1/2 The purpose of general eduction science is to teach students science literacy and critical thinking, yet many courses focus on facts. Science isn’t just what we know, it’s how we know.
There is a better way: Teach skills, not facts.
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2/2 To help students evaluate claims, I created a toolkit (FLOATER) that summarizes key scientific and critical thinking concepts.
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@ThinkingPowers
Thank you for this. I’ve been teaching a science reasoning class to 9th grade students and it is very similar to how you describe your class!
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@t_r_andson
Wonderful! I’d love to hear more, if you’re wiling.
Also, you may (hopefully?!) find useful content for your students and yourself on my website.
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@ThinkingPowers
So important to see this message repeated. Education that focusses & rewards memorization for the "A" is doing society a huge disservice. Even in hlthcare education, memorization is stressed in order to pass licensing exams while critical thinking is omitted bc it takes up time.
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@ThinkingPowers
I taught at a very popular and leading science museum decades ago. Kids and adults alike loved it.
I thought the techniques we used would be adopted into schools. I do NOT understand why they weren't.
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@ThinkingPowers
I agree, but it's slow. It'll take about 2 millennia, I estimate. Reason: Galen used experiments, but his students only wanted to learn what he knew, not how he learned it. Aristotle introduced empiricism to Western thought, but the Age of Empiricism started in the 17th Century.
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@ThinkingPowers
Thoughts on how to balance cognitive load theory with your stance? A lot of science suggests that thinking REQUIRES facts and vice versa…an oversimplification, of course, but I’ve observed damaging orthodoxy from both “facts only” and “critical thinking” camps
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