Teach Me the Right Way to Think

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Clarissa

September 13, 2011

A student interrupts my lecture and asks anxiously, “How come what you are saying is different from what it says in the textbook?”

(Our textbook is written by Carlos Fuentes, a great Mexican writer, whose perspective on Hispanic Civilization is understandably different from mine.)

“Remember how I told you guys at the beginning of the semester that my goal is to introduce you to different perspectives so that you can reach your own conclusions?” I ask. “My goal is not to teach you the right way to think about these issues. I aim to provide you with tools that will allow you to figure out what you think about the subjects we discuss.”

After a pause, another student suggests, “Maybe you should just go ahead and tell us the correct opinions.”

I see many students nod vigorously.

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29 responses to “Teach Me the Right Way to Think”

David Bellamy

September 13, 2011

A true tragedy. I don’t know how to counter this, except by being uncooperative, but we must.

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feMOMhist

September 13, 2011

number one complaint I get on my teaching evaluations is that there is “no right answer” in this class. I now start the class by suggesting that those who prefer certainty should probably enroll in accounting

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1. Patrick
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  Don’t send them to accounting – despite what you may think, there isn’t certainty there either!
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    September 13, 2011
    
    I can hardly think of any area of knowledge where there is one correct point of view accepted by everybody. There are fierce ideological debates among the statisticians, for example. I don’t understand a word of them but I can see that people get all red in the face defending their statistical point of view. 🙂
    
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  Exactly. 🙂 They love hearing “the facts” and writing them down in their notebooks. And then, of course, memorizing them and reproducing them verbatim. I am always stunned at the capacity to memorize and reproduce my students have. This is a skill I lack completely.
  
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3. Diego
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  You and the accounting profs at your school are obviously unaware of Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theory: for any axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of natural numbers there are true propositions about the natural numbers that cannot be proved. In other words, the assumption of certainty in arithmetic was demonstrated as unfounded by Gödel.
  
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Pub Editor

September 13, 2011

Wait, are you describing a class in the American midwest, or is this a story from your days in Soviet Union?

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  No, this happened yesterday. 🙂 Actually, it happens every semester more or less in the same form.
  
  “But what is the correct opinion?” students keep exclaiming, looking very tortured. A couple of students over the years even complained on the teaching evaluations that I refused to provide them with the correct opinion. 🙂 🙂
  
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Patrick

September 13, 2011

Have you ever tried to tell a teacher that they are wrong? Go ahead and poll your students, and see what their experience in the school system tells them about questioning the authority of the teacher.

I would wager that things haven’t changed much in North America in the last 30 years – the Teacher is right. That’s why they’re the Teacher.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  Nothing makes me happier than to hear a student tell me , “I’m sorry but I disagree” or “I think you are wrong.” It means I have achieved my goal and they are now independent thinkers in their own right. It always brings me almost to tears when it happens.
  
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2. feMOMhist
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  hmmm I mean in the humanities there is usually some professorial bias towards a certain interpretation and if you name the incorrect author or give a wrong date you will be corrected, but other than that I don’t even know what sorts of exam questions even have a right or wrong option.
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    September 13, 2011
    
    I actually know somebody in the history department who prides themselves on conducting all the graded assignments in the course in the multiple-choice form. (This is, of course, in the Freshman level course, not graduate courses or advanced undergrad courses, but still!)
    
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    1. Diego
      
      September 13, 2011
      
      Hey, if they are that certain of the truth, why not extend it to ghe graduate level.
      
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      1. bloggerclarissa
        
        September 13, 2011
        
        The rationale is that, at the Freshman level, they just need to know the basic dates, names, and events. Analysis supposedly comes later.
        
        I, However, honestly believe that most dates can be easily found in Google. In the Hispanic Civ course, I ask them to remember 711, 1492, 1898, 1910, 1936 and 1975. And that’s it, date-wise.
        
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        Diego
        
        September 13, 2011
        
        Of the 6 most important events in Spanish civilization, two are the invasion & passing of the aerobics and two are the invasion & passing of Franco. Hmmm….
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 13, 2011
        
        I said I’m biased. 🙂
        
        You just inspired a new post with this comment, so thank you! 🙂
        
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      2. bloggerclarissa
        
        September 13, 2011
        
        And of course, even from this set of dates you can already deduce my personal biases.
        
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3. haveoneonme
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  I would be very curious about the results of that poll, particularly in classes that tend to get ideological very quickly like History or Political Science. Clarissa, what has your experience in your university been? On average, do you feel like your colleagues “show their hand” ideologically, or are they effective about hiding their own biases and teaching multiple interpretations of an event/theory?
  
  This is one of my favorite soapbox topics– higher education shouldn’t be about teaching kids “stuff”… it should be about teaching kids how to think critically about “stuff”.
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    September 13, 2011
    
    I do as much as I can to conceal my own opinions from the students. It’s never possible to do so completely, of course, but I’m trying as hard as I can. 🙂 As for colleagues, I honestly have no idea.
    
    Maybe I should start asking them. Colleagues, if you are reading this, please respond!
    
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David Bellamy

September 13, 2011

I remember being scolded for questioning a teacher when I was seven years old. I don’t think it happened to me after that, and not because I was not outspoken about my opinions.

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Diego

September 13, 2011

I think this is a great teaching moment. It was not until I was at the University of Virginia that I learned that two people could respectfully disagree and that the most devastating argument in a discussion could be, “I don’t understand.”

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FD

September 13, 2011

I literally just facepalmed. Good grief.

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Jonathan

September 13, 2011

What they mean is, what is going to be accepted as the right answer on the test.

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1. Pub Editor
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  +1
  
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Tom

September 13, 2011

I teach Government & Politics to British sixth-formers (aged 16-18) and get the same question all the time. Here’s how I handle it:

The first time I get asked the question by a new class I tell them that they have to think for themselves, and that understanding both (or several) sides of any argument is an essential skill which will be rewarded in examinations (which happens to be true).

The next few times I respond with “well, what do you think?”

Thereafter I supply the most outrageous answer I can think of (or, to be more accurate, the most outrageous answer I can think of which I can defend if a parent wants to make a fuss about it). Occasionally they nod thankfully and write it down but most of the time at least some of them look at me incredulously and challenge what I say, at which point we have an argument.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  “or, to be more accurate, the most outrageous answer I can think of which I can defend if a parent wants to make a fuss about it)”
  
  – I love the British humor. 🙂
  
  This sounds like a great method. I think I will try it and report the results on this blog.
  
  THANK YOU!!!
  
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FD

September 13, 2011

My law tutor informed us in the first session that everyone must have an opinion on everything we cover in class, and everyone will be called upon to state and defend their opinions. No-one, and I mean no-one, was allowed to be neutral, ever. He called neutrality ‘the refuge of the brainless’. 😀

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 13, 2011
  
  “Neutrality is the refuge of the brainless” could totally be a header to my blog. Shit, why didn’t I come up with it first?? 🙂
  
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Anonymous

September 13, 2011

“After a pause, another student suggests, “Maybe you should just go ahead and tell us the correct opinions.”

Well there you go. They don’t want to think and they’ll gladly take the path of least resistance if you make it easy for them. They just want a passing grade on a test. I believe it’s called being lazy.

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