When hemispheric dominance was tested in each of the four learning styles, Quadrants
Two and Three revealed a tendency to left mode bias, whereas Quadrants One and Four were
right-mode biased. It is to the bottom of the 4MAT cycle in Quadrants Two and Three that
schools primarily function thereby reinforcing the notion of students as passive receptacles.
The back and forth movement between Two and Three are what McCarthy refers to as the
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pendulum style of teaching. By its very nature, it engages only two-eighths or twenty-five
percent of the learners.
Because findings from the McCarthy Hemispheric Mode Indicator revealed that right, left
and wholebrained learners are present in each of the four quadrants, the 4MAT model added
alternating right-mode and left-mode brain function to each quadrant in effect creating a
wheel with eight equal wedges.