When Can You Trust the Experts? E-Book

Daniel T. Willingham

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 409

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Clear, easy principles to spot what's nonsense and what's reliable Each year, teachers, administrators, and parents face a barrage of new education software, games, workbooks, and professional development programs purporting to be "based on the latest research." While some of these products are rooted in solid science, the research behind many others is grossly exaggerated. This new book, written by a top thought leader, helps everyday teachers, administrators, and family members--who don't have years of statistics courses under their belts--separate the wheat from the chaff and determine which new educational approaches are scientifically supported and worth adopting. * Author's first book, Why Don't Students Like School?, catapulted him to superstar status in the field of education * Willingham's work has been hailed as "brilliant analysis" by The Wall Street Journal and "a triumph" by The Washington Post * Author blogs for The Washington Post and Brittanica.com, and writes a column for American Educator In this insightful book, thought leader and bestselling author Dan Willingham offers an easy, reliable way to discern which programs are scientifically supported and which are the equivalent of "educational snake oil."

Leseprobe

Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What Are You to Believe?

Part One: Why We So Easily Believe Bad Science

Chapter 1: Why Smart People Believe Dumb Things

Unconscious Persuasion

“I’m Trying to Think, but Nothing Happens”

We’re Not That Cool

Chapter 2: Science and Belief

The World Turned Upside Down

The Romantic Impulse

Meta-Beliefs in Education Today

Chapter 3: What Scientists Call Good Science

How Science Works

Observing the World

Speaking Theoretically

Testing, Testing

Safeguarding Science

Chapter 4: How to Use Science

Clarifying the Relationship Between Applied and Basic Research

Method One: Draw on Basic Scientific Knowledge

Method Two: Two Problems, Not Four

Part Two: The Shortcut Solution

Chapter 5: Step One: Strip It and Flip It

Strip It

Flip It

Claims Not Worth Your Time

Chapter 6: Step Two: Trace It

When Authority Fails

Can Authority Work in Education Research?

Chapter 7: Step Three: Analyze It

How to Use Your Experience

Stuff That Masquerades as Evidence

Finding and Interpreting Research Studies

Chapter 8: Step Four: Should I Do It?

Looking Back

The Owl of Minerva

Looking Forward

Name Index

Subject Index

More Praise For When Can You Trust the Experts?

“As a parent, when it was time for my daughter to start school I was overwhelmed by all the claims made about education and then appalled by the level of pseudoscience in the various claims and theories about the best educational method. I didn’t know where to turn because the experts seemed to contradict one another. I wish I had Daniel Willingham’s guide for the educationally perplexed—When Can You Trust the Experts?—when I was trying to sort through the maze of ideas. He has succinctly cut through the obfuscating jargon to reveal what we know and do not know about education. A must-read for parents, educators, and policy makers alike.”—Michael Shermer, publisher, Skeptic magazine; monthly columnist for Scientific American; author, The Believing Brain

“There are a lot of proposals on how to improve education, but too often the current heated debate is fueled by preconceived opinions rather than hard evidence about what actually works. Dan Willingham is determined to change that. In this carefully reasoned, important book, he teaches us how to thoughtfully evaluate educational research in the sincere belief that the debate will benefit from more light and less heat.”—Joel Klein, CEO Education Division, News Corporation; former chancellor, NYC public schools

“The phrase ‘the research says...’ gets used to justify just about every practice in contemporary education, including those for which there’s very little real empirical evidence. So those who want classroom practice to be informed and improved by data may find themselves asking, ‘What does the best research really tell us?’ and, ‘How do you differentiate the real thing from pseudo-science?’ Fortunately, Dan Willingham—for my money the most insightful and readable cognitive scientist in the field—has written a book that can help teachers, and just about everyone, understand the difference.”—Doug Lemov, author, Teach Like a Champion

“Willingham’s latest book offers a vital contribution to our stale school debates. In a clear, step-by-step fashion, he teaches us how to use evidence and reason to understand what is good educational research, how to spot the snake-oil salesmen, and ways to separate fact from fantasy. It is a must-read for policy makers, practitioners, and parents.”—Tony Wagner, author, The Global Achievement Gap and Creating Innovators

“This is a wise, engagingly written book on an important topic. If you see education as an evidence-based field, it would be worthwhile for you to read it. If you see education as an art not amenable to science, it is essential that you read it.” —Russ Whitehurst, director, Brown Center on Education Policy, The Brookings Institution

Copyright © 2012 by Daniel T. Willingham. All rights reserved.

