{"id":158,"date":"2012-01-08T19:07:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T19:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2012\/01\/08\/so-are-you-smart-or-are-you-dumb\/"},"modified":"2012-01-08T19:07:53","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T19:07:53","slug":"so-are-you-smart-or-are-you-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2012\/01\/08\/so-are-you-smart-or-are-you-dumb\/","title":{"rendered":"So, Are You Smart or Are you Dumb?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSmart students think they\u2019re dumb, because they know what they don\u2019t know. Dumb students think they\u2019re smart, because they don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know. So, do you think you\u2019re smart\u2026 or dumb?\u201d This was the question one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Julia McQuillian<\/a>[1]<\/a>, asked me as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

With a single question Julia opened my eyes to the meta-cognitive level of learning. Until then I hadn\u2019t thought critically about my intellectual blindspots and the assumptions I was making based on them[2]<\/a>. This question helped me graduate from a dichotomous and concrete worldview, to a worldview that was much more complex and uncertain. <\/p>\n

As teachers we must remember that our students are not primed for this type of thinking. By acknowledging the limited scope of a 101 course students can more critically assess the information in your class and their understanding of the world around them.<\/p>\n

Scope<\/h3>\n

\u201cA 101 class is a tapas restaurant. You eat a little of this, a little of that. If what you want is more of an intellectual meal, then you should take a semester long course like Race and Ethnicity or Social Inequality.\u201d I tell this to my students on the first day of my 101 class to give them a sense of scope. It\u2019s important to remind your students that they are only being exposed to the 1% of all the research on any of the topics you discuss in a 101 class. Novices are vulnerable to prematurely celebrating their mastery of a subject.<\/p>\n

Perspective<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve forgotten more about the research on this topic than you\u2019ve learned, so what makes you think you know enough to dismiss this research out of hand?\u201d I\u2019ve thought<\/em> this to myself before when students tell me emphatically, \u201cThat can\u2019t be true!\u201d A more appropriate response to an outright rejection of the findings of social research would be a simple question: \u201cWell, what evidence makes you so sure that this can\u2019t be true?\u201d Students will typically response with, \u201cWell, my uncle is\u2026.\u201d or \u201cThe Hispanic people where I\u2019m from\u2026\u201d or some anecdotal evidence from their life. These \u201cn of 1\u201d<\/a> counter arguments are an easy opportunity to talk about the perils of common sense and intuitive sociology<\/a>. Students are prone to uncritically reject social research if it doesn\u2019t jive with the worldview they hold. As a discipline sociology seeks counter-intuitive knowledge, so this type of rejection is neither surprising nor uncommon.<\/p>\n

Sometimes students make the opposite mistake. They accept uncritically what the research has to say as though it was describing laws of sociology or decoding the Matrix. I know this is an issue when my students look at me like a magician. Mouth agape, they are dazzled by how, \u201cYou seem to know it all!\u201d (Their words not mine). While it sure is easier to teach a class where everyone uncritically accepts what you, the sage on the stage, have to say, it\u2019s just as damaging to your students learning as it\u2019s counterpart. We have to be uncomfortable with uncritical thinking in our classes regardless of it\u2019s orientation to the ideas we are teaching.<\/p>\n

A third common reaction actually springs from critical thinking. Students, being good critical consumers of information, pick apart the methodological limitations of the research presented in class. Unlike the previous two reactions, this one is uncommon and should be encouraged to a point. I LOVE when students tell me a finding is weak because it only sampled _____ or it operationalized the variable in a narrow way (note: students rarely use this language, but this is what they mean). You simply cannot shoot down students who do this out of fear that they are attacking either your credibility or the researcher\u2019s. Silence one contrarian and you will be telling the entire class, \u201cI am the expert here. You need only ingest my pearls of wisdom uncritically.\u201d<\/p>\n

When students are hypercritical consumers of the information you are presenting in class, thank them for engaging with the material and having the courage to challenge the research openly in class. Then remind them of the confirmation bias<\/a> and that they have a limited scope with which to judge the situation. I\u2019ll often say something like, \u201cYou make some excellent points. This research, like all research, is limited in what it can tell us. However, this research is indicative of a whole collection of similar studies. Before we can say definitively that this study is flawed to the point it is inaccurately describing the social world, we would need to delve into the rest of the research in this field.\u201d Hyper-critical students need to be encouraged to remain critical, but not to become unduly dismissive.<\/p>\n

If you are teaching sociology, then you have an \u201cexpert\u2019s mind.\u201d You\u2019ve forgotten what it\u2019s like to have a \u201cbeginner’s mind.\u201d Your perspective on sociology as a discipline is starkly different from the perspective your students have. It\u2019s too easy to assume that your students would \u201cjust know\u201d how limited their breadth of understanding of sociology is. You make this assumption at your own peril. Start the term by defining the scope of the course and ask your students to maintain their perspective on what they do and don\u2019t yet know.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
    \n
  1. \n

    I should acknowledge that it\u2019s possible I am remembering this a little different than how it was said. Dr. Julia McQuillian is an outstanding teacher, scholar, and human being. Please don\u2019t read this quote in any other context.  \u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    I love asking my students what intellectual blindspots they think they have. Almost all of them say none. To which I ask, \u201cWould you know if you had a \u2018blind spot\u2019? If you could see them, would we call them blindspots?\u201d  \u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cSmart students think they\u2019re dumb, because they know what they don\u2019t know. Dumb students think they\u2019re smart, because they don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know. So, do you think you\u2019re smart\u2026 or dumb?\u201d This was the question one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Julia McQuillian<\/a>[1]<\/a>, asked me as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

    With a single question Julia opened my eyes to the meta-cognitive level of learning. Until then I hadn\u2019t thought critically about my intellectual blindspots and the assumptions I was making based on them[2]<\/a>. This question helped me graduate from a dichotomous and concrete worldview, to a worldview that was much more complex and uncertain. <\/p>\n

    As teachers we must remember that our students are not primed for this type of thinking. By acknowledging the limited scope of a 101 course students can more critically assess the information in your class and their understanding of the world around them.<\/p>\n

    Scope<\/h3>\n

    \u201cA 101 class is a tapas restaurant. You eat a little of this, a little of that. If what you want is more of an intellectual meal, then you should take a semester long course like Race and Ethnicity or Social Inequality.\u201d I tell this to my students on the first day of my 101 class to give them a sense of scope. It\u2019s important to remind your students that they are only being exposed to the 1% of all the research on any of the topics you discuss in a 101 class. Novices are vulnerable to prematurely celebrating their mastery of a subject.<\/p>\n

    Perspective<\/h3>\n

    \u201cI\u2019ve forgotten more about the research on this topic than you\u2019ve learned, so what makes you think you know enough to dismiss this research out of hand?\u201d I\u2019ve thought<\/em> this to myself before when students tell me emphatically, \u201cThat can\u2019t be true!\u201d A more appropriate response to an outright rejection of the findings of social research would be a simple question: \u201cWell, what evidence makes you so sure that this can\u2019t be true?\u201d Students will typically response with, \u201cWell, my uncle is\u2026.\u201d or \u201cThe Hispanic people where I\u2019m from\u2026\u201d or some anecdotal evidence from their life. These \u201cn of 1\u201d<\/a> counter arguments are an easy opportunity to talk about the perils of common sense and intuitive sociology<\/a>. Students are prone to uncritically reject social research if it doesn\u2019t jive with the worldview they hold. As a discipline sociology seeks counter-intuitive knowledge, so this type of rejection is neither surprising nor uncommon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1982,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30622,30598],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study-skills","category-teaching-philosophy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}