Seen through teachers’ eyes: Neuromyths and their application in Malaysian classrooms

Abstract

Misconceptions about neuroscience among teachers and their application to education may lead to ineffective teaching strategies and waste valuable resources. The main objective of this paper is to study neuroscience knowledge, beliefs in neuromyths and their application in Malaysian classrooms. An online survey was conducted among (n = 501) school teachers, covering 14 neurofacts, four neuromyth, and their application in education. Results show more than 75 % of teachers of all levels of experience endorsed the unfounded idea that 'Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style and 80 % of these teachers endorsed applying the VAK idea in their teaching practice. The findings also show that neuromyth agreement was positively correlated with practice agreement (r = 0.181, p < 0.001). Interestingly, numerous studies from various countries have highlighted the prevalence of neuromyths, and Malaysia is no exception and consistent across countries, particularly regarding beliefs about learning styles. With the growing popularity of pseudoscientific practice among school teachers worldwide, many educators who are enthusiastic about possible applications of neuroscience findings in the classroom find it difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from scientific facts.