Why does the FAA still teach “left brain right brain”?
Posted by One_Rip_5535@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 57 comments
Flipping through my FAA aviation instructors handbook and I’m surprised at the insistence that students can be left brained or right brained and that it’s important to know which your student is as a CFI.
Left / right brain has been debunked for like 30 years. The book also stresses the importance of “learning styles” which have also been disproven (people may think they have a specific learning style but there’s no evidence that individuals learn better one way or another). A simple Google search would dispel this stuff??
This book is from 2023. I know the FAA doesn’t have the greatest reputation when it comes to being smart about psychology (eg their archaic mental health rules) but man I did not know it was this bad!
redditburner_5000@reddit
They're not teaching medical students. They're teaching 20 year olds how to convey concepts to 19 year olds. The goal is to get the new CFI to adapt to different personalities rather than just talking slower and louder.
No need to fix what's working.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
I think they can get their point across without completely squandering any credibility, this just makes them look like they don’t know anything. Theres ways to do this without promoting pseudoscience and it’d probably be even more effective, especially when you consider it could actually be correct. Pedagogy has come a long way and there’s no reason the FAA still needs to push nonsense.
redditburner_5000@reddit
Nobody care about the technical reality of the Left/Right brained thing. The practical intent of "learning styles" is to expose the CFI the idea that different people have different preferences. I like pictures. My wife like words.
We are producing good'nuf CFIs.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
I’d also push back against the idea that we’re producing “good enough” CFIs. Lots of CFIs are bad at teaching.
redditburner_5000@reddit
But they're good enough.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
Don’t you think we could produce better ones if we taught them things that are true / backed up with evidence? Learning styles are also fake. You may have a preference, but the idea that people learn better one way or another based on individual differences is false, and potentially harmful. All of this nonsense has the potential to be harmful. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/learning-styles-myth
redditburner_5000@reddit
Perfect is the enemy of good.
I think there are a thousand other things on the list to worry about before we tackle some pedantic verbiage.
FL060@reddit
Credibility with who though? No one really cares about the FOI outside of aviation.
If you can point to some negative effects on people or some damage to society, then ok, I'm with you. Like to the post above said, it's working.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
Where’s the evidence that teaching nonsense works?
FL060@reddit
https://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics
2025, Table 19.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
That does not answer the question.
Passing check rides is not a basis.
To answer whether teaching “nonsense” (in this case, left / right brain) works, it would make sense to compare it to teaching actual evidence based educational science. I don’t know that anyone has done a good study on this.
But I will say that teaching bs when there’s perfectly good evidence based data that could be taught instead seems sorta dumb.
If you can fly an airplane, you can probably learn some basic pedagogy.
FL060@reddit
It does answer the question though, I just think we differ on premise.
My premise is the same as the prior response, how to get someone to teach concepts with out just speaking louder at a student who doesn't understand something. (I call it loud English).
Are there new pilots being trained by instructors, that they themselves earned their Instructor Certification by way of the FOI? If the answer is yes, then the method is successful. I can look at the data I gave you and make the conclusion that the answer is definitely yes.
My understanding of your premise is that there are some serious issues with information in the FOI. That is a fair criticism, no argument from me. Would having a better understanding of psychology and pedagogy help to make someone a better instructor? Absolutely.
Good luck on your quest to make meaningful changes, the FAA is slower than a glacier.
dodexahedron@reddit
Especially since the people at AAM-300 are literally MDs. They should know better.
1202burner@reddit
Go ahead and mention that at the dinner table at one of my family get togethers, almost half my family is in the medical field.
Just mention some dumbass shit that some random doctor did or said, watch my family members go into a full blown unhinged TED talk about how a not small number of MDs out there are "astonishingly fucking stupid".
