Students with a visual learning style are likely to be right-brained learners.

Right brain learning is a type of learning, or teaching, which seeks to focus primarily on the right hemisphere of the brain. This type of learning is typically aimed at students who are heavily right brain oriented, or who are left brain oriented and need training to strengthen the right side of their brains. While people are not typically completely right or left brain oriented, most people do have a dominant brain hemisphere, just as most people have a dominant hand. Right brain learning usually seeks to target the right hemisphere of the brain to help those who are naturally right brain dominant learn more effectively.

The terms “right brain learning” and “right brain” do not refer to “right” as in “correct,” but instead refer to “right” in spatial terms and refer to the side of the brain that is physically on the right side of the person. There is no “correct” or “proper” side of the brain, and so right brain learning is no better or worse than left brain learning — they are simply different and worthy of note in order to better understand how people learn. This is especially important for teachers and students to understand, so each can better facilitate the learning of a student.

Right brain learning is typically more holistic and intuitive, often fairly non-verbal in nature and so can be difficult in a traditional classroom. Holistic in this sense means that a right brain learner is more likely to better learn material when first introduced to the overall idea or concept, and then learn about the parts that make up that whole. For example, a class might commonly learn about grammatical parts of speech, punctuation, and sentence structure then learn how the sentence comes together. Right brain learning would likely be best facilitated by learning about the entire sentence and then break that whole down into separate parts.

Similarly, right brain learning is often intuitive and non-verbal, which means that many right brain learners have a “gut” sense of what is right or wrong about a problem but may not be able to explain why without a great deal of effort. This type of learner is also often best served through visual aids and other forms of lessons beyond spoken lectures. A right brain learner is also usually better at random and concrete processing, rather than sequential or abstract learning.

This means that right brain learning can utilize random understanding and knowledge, rather than working from beginning to end of a lesson. A right brain learner will eventually come to understand the entire subject, but he or she may start in the middle and move around before getting it all. The learner is also more likely to best learn things that are concrete and real, rather than abstract concepts that are more symbolic. A right brain learner may have trouble with algebra and language, which are abstract; but will often excel at geometry or music, which are real and immediately meaningful to him or her.

Are you more creative than analytical? Do you get bored easily when teachers lecture for more than thirty minutes at a time? Are you an intuitive and empathetic person that can quickly learn about someone just by listening to them? If you answered yes to these, you may be right-brain dominant.

In general, people that are mostly analytical thinkers are thought to be "left-brained" and people that are mostly creative thinkers are thought to be "right-brained". Of course in reality, people use much more than half of their brains and no one is limited to only one way of thinking: right-brains can think artistically, left-brains logically. However, these titles can be a helpful way to learn about yourself by defining your skills and learning styles.

Characteristics of Right-Brain Students

Read the characteristics of a typical right-brain person to find out if you fit the description. You might be a right-brain if:

• You take notes but lose them.
• You have a hard time staying organized.
• You struggle to make decisions.
• You make friends easily and consider yourself a people person.
• You easily understand humor.
• You seem dreamy, but you're really deep in thought.
• You like to write fiction, draw, and/or play music.
• You are athletic.
• You like reading and learning about mysteries.
• You can easily see both sides of the story.
• You lose track of time.
• You are spontaneous.
• You’re fun and witty.
• You may find it hard to follow verbal directions.
• You are unpredictable.
• You get lost.
• You are emotional and guided by your emotions.
• You dislike reading directions.
• You listen to music to focus while studying.
• You read lying down.
• You are interested in “the unexplained.”
• You are philosophical and deep.

Your Classes and Your Brain

Right-brain dominant students experience school differently than their left-brained counterparts, often favoring certain subjects over others. The following descriptions are accurate for most right-brained students.

• History: You enjoy the social aspects of history classes most. You like to explore the effects of events that happened in history and you don't mind writing essays about them.
• Math: You can do well in math class if you apply yourself, but you get bored when answering long, complex problems. Don't let yourself shut down when you don't know the answers—keep at it! You'll be great with math with enough practice.
• Science: Studying science is boring at first, but you grow increasingly intrigued the more you learn. You like to find answers to open-ended questions but don't care for using scientific equations and formulas.
• English: You do well in English class, especially when it comes to reading literature and writing essays about books. You also do well in creative writing assignments. Strong grammar skills may come naturally to you.

Advice for Right-Brain Students

Though you possess many strengths as a right-brain, you also face challenges. Your creative mind makes you well-suited for inventive and artistic thinking but makes analytical thinking more difficult. Get ahead of problems you may experience by knowing your own strengths and weaknesses. Here is some advice for right-brain students.

• Write personal essays when you have the option to choose what kind of essay you write because you are an excellent story-teller, but don't forget to practice expository writing to grow your skills.
• Keep your daydreaming under control and don't let it cause you to procrastinate.
• Pursue an artistic hobby.
• Let your intuition work for you in social situations. Use your strong gut instinct to your advantage.
• Exercise deep thinking during essay tests, but don’t ponder too long. Decide how you will answer a question and try to be concise.
• Be creative when writing and use colorful language.
• Use images and charts when studying. 
• Write down directions to help you remember.
• Learn to be more organized.
• Don’t be overly suspicious of others. 
• Make outlines to organize your thoughts.
• Practice listening more intently during lectures by taking notes—don't let yourself zone out.
• Write what you are thinking about often. This will function as both an emotional and creative outlet.
• Put information into categories for better understanding.
• Avoid getting bogged down by thinking of all possibilities when answering questions. In general, go with your first choice.
• You have so much talent and great instincts, but you don’t always complete things. Practice finishing everything you start.

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Fleming, Grace. "How to Tell If You Are Right-Brain Dominant." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/right-brain-dominant-students-1857175 (accessed December 14, 2022).

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