Abstract
Individual learners can be characterised based on their psychological and neurological characteristics, such as visual spatial and auditory sequential learners, extroverts and introverts or multiple intelligences. These differences go a long way in how successfully individuals learn and engage in their careers. However, our contemporary educations systems do not give due attention to these differences in satisfying individual requirements. For example, the issues related to high sensitivities of gifted and creative individuals being inadequately addressed in the mainstream education system are extensively highlighted in literature. Due to lack of support from the education and social systems, individuals fall behind in the process of self-actualisation. According to researchers, it appears that we focus mainly on instructing the learners’ left hemisphere of the brain, paying little attention on the right hemisphere. In this paper, the author highlights the need to make learners use both hemispheres of the brain through appropriate instructions and methodologies, despite some having preferences to using one half. Addressing psychological and neurological needs of the learners while accommodating them to use both brain hemispheres would put individuals into a self-actualising path that develops creativity and wisdom. In essence, as general educators, we develop awareness into the concept of neurodiversity.
Highlights
Our contemporary education systems primarily follow a one-type-fits-all approach to teaching-learning
The issues related to high sensitivities of gifted and creative individuals being inadequately addressed in the mainstream education system are extensively highlighted in literature
The psychological and neurological ones are too important to be neglected. Those who are categorised as gifted and creative individuals are at the receiving end when the above differences are neglected in the mainstream education system (Moyle, 2005; Silverman, 2002; Webb, 2008).There are a number of classifications used over the years for characterising individuals psychologically and neurologically
Summary
Our contemporary education systems primarily follow a one-type-fits-all approach to teaching-learning This is despite wealth of research findings available on significant individual learner differences (Armstrong, 2011; Eide & Eide, 2006; Silverman, 2002). The famous psychologists Abraham Maslow and Kazimierz Dabrowski presented a number of research outputs in this regard (Dabrowski, 1970; Maslow, 1968, 1993) These differences are not taken into account in general in the main stream education system. We argue that this is a significant limitation of our contemporary education systems, among other similar deficiencies suggested by a number of other philosophers and educators (Houston, 1999, 2004; Marchese, 2012; Smyre, 2006; Sylwester, 1998, 2001; Watagodakumbura, 2012, 2013b). We emphasise the above need of supporting individual psychological and neurological differences within the mainstream education system by presenting and integrating the available supporting literature in a unified manner
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