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Uses and abuses of science journalism: introducing psychology students to empiricism

Uses and abuses of science journalism: introducing psychology students to empiricism . Ian Wells University of East London School of Psychology LONDON, E15 4LZ i.r.wells @uel.ac.uk Twitter: @PY1105. What influences students’ problems with the transition to HE ?.

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Uses and abuses of science journalism: introducing psychology students to empiricism

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  1. Uses and abuses of science journalism: introducing psychology students to empiricism Ian Wells University of East LondonSchool of PsychologyLONDON, E15 4LZ i.r.wells@uel.ac.uk Twitter: @PY1105

  2. What influences students’ problems with the transition to HE ?

  3. (Harvey, Drew & Smith, 2006; Gorard, Smith, May, Thomas, Adnett & Slack, 2006) • social and academic integration • The mismatch between student expectations and their experiences • A lack of appropriate academic study skills

  4. ‘A lack of appropriate academic study skills’ • The ‘official’ approach • A ‘Study Skills’ Module • A prescribed ‘Skills’ Curriculum BUT

  5. Study Skills that have already served students well may have to be ‘unlearnt’ (Chew, 2008) • Was the ‘Skills’ module delivering everything we wanted ? • Higher order Cognitive skills • ‘Critical Thinking’ • Empiricism or ‘Scientific Thinking’

  6. The Problem of Transfer • Does training transfer from one domain to another ? (Barnett & Ceci, 2002) • Some evidence for particular teaching methods being successful (Nisbett, Fong, Lehmann & Cheng, 1987)

  7. A new Level 1, 1st Semester Module • ‘Thinking Like a Psychologist’ • Separate from ‘Research Methods/Stats’ • Separate from the ‘official’ Skills module • Using examples of Science reporting from the popular press to illustrate the cognitive skills we want students to develop

  8. Simple Examples

  9. The Daily Mail

  10. Reading original sources • Just because it’s in a journal doesn’t mean it’s right • Need to constantly engage critical faculties

  11. More complex Ideas • Experimental Control • The case of ‘Clever Hans’ • The story of Rom Houben

  12. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8375326.stm

  13. Involving the students

  14. Results • The problem of assessment • Anecdotal • In-class assessment – Do they recognise similar issues ? • http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Maggie-the-Dog-Does-Math

  15. Performance on Cognitive Reflection Test (Frederick,2005) • Those taking the module v control group • t(86)=2.95, p=.01, alpha =.43

  16. Performance on other modules • Those taking the module v control group • t(86)=2.25, p=01, alpha=.37

  17. Summary • It appears to be working • This years 3rd year cohort will be the first to graduate having done the module • Developing an on-line database of examples • Twitter: @PY1105 • We need a measure of ‘scientific’ thinking

  18. Thank you

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