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<\/a><\/p>\nFor example: what should you do if you discover contradictory<\/strong> research?<\/p>\n That’s the problem that Blake Harvard faced over at\u00a0Effortful Educator<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here’s the story…<\/p>\n Harvard teaches psychology to high school students. He knows A LOT about the mind and the brain. He’s careful to base his teaching practices on deep knowledge of research.<\/p>\n In fact, he even tries occasional experiments to study different teaching practices in a (relatively) controlled manner. In this post<\/a>, for instance, he writes about his exploration of flexible classroom seating.<\/p>\n In brief, he knows his stuff.<\/p>\n Harvard’s conclusions, at time, challenge current trends. For instance: he describes himself as a relatively traditional teacher: more persuaded by research on direct instruction than by constructivist approaches.<\/p>\n You might not agree with those conclusions. But, if you read his blog, you’ll be impressed by his command of the research.<\/p>\n So, what did Harvard do when he came across research seeming to contradict his beliefs<\/em>?<\/p>\n What if, for instance, a study headline says that students learn more from (“constructivist”) active learning than from a (direct-instruction-y) lecture?<\/p>\n Heck: the study was even highlighted<\/a> in the Harvard Gazette. (To be clear: the Blake Harvard I’m writing about doesn’t work at Harvard, the university in Cambridge, MA.)<\/p>\n After a moment of understandable trepidation<\/a>, Harvard forced himself to do what he tells his psychology students to do: confront their biases<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That is: Harvard (the teacher) thinks that the right kind of lecture will result in more learning than most active learning paradigms: exploratory discussions, for example, or projects.<\/p>\n When he finds research that purports to show the opposite, he had a great opportunity: he could disconfirm his prior convictions<\/em>.<\/p>\n This may be the very best strategy<\/strong> to achieve the goal at the top of this post: to base our teaching on excellent research.<\/p>\n If you think that strategy X will result in the most learning for your students, you should:<\/p>\nThe Setup<\/h2>\n
Key Lesson #1: Try to Prove Yourself Wrong<\/h2>\n