Hi Thanks to all for the thoughtful comments. I would just like to focus on one issue, nicely contextualized by Annette's comment below about the need to rebut every individual myth.
Ultimately I think most of us want students to acquire general principles rather than specific facts. In my case, it is the general principle that discrimination is more likely to occur under ambiguous circumstances, perhaps because the ambiguity provides an acceptable (albeit racially selective) rationale for the "discrimination." Students are exposed to a number of studies illustrating the evidence for and application of this principle. I deliberately do NOT describe the study I want to see if they can generalize to, although I sometimes mention such a scenario casually in lecture. What I am explicitly interested in is whether they acquire and can use the principle to predict what would happen under other situations with similar properties (i.e., ambiguity). After all, there are innumerable scenarios in the real world where the principle would apply and we cannot possibly teach them all. Here's a link to the (non-taught) study I would like them to generate accurate predictions for. If you look at Table 1, Black applicants are actually preferred in the Strong and Weak conditions, in marked contrast to the White preference in the Ambiguous condition. http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/_media/pdf/Reference%20Media/Dovidio_Gaertner_2000_Discrimination.pdf I'll think about rewording the question, as several people have suggested (e.g., describing more concretely scenarios from the Dovidio study), but also consider other ways to promote generalization in class. Perhaps an activity like having students generate scenarios under which they think discrimination would occur and explain why, with classroom discussion? Thanks again for the comments. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor & Chair of Psychology j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca Room 4L41A 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0R4 CANADA >>> Annette Taylor <tay...@sandiego.edu> 28-Apr-13 10:16 AM >>> Hi Jim: In my work on dispelling student misconceptions my colleague and I have found in over a decade of research that the most efficient approach requires you to activate the misconception and THEN show them why that misconception leads to unsupported predictions and THEN ALSO to show that there is evidence for a conception that is more predictive and more supported by the evidence so that the state of the world that the evidence supports is a more fruitful way to think about things. We have also found that we have to dispel each common misconception (see Scott's 50 myths for what is really a compilation of about 200 myths (sorry Scott, I haven't counted them all up!)) on a one-by-one basis. There is NO TRANSFER because each seems to sit as an independent type of factoid within the students' minds. I suspect something similar is happening for you here. You really have to attack these misconceptions directly, assertively, vigorously and refutationally. Otherwise they are unlikely to change. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 tay...@sandiego.edu ________________________________________ Subject: Student resistance to some ideas? From: "Jim Clark" <j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca> Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:21:10 -0500 X-Message-Number: 2 Hi In my culture and psych course, I spend some time on the idea that (at least in modern times) overt discrimination tends to be observed mostly under ambiguous situations (e.g., poking studies, ignoring evidence showing innocence in mock trials, ...). Nonetheless, when I ask students on tests whether discrimination in favor of white versus non-white applicants is more likely when a. both have strong qualifications b. both have moderate qualifications c. both have weak qualifications d. all of the above Students overwhelmingly choose d. all of the above, even when I occasionally mention casually in class something very close to this scenario. Is there something wrong with the question? Do people have other examples where students appear resistant to acceptance of some taught idea? Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor & Chair of Psychology j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca Room 4L41A 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax Dept of Psychology, U of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0R4 CANADA --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=25260 or send a blank email to leave-25260-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=25273 or send a blank email to leave-25273-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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