It isn't just folk psychology that gets students into trouble in introductory courses. Check out the literature on the effects of naïve models of physics. Lots of students bring prior beliefs about how the world works to their science classes (even though these beliefs are contradicted by the models they are supposed to learn in the course). Many students complete science classes with these naïve models intact (consider the classic video of Harvard graduates trying to explain why we have seasons).
Claudia Stanny -----Original Message----- From: Michael Palij [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 2:46 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Michael Palij Subject: RE: [tips] why psychology is hard On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:41:25 -0700, Jim Clark wrote: >Hi > >Are we sure that psychology is hard? Or, to be more precise, harder >than other intro level courses? I don't know what data there is on this point but in addition to the general academic "skills building" in the article, implicit is the notion that people walk into intro psych classes with a "folk psychology" that leads them to think that they (a) know what psychology is about and (b) rely upon their understanding to guide them in interpreting psychological research, theories, and explanations. "Folk biology", "folk physics", and other "commonsense explanations" about the world will tend to get challenged in high school science courses which should make the college intro courses in those areas less susceptible to this form of "proactive interference effect". This led me to think of the following quote: "It's not what we don't know that hurts us, it's what we know that isn't so." It then dawned on me that I didn't really know who the source was for this. I had taught that it was Mark Twain but a check of a couple of Twain quote websites doesn't include it (though there are some websites that quote Twain as saying it). I have also see it attributed to Will Rogers and Milton Erikson as well as to no one in particular (i.e., "the old adage"). So, who is the source? -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.S. Apparently there are a couple of versions of this saying, so the one above may not be accurate. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
