{"id":4747,"date":"2019-06-27T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4747"},"modified":"2019-06-15T10:43:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T15:43:36","slug":"debunking-education-myths-without-accidentally-reinforcing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/debunking-education-myths-without-accidentally-reinforcing-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking Education Myths (Without Accidentally Reinforcing Them…)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sadly, lots of learning myths clutter the field of education.<\/p>\n

Right-brain\/left-brain thinking? Myth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The “learning pyramid”? Myth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, of course, “learning styles”? Epic myth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How can we best combat all these myths?<\/p>\n

As teachers and school leaders, we see an obvious strategy<\/strong>. If we want people to stop thinking the\u00a0wrong thing<\/em>, we should teach them the\u00a0right thing.<\/em><\/p>\n

More information, more skill in processing that information, will save the day.<\/p>\n

Or, Not…<\/h2>\n

Alas, we’ve got lots of research showing that this obvious strategy doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

In fact, it produces “backfire effects.”<\/p>\n

The more we talk about about all the facts that rebut the myth, the more familiar the myth seems<\/em>. Our attempts to undo a myth turn out to reinforce it — simply because people hear so much about it.<\/p>\n

Another problem: the more facts we use to rebut myths, the less mental processing space people have to consider them. As is so often the case: when trying to rebut myths, less<\/em> information is more<\/em> powerful.<\/p>\n

A Handy Resource<\/h2>\n

Happily, John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky have produced “The Debunking Handbook<\/a>” to help us end myths without reinforcing them.<\/p>\n

The focus on highly practical strategies:<\/p>\n

Using best alternative explanations<\/p>\n

Using graphics<\/p>\n

Limiting contradictory information<\/p>\n

With this handbook as a guide, you can help your colleagues get past the quaint falsehoods that interfere with learning.<\/p>\n

And as a result, you’ll clear up time for the teaching strategies that truly help students flourish.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enduring education myths get in the way of student learning. Happily, we have concrete strategies to rebut those myths — without unintentionally making them seem more persuasive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-4747","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\/4747","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=4747"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4754,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747\/revisions\/4754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}