{"id":3558,"date":"2018-06-28T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2018-06-26T09:33:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T14:33:49","slug":"critical-psychology-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/critical-psychology-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Be A Critical Psychology Consumer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers who want to shape our practice with research find ourselves taking on extra responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AdobeStock_96027478_Credit.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2130 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AdobeStock_96027478_Credit-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AdobeStock_96027478_Credit-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AdobeStock_96027478_Credit-1024x685.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>In particular, we should probably hone our skills at investigating the research we use.<\/p>\n<p>Are we sure &#8212; or, sure enough &#8212; that the research is well done? How do we know whom to trust?<\/p>\n<p>Over at The Effortful Educator, Blake Harvard has 3 <a href=\"https:\/\/theeffortfuleducator.com\/2018\/06\/20\/teachers-as-critical-consumers-of-pd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">very practical suggestions<\/a>\u00a0for considering &#8220;research based&#8221; advice offered during PD sessions.<\/p>\n<p>Note, in particular, his emphasis on adapting research to your own situation. As I said in a post just 2 days ago: don&#8217;t just\u00a0<em>do this thing<\/em>. Instead, PD might help you\u00a0<em>think this way.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Happy Timing&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>Just after I wrote the short post above, I found a useful addition over at 3-Star Learning Experiences.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com\/2018\/06\/26\/working-in-an-evidence-informed-way\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this post<\/a>,\u00a0Mirjam Neelen &amp; Paul A. Kirschner offer a usefully complex mental model for integrating research, technology, society and teaching.<\/p>\n<p>And, they&#8217;ve got specific strategies for evaluating the evidence that might influence your teaching practice.<\/p>\n<p>When you first try them out, these strategies will take some time, and some real mental effort. But: once you get into these habits, you&#8217;ll find yourself seeing past weak claims with increasing frequency.<\/p>\n<h2>For Example: Men and Women, and Sleep<\/h2>\n<p>As you may remember, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1111\/jsr.12651\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this<\/a> study <a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/sleeplessness-harms-women\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">back in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In it, the authors claim that sleeplessness interferes with <strong>men&#8217;s<\/strong> working memory, but not <strong>women&#8217;s<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, when you read the methodology section of the study, the flaw quickly becomes clear. Researchers <em>made claims about working memory<\/em>, but they <em>tested short-term memory<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As you read more and more studies with Neelen and Kirschner&#8217;s guidance in mind, you&#8217;ll spot this kind of discrepancy with increasing ease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers who want to shape our practice with research find ourselves taking on extra responsibilities. In particular, we should probably hone our skills at investigating the research we use. Are we sure &#8212; or, sure enough &#8212; that the research is well done? How do we know whom to trust? Over at The Effortful Educator, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3562,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions\/3562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}