Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encouraging Evidence-Based Critical Thinking3/21/2017 ![]() In the article, Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encourageing Evidence-Based Critical Thinking, Kraus, Sears and Burke discuss ways to promote critical thinking in classrooms. They created a seven-step process for critical thinking along with providing teaching modules, which have a variety of teaching methods. “The modules were designed to stimulate interest amongst students, yet be modified to encourage students to think more deeply about current issues in the news or local community (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013).” In addition to thinking more deeply, there is evidence that the modules can increase incentive to think critically outside the classroom, and help students assess their own belief systems (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013). Do you think your students, or students you know, are “drowning in facts?” This statement spoke loudly to me, as this day in age, information is readily available at any moment via the Internet. Many consider the online information they find to be real and believe the sources are reliable. This is where the authors use the word, “Truthiness.” Truthiness is defined as, the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013).” The goal, yet major challenge is that of helping young adults develop critical thinking skills and make informed choices based around truth, not truthiness. Critical thinking is a complex concept involving an intellectually discipline process of skillfully conceptualizing, applying and evaluating information. The authors of this article aimed at creating modules that promote critical and empirical thinking. Thinking about the claim, evaluating the evidence, considering other interpretations and then drawing conclusions. Seven Steps of Critical Thinking
Nine critical thinking modules were tested in college psychology classrooms. Each week they built upon steps previously focused on the prior week’s module. Each module highlighted an informational presentation with a class activity. Modules should be chosen with an end goal in mind to get students to exercise their critical thinking muscles. The study’s modules contained key features for critical thinking: active learning, developmental tension and fascination with the contingency of conclusions. The module topics were: Medical Marijuana and profiling, Autism and Vaccines, Pit Bull Ban, Deal or No Deal (game show), psychic abilities, Astrology activity, Ghost Photos and Star Wars Force Trainer. Each module got the students thinking deeper than just what they believe and knew previously which made critical thinking fun and valuable to some students. For example, the ghost photos- module, students had to dig deeper than saying a photo was photo shopped to actually analyze data. Using critical thinking does not mean you cannot believe in paranormal phenomenon’s, however it requires you to examine the evidence for the beliefs. This type of analyzing went on through each module. The conclusions were based on a standardized test showing the method of teaching critical thinking was working. Scores increased on a deductive reasoning assessment by 17% from the previous study without the module method. Students would benefit from more practice of looking deeper than the surface “truthiness” of information (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013). The author’s hope is that this habit of mind will become rooted with repetition and will be used in everyday decisions such as medical, consumer choices, political decisions and educational decisions. If we are successful in doing this, we can encourage a generation of young adults to think for themselves, rather than rely on what Siri says. I really enjoyed reading this article. It was a good reminder of how many, including myself at times, are “drowning in facts.” Seeing how the Internet and social media is at the tip of our fingers every day and night, we rely so much on instant news, which we don’t really know is true or not. Critical thinking is a crucial life skill that we need to Reference: Kraus, S., Sears, S. R., & Burke, B. L. (2013). Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encouraging Evidence-Based Critical Thinking. Journal of Effective Teaching, 13(2), 83-93.
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March 2017
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