Hi Beth. Since you so kindly offered, I would appreciate receiving a copy of your Do Perfect Parents Make Perfect Children" class exercise. I'm always looking for new/unique activities in my dev psych class that makes the students think.
--- Mark At 05:17 PM 1/5/2009, you wrote: >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]) >Content-Type: >application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; > name="outliers - student handout.docx" >X-Attachment-Id: f_fplne2an0 >Content-Disposition: attachment; > filename="outliers - student handout.docx" > >Content-Type: >application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; > name="outliers - student handout 2.docx" >X-Attachment-Id: f_fplnrrjj1 >Content-Disposition: attachment; > filename="outliers - student handout 2.docx" > >Content-Type: >application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; > name="outliers - explanation from book.docx" >X-Attachment-Id: f_fplomu7z2 >Content-Disposition: attachment; > filename="outliers - explanation from book.docx" ********************************* Mark A. Casteel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Penn State York 1031 Edgecomb Ave. York, PA 17403 (717) 771-4028 ********************************* --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