Usually it ends with them saying "I can't wait to retire".
supermatt614@reddit
Agreed. They taught Equal Transit Theory for lift up until I think the most recent version of the PHAK. I know lift is complex, but that doesn't justify teaching something that's just demonstrably wrong. I don't know if the ETT will ever go away as a result of teaching it for this many generations haha
UpdateDesk1112@reddit
You should totally tell the FAA how to make pilots. I’m sure you know more than anybody.
Lord_Giles@reddit
Studying the FAR/masutra provides adequate information about how to make pilots, but is not always accurate with reguards to modern science.
UpdateDesk1112@reddit
Is it a science textbook or is it designed to make pilots?
DuelingPushkin@reddit
Well the flight instructor handbook is claiming to teach the psychology behind instruction, so yes, its a supposedly a science textbook by the FAA's own claims.
UpdateDesk1112@reddit
It is a guide to help provide the fundamentals of instruction. Simplifications and generalities are used to get basics across to people who don’t need a deep dive into the latest studies. That is not a textbook.
DuelingPushkin@reddit
You can simplify information and just hit the wave tops without teaching information thats just straight up wrong.
braided--asshair@reddit
I remember one time I said the engine on my Archer was naturally aspirated instead of normally aspirated (the mean the same fucking thing) on my PPL oral and I got chewed on it for not using the proper name.
Stick to the book and nothing but the book.
320sim@reddit
The brain IS divided into hemispheres with certain cognitive functions normally being performed by one side over the other. What doesn't hold water is the reductionist understanding of brain hemispheres that portrays them as two selves that take turns thinking. You are always using both to different degrees.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
Yes this is what I meant, sorry. Not that there aren’t opposite sides of it that do different things, but that there isn’t any evidence someone might have a dominance from one side or the other and then have personality traits in line with that
f0xns0x@reddit
While it’s a little off topic, I think you two should check out the ‘split brain’ experiments. You’d be surprised at how the two halves of our brain operate and interact.
lakeeffectcpl@reddit
There isn't even 100% agreement on why planes fly other than PFM.
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
This is true
otherwisepandemonium@reddit
I'm a weirdo who has to write and swing a bat/club left handed, but I have to do literally everything else right handed, particularly tasks aside from writing that require fine motor skills like scissors or knives.
MultiMillionMiler@reddit
Left brain for right rudder I assume is the priority?
LeagueResponsible985@reddit
MORE LEFT BRAIN!
Headoutdaplane@reddit
Cooperate to graduates
LeagueResponsible985@reddit
And don't wanter too far from the FAA's books. I talked about Yerkes-Dodson's theories on stress and learning in my CFI oral. I got a blank stare back from my DPE.
CNA107@reddit
The FAA is notorious for massive problems with bureaucracy. They have a lot of very outdated rules around mental health, and for the most part, their policies cause more harm than good. Pilots will try to hide health issues to keep their jobs when they desperately need treatment. Funnily enough, their hyper vigilance around safety actually in this case creates more of a safety issue than otherwise.
grain_farmer@reddit
I wonder what it would take for a change short of a tragedy at a US airline
LeagueResponsible985@reddit
Tragedy is what keeps the mental health rules in place. The principal job of the FAA is to promote safety. The reason why the current rules are in place is because the FAA wants to avoid an incident like Germanwings 9525 or AIr India 171 occurring here.. The only way the mental health rules will change is if Congress tells the FAA to change them.
SilentPlatypus_@reddit
The poor guy who suffered a mental break on the Horizon flight because he was self-medicating actually did help. There were a bunch of mainstream articles about how the FAA's stance on mental health was causing people to conceal their health issues instead of treating them. The FAA was publicly defensive about it and took some small steps in the right direction.
kmac6821@reddit
It takes people within the FAA to go after these types of issues.
Bureaucratic inertia is a thing. In order to make a change, one must work seemingly uphill to move away from the status quo. This takes incredible dedication for making even minor changes.
A lot of times, the job is plenty busy with day-to-day activities that tackling other issues isn’t just personally worth it.
