there who would like to comment?

“I did it in my head,” he replies.

Aaargh! Many of the answers are wrong! And I have no way of knowing what he understands or doesn’t understand about the concepts because nothing is written down. It becomes a battle of wills; do it again and show your work. Or if I need complete sentences or a paragraph for other assignments, the same challenges.

Well, at last, I have learned a great way of addressing this problem. It’s all about neurons, you see. And short-term and long-term memory. Check out the post at Bror’s Blog for his open letter to kids who ‘won’t write it down.’

Tim Scott recommends a secondary tool that can be used to confirm the results. It is available from the University Learning Center at the University of Arizona (UA). Two self-assessment tools are provided on this site, a Learning Style Assessment and a Learning Style Profile Generator. The first will roughly identify learning modality while the latter gives valuable tips to develop habits and routines for effective study habits. Frontier’s staff has found this to be a great tool to confirm a learning style and especially to show parents and students how to develop teaching and study methods.

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• A student needed a required course to graduate, did not pass the course and, thus, did not graduate.
• She came back for a 5th year took the same course and failed again.
• For the spring semester she enrolled in the course again with the same teacher and she failed a 3rd time.
• The school’s administrators overuled the teacher, gave her a passing grade and she graduated. The teacher had meticulous records of the student’s failing efforts or, rather, non-efforts. The student had shown little interest and had even missed the final exam.
• The teacher has quit and moved.

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So, how do parents or for that matter classroom teachers from Planet 8-Track teach their iPod kids? Our culture and thus the labor market is hungry for digitally wired people. Our economy loves digital innovation. How do we make sure our kids are competitive in that market? Many thanks to mrmoses for pointing out these two videos that spotlight these issues.

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This video talk by Sir Ken Robinson is entitled Do Schools Kill Creativity? I wholeheartedly agree with his view on learning (sans the humanistic viewpoint). It’s about 20 minutes long so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy and be inspired.

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I don’t advocate schools should build comprehensive education programs in all areas of the arts targeted at all children. Pinpointing a child’s gifts and interests and learning styles is the key. Tailor the learning plan and instruction to the child.

This video is also available on the TED website.

HT: Weblogg-ed

A few years back Moore vs. State of Alaska began working its way through the courts claiming that education here in the Greatland is underfunded. That’s right $10,114 per student is just not quite enough. NEA-Alaska enthusiastically supported the suit claiming that it is a natural historical progression in the spirit of Brown vs. Board of Education. Thankfully, Superior Court judge Sharon Gleason disagreed. She wrote that Alaska has “fully met its constitutional obligation to adequately fund education.” And also that the court will not determine educational programs and will leave education funding decisions to the legislature. How refreshing, how constitutional. One can only hope that the State Supreme Court will concur on appeal.

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