{"id":5251,"date":"2019-12-22T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2019-12-16T20:05:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T01:05:31","slug":"a-holiday-present-for-the-teacher-skeptic-in-beta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/a-holiday-present-for-the-teacher-skeptic-in-beta\/","title":{"rendered":"A Holiday Present for the Teacher\/Skeptic (in Beta)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teachers who rely on research to inform our teaching–presumably, that’s YOU–routinely hear that we must be skeptical<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Don’t just believe everything you hear. When someone says that their suggestion is ‘brain based,’ you’ve got to kick the tires.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. Of course. But: how EXACTLY do we do that? What’s the most effective method for skepticism?<\/p>\n

Pens and Laptops<\/h2>\n

Let’s take a specific example.<\/p>\n

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

You’ve probably heard “research shows” that handwritten<\/em> notes are more effective than notes taken on laptops<\/em>. That is: students who take notes by hand remember more than those who take notes on their computers.<\/p>\n

If you hunt down the source of that information, you’ll almost certainly end up at Mueller and Oppenheimer’s wittily titled study<\/a>\u00a0The Pen is Mightier than the Laptop.\u00a0<\/em>It made a big splash when it came out in 2014, and its waves have been lapping over us ever since.<\/p>\n

Once you find that source, your thought process might go like this:<\/p>\n

Step 1<\/strong>: “Look! Research shows that handwritten notes are superior. I shall forbid laptops forthwith!”<\/p>\n

Step 2<\/strong>: “Wait a minute…I’ve been told to be skeptical. Just because Mueller and Oppenheimer say so (and have research to support their claim), I shouldn’t necessarily believe them.”<\/p>\n

Step 3<\/strong>: “Hmmm. How exactly can I be skeptical?”<\/p>\n

So, here’s my holiday present for you: a website that makes effective skepticism noticeably easier…<\/em><\/p>\n

Check the Scitation<\/h2>\n

The website scite.ai<\/a> leads with this catchy slogan: “making science reliable.”<\/p>\n

At least, it’s helping make science reliabler<\/em>. Or, more reliable.<\/p>\n

Here’s how. Surf over to the website, put in the name of the article, and press the magic button.<\/p>\n

Scite will then tell you…<\/p>\n

…how many later studies have confirmed<\/em> its findings,<\/p>\n

…how many simply\u00a0mention<\/em> its findings,<\/p>\n

…and how many contradict<\/em> its findings.<\/p>\n

In this case, you’ll discover that\u00a024<\/strong> studies mention Mueller and Oppenheimer’s study, 1<\/strong> contradicts<\/a> it, and 0<\/strong> confirm it. That’s right. Zero.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, according to Scite, you’ve got as much research encouraging laptop notes as you do decrying them. But: one of those studies is remarkably famous. And, the other simply isn’t known.<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n

What should you do with this initial information?<\/p>\n

At this point, I think the obvious answer is that we don’t have an obvious answer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Probably, you want to keep looking for further evidence on both sides of the case.<\/p>\n

You might find this summary<\/a> over at the Learning Scientists, where Dr. Megan Sumeracki walks through the nuances and complexities of the research.<\/p>\n

You might also find my own article<\/a> arguing that the Mueller and Oppenheimer research makes sense only if you believe that students can’t learn to do new things<\/em>. (That’s a strange belief for a teacher to have.) If you believe students\u00a0can\u00a0<\/em>learn new things, then their own data suggest that laptop notes ought to be better.<\/p>\n

At a minimum, I hope, you’ll feel empowered in your skepticism. Now you–unlike most people who quote Mueller and Oppenheimer–have a broader picture of the research field. You can start using your judgment and experience to guide your thinking.<\/p>\n

An Important Caveat<\/h2>\n

I don’t know how long scite.ai has been around, but it’s in beta. And, truth be told, it’s not wholly reliable.<\/p>\n

For instance: in 2011, Ramirez and Beilock did a study<\/a> showing that writing about stress before an exam can reduce that stress (for anxious students).<\/p>\n

In 2018, Camerer et al tried and failed<\/a> to replicate those results (and several other studies as well).<\/p>\n

When I searched on Ramirez’s study in scite, it showed only one contradiction: a study about “aural acupuncture.”\u00a0In other words: scite missed an important non-replication, and included an irrelevant finding.<\/p>\n

So, you shouldn’t use this website as your only skepticism strategy.<\/p>\n

But, as of today, you’ve got one more than you did before. Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n

\n

If you’re looking for other skepticism strategies for the holidays, check out this work<\/a> by Blake Harvard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new website helps us confirm — or disconfirm — research findings that (perhaps) ought to guide our teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-5251","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\/5251","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=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5258,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}