Cerebral Dominance and University education

Abstract

The discoveries neuroscience about cerebral dominance and its multiple applications for life have been increasing. There are many research works on the application of neuroscience in educational improvement, although there are few at the higher education level. This work had two purposes; the first one was identify and compare the cerebral dominance profile of phycology students of UNAN-Managua from different academic years (2009, 2010, 2013). The second one, was verify the cerebral dominance in a sample of students at the beginning and end of their undergraduate studies. The investigation results show a simple dominance, the preference of Left Brain Hemisphere particularly of Left cortical; Lower Dominance on Right Brain Hemisphere specially of Right Limbic quadrant. On the other side, based on the comparison of scores obtained from the pre and post test, it observes that there are no changes related to the dominance of the different quadrants of both the Left Brain Hemisphere and Left Brain Hemisphere. To evaluate the tendency to use the four quadrants by students, according to the Whole Brain Model by Ned Hermann (1989) the Chalvin test (1993) was used, a self-administrated instrument which is answered within 15 or 20 minutes, this consists of 22 items (with four response options, of which one or two are chosen) related to the study activities and daily life. The answers are transferred to a correction template and, added the scores per quadrant, the profile is obtained.