Saint James High School

Curato St., Brgy. 5, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte

SEC Reg. No. PW00001134
Telefax (085) 343-4332 343-4834

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Information Sheet No. 3

Topic: The Brain, Intelligence and Thinking

MELCs:
1. Discuss that understanding the different brain processes and functions may help in
improving thoughts, behavior and feelings EsP-PD11/12PM-Ig-6.1
2. Explore ways on how to improve brain functions for personal development EsP-
PD11/12PM-Ig-h6.2
3. Develop a personal plan to enhance brain functions EsP-PD11/12PM-Ih-6.3

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
1. understand the brain laterality that can help improve learning
2. explain mind-mapping technique and the two types of thinking
3. make a plan to improve learning

Discussion
An individual’s actions or behaviors are always related to how our brain functions. As
such, certain parts and structures of the brain is responsible for different functions
like moving, planning, organizing, seeing, hearing and balancing. Our brain is
powerful for everything that we do starts from it, most likely who we are from what we
are feeling and what we are doing simply describes what kind of thinking we are
capable of. Thus, it is a need to think well and think positively in order for our actions
and behaviors to follow
According to Thomas Willis, an English doctor, he concluded that the brain is
responsible for mental functioning. The human brain consists of three main structures
namely the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brain stem. The brain is like a
computer that inputs information from the environment, processes information and
stores them in memory for later retrieval.

Types of Hemispheres:
1. Left - is associated with logical abilities , handedness, speech
2. Right - is often associated with creativity, spatial reasoning, visual-spatial tasks

The Brain Dominance Theory states that the brain is divided into two hemispheres
and our behavior is a function of the heightened activity of either left or right brain
hemisphere. While, the Whole Brain Model states that the brain is divided into four
quadrants where each is responsible for particular abilities.

Multiple Intelligence developed by Howard Gardner, an American psychologist who

challenged the classical view of intelligence which depends on a single dominant
ability as indicated by an IQ where intelligence has been viewed as the capacity to
understand the world, think rationally and use resources effectively when faced with
challenges. However, for Gardner intelligence is the ability to solve problems or to
produce something in a particular setting. He believes that every individual has
innate intelligence and are expressed in different sensory modalities. This theory
states that there are 8 intelligences namely musical, visual-spatial, interpersonal,
interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, verbal-linguistic, naturalistic, logical-mathematical.

What is Thinking? Thinking is difficult to define. Everyday thinking does not require
effort because we deal with familiar, day-to-day routine. However, we engage in
effortful thinking when we work on puzzles, solve geometry problems, translate
passages into another language or write essays. Different problems require different
ways of thinking. We make plans and predictions and achieve complex goals
because we carry out a sequence of actions in our mind before carrying them out.
Thinking involves manipulating mental representation and prevents us from making a
mistake. There are two types of thinking such as creative thinking and critical
thinking.
Creative Thinking may be defined as the production of effective novelty through the
operation of our mental processes. Creativity depends not only on our ability to do
things but to represent what has been done. Boden suggests that creativity entails
“breaking out” of old conceptual framework and creating new ones. A creative person
can see the relationship of things around and how two different things relate to each
other. By showing through dance, art, music and movement and other forms of
creative activity.
Critical Thinking requires reasoning and judgment to see a better picture of the
information presented to us. This requires logic and coherence as we try to analyze,
synthesize, evaluate and interpret rather than simply apply technical abilities. We try
to evaluate whether we should be convinced that some claim is true or argument is
good. We also formulate good arguments as we evaluate ideas, information and the
sources that provide them.
To determine cause and effect, we need to check possible unstated claims that are
needed to establish the relationship between purported cause and purported effect in
order to make the claim valid and strong. Cause precedes effect, if we make a
mistake, then we reverse cause and effect. In making a generalization, for instance,
we claim something about a population based on our claim about a sample of cases,
but sometimes, the general claim is already the conclusion or the whole argument.
Thus, critical thinking is necessary to avoid such mistake.

Mind Mapping suggested by Tony Buzan, an English author and educational

consultant, to enhance creativity. It is visual thinking tool that utilizes cognitive
functions like memory, learning, creativity and analysis. Ming mapping is a process
that involves a combination of imagery, color and visual-spatial arrangement. The
technique maps out our thoughts using keywords that trigger associations in the
brain to spark further ideas. Thus graphic technique provides a tool to unlock the
potential of the brain by harvesting the full range of cortical skills and spatial
awareness and help improve learning and clarity of thinking. This does not only
create and structure ideas it also helps store new information and test them. Making
a mind map is a kind of drawing connections between the relevant facts or ideas.