Jim
Two thoughts.
First, you asked in your original post whether students were resistant to some
ideas. Of course they are (I think that is well documented) but in this
particular case the more likely explanation is that they did not learn the
specific information and/or they did not learn the general principle (that you
wanted them to learn).
Second, the Dovido study is quite specific. Is that really a general principle
that Black applicants are preferred in "strong" and "weak" conditions? That
seems to fly in the face of an enormous amount of research showing the general
principle that Blacks are disadvantaged in many circumstances although
particularly when the information is ambiguous. So in your original question I
think one general principle ("discrimination still happens today much more than
we realize") is quite nicely captured by the answer "all of the above".
Marie
Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor l Department of Psychology
Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College
Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971
Office hours: Monday 10:30-11:30, Tuesday and Wednesday 2:00-3:30 PM
http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Clark [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013 11:02 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: RE:[tips] Student resistance to some ideas?
Hi
Thanks to all for the thoughtful comments. I would just like to focus on one
issue, nicely contextualized by Annette's comment below about the need to rebut
every individual myth.
Ultimately I think most of us want students to acquire general principles
rather than specific facts. In my case, it is the general principle that
discrimination is more likely to occur under ambiguous circumstances, perhaps
because the ambiguity provides an acceptable (albeit racially selective)
rationale for the "discrimination." Students are exposed to a number of
studies illustrating the evidence for and application of this principle. I
deliberately do NOT describe the study I want to see if they can generalize to,
although I sometimes mention such a scenario casually in lecture. What I am
explicitly interested in is whether they acquire and can use the principle to
predict what would happen under other situations with similar properties (i.e.,
ambiguity). After all, there are innumerable scenarios in the real world where
the principle would apply and we cannot possibly teach them all.
Here's a link to the (non-taught) study I would like them to generate accurate
predictions for. If you look at Table 1, Black applicants are actually
preferred in the Strong and Weak conditions, in marked contrast to the White
preference in the Ambiguous condition.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/_media/pdf/Reference%20Media/Dovidio_Gaertner_2000_Discrimination.pdf
I'll think about rewording the question, as several people have suggested
(e.g., describing more concretely scenarios from the Dovidio study), but also
consider other ways to promote generalization in class. Perhaps an activity
like having students generate scenarios under which they think discrimination
would occur and explain why, with classroom discussion?
Thanks again for the comments.
Take care
Jim
James M. Clark
Professor & Chair of Psychology
[email protected]
Room 4L41A
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB
R3B 0R4 CANADA
>>> Annette Taylor <[email protected]> 28-Apr-13 10:16 AM >>>
Hi Jim:
In my work on dispelling student misconceptions my colleague and I have found
in over a decade of research that the most efficient approach requires you to
activate the misconception and THEN show them why that misconception leads to
unsupported predictions and THEN ALSO to show that there is evidence for a
conception that is more predictive and more supported by the evidence so that
the state of the world that the evidence supports is a more fruitful way to
think about things.
We have also found that we have to dispel each common misconception (see
Scott's 50 myths for what is really a compilation of about 200 myths (sorry
Scott, I haven't counted them all up!)) on a one-by-one basis. There is NO
TRANSFER because each seems to sit as an independent type of factoid within the
students' minds.
I suspect something similar is happening for you here. You really have to
attack these misconceptions directly, assertively, vigorously and
refutationally. Otherwise they are unlikely to change.
Annette
Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
Professor, Psychological Sciences
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
[email protected]
________________________________________
Subject: Student resistance to some ideas?
From: "Jim Clark" <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:21:10 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
Hi
In my culture and psych course, I spend some time on the idea that (at least in
modern times) overt discrimination tends to be observed mostly under ambiguous
situations (e.g., poking studies, ignoring evidence showing innocence in mock
trials, ...). Nonetheless, when I ask students on tests whether discrimination
in favor of white versus non-white applicants is more likely when a. both have
strong qualifications b. both have moderate qualifications c. both have weak
qualifications d. all of the above
Students overwhelmingly choose d. all of the above, even when I occasionally
mention casually in class something very close to this scenario.
Is there something wrong with the question? Do people have other examples
where students appear resistant to acceptance of some taught idea?
Take care
Jim
James M. Clark
Professor & Chair of Psychology
[email protected]
Room 4L41A
204-786-9757
204-774-4134 Fax
Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB
R3B 0R4 CANADA
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