Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims

k 2019

Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Jan, Tomáš ONDRÁČEK, Michal STRÁNSKÝ, Iva SVAČINOVÁ, Paweł ŁUPKOWSKI et. al.

Basic information

Original name

Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims

Authors

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Jan (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Tomáš ONDRÁČEK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Michal STRÁNSKÝ (203 Czech Republic), Iva SVAČINOVÁ (203 Czech Republic) and Paweł ŁUPKOWSKI (616 Poland)

Edition

The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 5–10 August 2019, Prague, 2019

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60301 Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Abstrakt

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/19:00111327

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords (in Czech)

kritické myšlení; pseudověda; výuka; studenti

Keywords in English

critical thinking; pseudo-science; teaching; students

Abstract

V originále

Can teaching have any impact on students' willingness to embrace pseudo-scientific claims? And if so, will this impact be significant. This paper aims to present an ongoing research conducted in two countries and four universities which aims to answer these questions. The research is based on a previous work McLaughlin & McGill (2017). They conducted a study among university students which seems to show that teaching critical thinking can have a statistically significant impact on the acceptance of pseudo-scientific claims by students. They compared a group of students that attended a course on critical thinking and pseudo-scientific theories with a control group of students who attended a course on a general philosophy of science using the same questionnaire containing the pseudo-scientific claims. The questionnaire was administered at the onset of the semester (along with a Pew Research Center Science Knowledge Quiz), and then at the end of the semester. While there was no significant change in a degree of belief in pseudo-scientific claims in the control group, the experimental group showed a statistically significant decrease in belief in pseudo-scientific claims. In the first phase of our research, we conducted a study similar to that of McLaughlin & McGill, though we were not able to replicate their results. There was no significant change in belief in pseudo-scientific claims among the study's participants. This, in our opinion, is due to the imperfections and flaws in both our and McLaughlin & McGills studies. In this paper, we would like to present our research along with the results obtained during its first phase. We will also discuss the shortcomings and limitations of our research and the research it is based on. Finally, we would like to present and discuss future plans for the next phase of our research into the teaching of critical thinking and its transgression of critical thinking in cases focusing on humanities and science. McLaughlin, A.C. & McGill, A.E. (2017): Explicitly Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in a History Course. Science & Education 26(1–2), 93–105. Adam, A. & Manson, T. (2014): Using a Pseudoscience Activity to Teach Critical Thinking. Teaching of Psychology 41(2), 130–134. Tobacyk, J. (2004): A revised paranormal belief scale. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 23, 94–98.

Links

MUNI/A/0945/2018, interní kód MU

Name: Aspekty soudobé filozofie I. (Acronym: Krob)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

Citovat

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Jan, Tomáš ONDRÁČEK, Michal STRÁNSKÝ, Iva SVAČINOVÁ and Paweł ŁUPKOWSKI. Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims. In The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 5–10 August 2019, Prague. 2019.

@proceedings{1579913,
   author = {Štěpánek, Jan and Ondráček, Tomáš and Stránský, Michal and Svačinová, Iva and Łupkowski, Paweł},
   booktitle = {The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 5–10 August 2019, Prague},
   keywords = {critical thinking; pseudo-science; teaching; students},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims},
   url = {https://easychair.org/smart-program/CLMPST2019/2019-08-07.html#talk:94207},
   year = {2019}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1579913
AU  - Štěpánek, Jan - Ondráček, Tomáš - Stránský, Michal - Svačinová, Iva - Łupkowski, Paweł
PY  - 2019
TI  - Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims
KW  - critical thinking
KW  - pseudo-science
KW  - teaching
KW  - students
UR  - https://easychair.org/smart-program/CLMPST2019/2019-08-07.html#talk:94207
L2  - https://easychair.org/smart-program/CLMPST2019/2019-08-07.html#talk:94207
N2  - Can teaching have any impact on students' willingness to embrace pseudo-scientific claims? And if so, will this impact be significant. This paper aims to present an ongoing research conducted in two countries and four universities which aims to answer these questions. The research is based on a previous work McLaughlin & McGill (2017). They conducted a study among university students which seems to show that teaching critical thinking can have a statistically significant impact on the acceptance of pseudo-scientific claims by students. They compared a group of students that attended a course on critical thinking and pseudo-scientific theories with a control group of students who attended a course on a general philosophy of science using the same questionnaire containing the pseudo-scientific claims. The questionnaire was administered at the onset of the semester (along with a Pew Research Center Science Knowledge Quiz), and then at the end of the semester. While there was no significant change in a degree of belief in pseudo-scientific claims in the control group, the experimental group showed a statistically significant decrease in belief in pseudo-scientific claims. In the first phase of our research, we conducted a study similar to that of McLaughlin & McGill, though we were not able to replicate their results. There was no significant change in belief in pseudo-scientific claims among the study's participants. This, in our opinion, is due to the imperfections and flaws in both our and McLaughlin & McGills studies. In this paper, we would like to present our research along with the results obtained during its first phase. We will also discuss the shortcomings and limitations of our research and the research it is based on. Finally, we would like to present and discuss future plans for the next phase of our research into the teaching of critical thinking and its transgression of critical thinking in cases focusing on humanities and science. McLaughlin, A.C. & McGill, A.E. (2017): Explicitly Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in a History Course. Science & Education 26(1–2), 93–105. Adam, A. & Manson, T. (2014): Using a Pseudoscience Activity to Teach Critical Thinking. Teaching of Psychology 41(2), 130–134. Tobacyk, J. (2004): A revised paranormal belief scale. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 23, 94–98.
ER  -

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Jan, Tomáš ONDRÁČEK, Michal STRÁNSKÝ, Iva SVAČINOVÁ and Paweł ŁUPKOWSKI. Impact of Teaching on Acceptance of Pseudo-Scientific Claims. In \textit{The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 5–10 August 2019, Prague}. 2019.

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