Do I have a post left today? Thank you very much for the handouts. Anything hockey flies with me :)
Hey, my son is a hockey referee and was born in February---way down south in southern california! Of course, the age/date thing always held here as well :) Competitive sports are the same all over. And the politics involved are probably equally horrendous--well, maybe not....I bet it's a lot worse in Canada. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 17:17:43 -0500 >From: "Beth Benoit" <[email protected]> >Subject: [tips] using "Outliers" in the classroom >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > I've found Malcolm Gladwell's newest book, Outliers, > as fascinating as his earlier books. In past years, > I've used "Do Perfect Parents Make Perfect > Children?" (from The Tipping Point), as a classroom > exercise, often as an icebreaker in Child Psychology > and Human Development. (Feel free to email me if > you'd like this exercise. I have students break > into groups and choose which answers they think, as > a group, are correct about specific parenting > practices that they agree are likely to produce > children with better grades in grade school. Things > like taking the child to museums, reading to the > child, the child being adopted, etc. Then I go over > the "real" answers - according to statistical > findings - and give students the book's explanation. > I have put it in two Word documents - one a > questionnaire for students and the other with the > "correct answers," with credit given to the author.) > Gladwell has made some interesting claims in this > new book that factors that contribute to successful > outcomes in life may be more dependent on things > like birth dates, ethnic persuasion, etc. The > section I'm considering using is the claim that > Canadian ice hockey players are more likely to be > born in the first few months of the calendar year. > I'll probably follow the same method as > above, breaking students into groups to examine the > roster I'll hand out, then giving them Gladwell's > explanation. > I printed up and attached one of the rosters he > includes in his book: the roster for the Medicine > Hat Tigers. I've also printed up his explanation > from the book. But this time, I decided to do some > sleuthing of my own, and found that ol' Malcolm > might have selected the team rosters that best fit > his theory. (Gee, nobody in psychology ever does > that.) When I looked at the 2009 IIHF World Junior > Championship (played on Christmas Eve, 2008), I > found that out of three Canadian teams I looked at, > this outlier dispersion didn't seem quite so > prominent. 41 out of the 70 players were born from > April 1st on, and 22 of the 70 players were born > after June 30th. True, out of 70 players, only one > was born in December. I think that after students > have examined the Medicine Hat Tigers roster, then > gone over Gladwell's explanation, I will hand out a > few of the other rosters to show that critical > thinking is also important and we may need to be > wary of quick claims which may not be quite as > impressive as they're touted to be. > I've attached all three handouts. Feel free to use > them if you think they'd work in your classroom. > (Again, I gave credit to Malcolm Gladwell, of > course.) > I'd also be interested in thoughts from our Canadian > brethren about the concept of early birthdates being > helpful to hockey success. Stephen, Chris? > Beth Benoit > Granite State College > New Hampshire > -- > "We will not learn how to live in peace by killing > each other's children." - Jimmy Carter > "Are our children more precious than theirs?" > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) >________________ >outliers - student handout.docx (32k bytes) >________________ >outliers - student handout 2.docx (54k bytes) >________________ >outliers - explanation from book.docx (16k bytes) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