DankVectorz@reddit
It’s more just a phrase to get the point across that people have different learning styles
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/learning-styles-myth
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
People don’t have different learning styles though. That’s also disproven
DataGOGO@reddit
Because you are reading far too much into it. The FAA is not saying that the debunked right / left brain activity corresponding to personality types is right (which is neurology, not psychology). They are using it as a common way to describe different personality types with a common phrase that just about everyone understands.
As for learning styles, ugh, not really. People vary in abilities (e.g., strong spatial visualization, verbal skills, or motor learning), prior knowledge, motivation, and effective strategies, and do in fact have learning preferences (Pashler et al; 2008). The FAA is not writing a Neurology, or psychology, text books, they are communicating with with potential CFI's to in common langue.
No, the mental health rules are not archaic, they are bit overly cautious in some areas, but people with mental health disorders have no place in an cockpit, period.
Sounds to me that you went looking for something to post on Reddit that would make you sound intelligent, and you failed miserably. I hope you never become a CFI.
perispomene@reddit
The FAA has a list of hazardous attitudes that are related to pilot error. They screen pilots for none of them. Their recommendation for people who have them is "do better". Only one of those attitudes is related to depression.
They treat issues that happened 20 years ago or during teen years like they happened yesterday, as though people do not develop. They give no real ability to AMEs to not defer for psych reasons like they can for many other potentially dangerous conditions like hypertension. This is because they don't have reasonable standards for what is actually dangerous.
For ADHD, that require the Cogscreen. But only if you're identified. If not, you can have ADHD and be a pilot. Why not screen all pilots if it's that useful?
Why do they consider it safer for a pilot to be off meds than on meds? When it comes to hypertension, the standard is opposite. If the meds treat the condition appropriately, that's fine, don't stop.
I think anyone who makes these blanket statements about mental health should be willing to wait a year and spend $6-8k on their medical to go through the same testing. How do we know you don't have a problem?
TxAggieMike@reddit
My concept of Left Brain (video is worth watching to end).
DisregardLogan@reddit
They’re not really great in terms of medical/human science as we’ve seen with their medical system
hanjaseightfive@reddit
Not me. I was donkey-brained.
SaratogaFlyer@reddit
Frank?
UpdateDesk1112@reddit
Is it a science textbook or is it designed to make pilots?
Illustrious-Run3591@reddit
Because the US has become progressively deregulated since the '80s
JumboTrijet@reddit
You’re mostly right. The whole “people are either left brained or right brained” thing is definitely oversimplified and pretty outdated at this point, and rigid “learning styles” don’t have much evidence behind them either.
That said, there is some real hemispheric specialization in neuroscience. For example, language functions are often more left-lateralized, while certain spatial and pattern-recognition tasks lean more right-sided. The problem is when that gets turned into “this student is a right-brain learner” or something similarly simplistic.
I think the FAA’s actual intent is reasonable — good instructors should adapt how they teach to different students — but the terminology in the handbook feels about 20 years behind.
zheryt2@reddit
Just wait until you get to phak chapter 5
BeenThereDoneThat65@reddit
Google is your empirical data?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA
One_Rip_5535@reddit (OP)
Please show me the empirical data proving left brain / right brain
BeenThereDoneThat65@reddit
There is plenty of it
TheOldBeef@reddit
The Aviation Instructor's Handbook is only for passing your CFI checkride, after that use it for kindling.
BrtFrkwr@reddit
Much in the FAA has been "debunked for like 30 years."
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Flipping through my FAA aviation instructors handbook and I’m surprised at the insistence that students can be left brained or right brained and that it’s important to know which your student is as a CFI.
Left / right brain has been debunked for like 30 years. The book also stresses the importance of “learning styles” which have also been disproven (people may think they have a specific learning style but there’s no evidence that individuals learn better one way or another). A simple Google search would dispel this stuff??
This book is from 2023. I know the FAA doesn’t have the greatest reputation when it comes to being smart about psychology (eg their archaic mental health rules) but man I did not know it was this bad!
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