Students don't learn what we teach them. I have repeated this many times to conservatives who complain what kids these days are being taught in school. It's not the curriculum, it's the culture.
I have a friend who mentions every other time we get together that if people were given more and better science education they wouldn't believe so much crap. It sounds inviting, but there is ample contradictory evidence. This APA study shows that students still believe psychology myths immediately after completing introductory psych courses, even when those beliefs were actively corrected by the professors. To be fair, anti-myth advocacy did seem to help a little, at least in the short term. What students learn in class does not seem to be the primary driver of their opinions. Opinions come from social networks.
I think the arrow of causality goes in the other direction. People who believe that experiments, logic,m and evidence can bring us closer to the truth will enter fields that adhere to that. Not foolproof by any means, but a tendency.
BTW I did not download the whole study so I am not sure what myth is being referenced some entries above. Most of them I can tell, but some are ambiguous - many psychology professors believe in priming and implicit bias, for example, and those are myths - while others on the list don't give enough information. It is interesting that females are more likely to believe the myths and keep believing them. I choose to think this supports my theory of opinions having large social components.
2 comments:
Are the truth-values of all the items on that list established so definitively that we can say 'incorrect answer' and be sure of that conclusion?
I was a high school physics teacher. More and better science education doesn't have much to do with psychology myths. Psychology is in the Social Studies Department. A solid science student would insist that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
beliefs were actively corrected by the professors. doesn't constitute extraordinary proof.
Take item number 1, 'subliminal messages'.
An instructor could insert a subliminal message into the start of every class, and ask a question related to the message. Do that for a half-dozen classes, then reveal to the students how ineffective the subliminal message worked.
That might work. Telling students that theaters inserting a popcorn frame does not improve concession sales, is not persuasive.
I'm just guessing on the subliminal messages misconception.
Experts propagated the learning styles myth, and now the instructor, another expert, is refuting it.
There are 40 misconceptions on this list. How much time does an instructor put into correcting these misconceptions, and how persuasively?
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