The Prevalence of Neuromyths in Intermediate Phase Education in a South African Context
| dc.contributor.author | Leal, Debora | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Martin, Cameron | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-09-18T15:06:07Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-09-18T15:06:07Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-08 | |
| dc.department | Department of Inclusion education | |
| dc.description | A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Education by Coursework and Research (Full time) Degree (MEd), to the Faculty of Humanities, Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023. | |
| dc.description.abstract | Teachers still endorse numerous neuroscientific misconceptions and place their instructional practice on so-called neuromyths (Pasquinelli, 2012). This is problematic as it is perpetuating misconceptions in education which can disenable epistemological access in schools. As South African education is mandated to be more inclusive in its educational practices, perpetuating falsehoods in education becomes a problem. The distance between neuroscience and education is still too great and teachers are not aware of it (Grospietsch & Mayer, 2020). There is little research to the extent of the permeation of neuromyths and the how teachers are utilising neuromyths in the South African context. This study looks is to investigate how widely known is the concept of neuromyths within intermediate phase education, and to get a sense of how neuromyths are permeating pedagogical practices. This study incorporates a design that combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods known as an embedded mixed methods approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). A quantitative survey has been used to collect data on the number of teachers who implement neuromyth strategies as a classroom methodology and whether teachers have a prior understanding of neuromyths. A total of 57 teachers took part in the survey and purposeful sampling was employed in this research due to its specific focus on intermediate phase teachers. Qualitative methods by means of semi- structured interviews have been conducted to provide more depth on why teachers utilise these neuromyths, to cast light on how teachers incorporate neuromyths into their teaching practice and to find out about their thoughts on the value neuromyths adds to their practices when confronted with the point that neuromyths are not academically supported. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis is then utilised to analyse the qualitative data to identify, analyse, select codes, construct themes and report repeated patterns. An embedded design is also used to facilitate the merging of qualitative and quantitative data. This is done by taking responses from the interviews and identifying themes and patterns. The survey responses are examined in the context of the interview themes, to find relationships and corroborating evidence. Emotional Intelligence and VAK/VARK learning styles which were the most prominent myths as indicated on the survey. The findings indicate that even when presented with contradictory information on neuromyths, teachers were highly resistant to letting the concepts go. EI has made teachers more cognisant and conscientious about managing emotions of themselves and the learners as well as using their discretion in certain situations. Learning styles has been an effective teaching strategy for variation to keep the learners captivated in the lesson and it has been an inclusive tool to support learners with different levels and abilities. So, while academically the concepts are neuromyths and inaccurate, the reality is that Teachers do value the concepts as they use it to improve their pedagogies. | |
| dc.description.submitter | MM2024 | |
| dc.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Leal, Debora. (2023). The Prevalence of Neuromyths in Intermediate Phase Education in a South African Context. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40962 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40962 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.rights | ©2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. | |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.school | Wits School of Education | |
| dc.subject | Neuromyths | |
| dc.subject | South African education | |
| dc.subject | Neuroscientific | |
| dc.subject | Emotional Intelligence | |
| dc.subject | VAK/VARK learning styles | |
| dc.subject | UCTD | |
| dc.subject.other | SDG-4: Quality education | |
| dc.title | The Prevalence of Neuromyths in Intermediate Phase Education in a South African Context | |
| dc.type | Dissertation |