If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.
Bertrand Russell
If there’s one tip I might offer on how to think better it would this: try to explore rather than confirm your biases.
I have spent a lot of time actively seeking out evidence which disconfirms my biases and then having a really good think about why I’m resistant. As a case in point, when I visited Michaela School there were a number of aspects of their work which surprised me. Instinctively it ‘felt wrong’. I wrote today about their decision not to display students’ work after spending the week looking for evidence that countered my instincts and thinking about why I might be wrong. I could have spent the week looking for evidence for why my instinct was correct and I have no doubt I would have found it.
I’m not saying I’m right. God knows I’m often and spectacularly wrong. But not more than anyone else. And I do think I’m pretty good at acknowledging errors, admitting mistakes and thinking about what else might be true.
You see, generally we use our ability to reason to confirm our biases. We look for evidence we are right and By Jingo! we find it. QED. This is remarkably easy to do. Much harder to look for flaws and blind spots in our thinking and explore them vigorously.
So whilst I’ve come to expect it, I’m always a little bit disappointed when the response to a blog post is for readers to take the ‘Yeah, but’ approach and assemble easy to find evidence that what they always thought to be true is, in fact, true. C’mon; try harder. Make an effort to explore rather than confirm.
Because seriously, what if you’re wrong?
Thanks for this and for taking the time to look into why you might be wrong on these issues. That’s healthy and (God forbid!) is the epitome of “critical thinking”. Now, about those other 21st century skills…
I think one issue we have is how we form opinions about an issue, which is where the media, the research and things like blogs written by educators comes into play. I look at all of the myths that we have in education and wonder how we got here–lots has to do with interests who stand to make some cash off of schools, particularly where ed tech is involved. Others have an ideological axe to grind (“Teachers’ unions are evil!”). But then, the adherents of specific pedagogical models–often just teachers–tend to develop a comfort level with a specific type of teaching and are loathe to accept intereference. This last one is the toughest to change, as we (I’m a teacher too) tend to strongly believe that what we do matters to the kids in front of us and to society at large. I will admit to being about as pigheaded as they come when I’m asked to try something new in the classroom.
But this last is where Dan Willingham’s book on evidence comes in–if we can actually develop a legitimate cadre of researchers and research standards, we can get away from the dynamic of “administrative brain fart leads to disastrous educational policy initiative” (I’m looking at you, LAUSD and your iPad train wreck) and maybe us pigheads will be more open to The New of The Different.
[…] So there you go. Make of this what you will. The lesson – if there is one – is that it pays to be skeptical and to withhold judgment rather than leaping to confirm our biases. Because seriously, what if you’re wrong? […]
I’ve been following developments regarding cognitive psychology and learning for a few years now and it makes perfect sense to me (I’ve read Willingham, Daisy Christodoulou, Stephen Coe, pre ordered your new book, David), and the other day I was at a big conference where they talk was of 21st Century skills, project based learning, guide on the side etc. and I thought- how can all these well intentioned people be so wrong? Do they not know that another view exists? I’ve passed on many blog posts and papers in recent years to senior admin, and none of it gets any traction- I feel I’m in the midst of a mid career crisis! (Actually its not that bad- I try to apply the good practice suggested in my own classes, but it could be so much better for everyone if more senior people had the courage to try it out).
[…] using it explore how we might think and act differently. It still sartles me how many people read this post and wanted to argue their judgements were correct, no matter the […]