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Pages 253–255 constitute a continuation of the copyright page.

Jacket design by Jeff Puda. Cover Illustrations © istock RF.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Willingham, Daniel T.

When can you trust the experts? : how to tell good science from bad in education / Daniel T. Willingham. — First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-13027-8 (hardcover); ISBN 978-1-118-22569-1 (ebk.); ISBN 9781-1-182-3327-6 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-26310-5 (ebk.)

1. Education—Research. I. Title.

LB1028.W519175 2012

370.72—dc23 2012010764

first edition

This book is dedicated to my children.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

—Francis Bacon

About the Author

Daniel T. Willingham earned his B.A. degree in psychology from Duke University in 1983 and his Ph.D. degree in cognitive psychology from Harvard University in 1990. He is currently professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K–12 education. He writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for American Educator magazine and is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School? (Jossey-Bass, 2009). His writing on education has been translated into ten languages. His website is http://www.danielwillingham.com.

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Dimi Berkner, Wendy Fisher, Tracy Gallagher, Jonathan Haidt, Lisa Hansel, Joe Hartley, Robin Lloyd, Margie McAneny, Jason Millard, Brian Nosek, Denny Proffitt, Samantha Rubenstein, Abe Witonsky, and three anonymous reviewers. My particular thanks to Esmond Harmsworth.

Introduction: What Are You to Believe?

Before obtaining certainty we must often be satisfied with a more or less plausible guess.

—George Polya1

Try this sometime. Ask a friend, “Why do you believe what you believe? What sort of evidence persuades you that someone is right or that a product is good?” This question seldom elicits a careful, thoughtful response. Rather, it elicits silence and narrowed eyes. Most people think that their beliefs are shaped by logic and reason. Your friend will likely detect a whiff of insult in the question.

But our beliefs are fueled by much more than reason and fact. Yes, we are persuaded by solid evidence assembled into arguments that conform to principles of logic. But that’s true only for the messages that we examine, and we don’t have the time to audit every advertisement we hear and blog posting we read. We are pelted by information almost constantly. Just think of the ubiquity of screens. At airport gates, in restaurants, in waiting rooms, in the post office, even in hotel elevators. If a location provides a captive human audience, there is likely to be a screen, flashing updates from Afghanistan, coverage of a golf tournament, or an advertisement for Claritin. Much of this information is not neutral. It is meant to persuade us of something. Yet we don’t have the time or the mental energy to think through every message that comes our way.

Are we influenced by messages that we ignore? I stand in line at my bank and notice a large television behind the teller, displaying a channel exclusive to my bank. An advertisement appears, showing a sedan wending along a New England country road, scattering autumn leaves. I go into a reverie, thinking of the Berkshire mountains. I haven’t consciously noticed the make of the car . . . but am I nevertheless influenced? When I next need a car, even if it’s four years from now, perhaps I’ll be a bit more likely to buy this model because I was exposed to this ad. Will I be more likely to apply for a car loan at this bank, rather than shopping around for the best rate? Is it possible for attitudes to change outside my awareness? Although it makes us uncomfortable to contemplate it, psychological research from the last fifty years indicates that the answer is yes.

Sometimes, of course, I do pay attention to these messages, and I don’t fully trust what I’m hearing. For example, when I read Mother Jones or the Weekly Standard, I am aware that each has a political point of view, and I try to remember that information may be omitted or the interpretation of facts stretched to be consistent with that view. When I hear the president of Iran give a speech, I recall that he has denied that the Holocaust took place, so I am wary of any claim he makes. When I listen carefully to messages, am I able to account for the bias or trustworthiness of the source? To some extent, yes, but not completely.