Open‐Mindedness in a “Post‐Truth” Era

In discussing open‐mindedness, virtue epistemologists emphasize revising one's cognitive standpoint by taking seriously the views of others, where this process is seen to be a reliable way of identifying one's biases and forming true beliefs. Yet in defending open‐mindedness, virtue epistemologists tend to give little attention to two areas of scholarship. First, they tend to overlook the psychoanalytic challenges of evasion and disavowal that so often operate in the enactment of and attempts at open‐mindedness. Second, they undervalue scholarship that notes the longer arc of a relation between post‐truth conditions and settler colonial structures. In other words, there appears to be an evasion of those views that associate the United States with dispossession, settler colonialism, and projects of decolonization according to postcontinental philosophies. This essay by Troy Richardson clarifies some of the critical vocabulary needed to bridge virtue epistemology committed to open‐mindedness and scholarship that has shifted the terms of analysis toward active projects for decolonization based on postcontinental philosophies.     

Taking an Attention‐Grabbing “Headlines First!” Approach to Engage Students in a Lecture Setting

Let's face it. Traditional lectures do not consistently capture our students’ attention, especially when they are PowerPoint‐driven and lack student/instructor interaction. Most of us have had the unfortunate feeling that our students were not fully engaged in our lectures, despite hours of preparation on our part. This sense of “wasted” investment of time can be especially frustrating for pretenure faculty, who must balance teaching, research, extension and administrative (as well as personal) responsibilities in order to be successful. How can we engage students in our course content, given limited time and resources to prepare lecture material and demonstrations? Active learning strategies are a possibility, but shifting courses from a lecture format to problem‐based learning or a flipped format requires a significant time and effort investment from the instructor. Why not start by making lecture more fun and engaging for our students? Storytelling is an effective and efficient means of getting and maintaining our students’ attention and interest during lecture to drive home key points. The BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) 5E Instructional Model provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the primacy of student engagement in science education (Bybee). Our goal here is to provide practical examples and external references to show how “Headlines First!” storytelling can be used effectively to engage students in the science classroom.     

The “pinpointing effect” vs. the “diffusion effect” of peer influence

Classroom teachers are learning to employ the peer group to “shape up” dissidents. However, singling out a child may produce undesirable side effects such as emotional behavior, resentment, etc. Can the same result be obtained by rewarding the class for ignoring the target behavior of everyone in the room? Twelve subjects were selected from six middle school classes, two from each class. Each entire class was rewarded for increased ignoring of the target behavior (whispering): in the three P (pinpointed) classes, for ignoring the whispering of Designated (target) subjects; in the three D (diffusion) classes, for ignoring whispering by all class members. The results indicate that a peer group can decrease reinforcement of a disruptive behavior and thereby decelerate it in a singled-out child (Pinpointing Effect) or a behavior emitted by any child in class (Diffusion Effect) with equal effectiveness. However, patterns in the data suggest that peers ignored P-Designated subjects most, D subjects next most, and P-Undesignated subjects the least and that this pattern of ignoring was mirrored in the pattern of deceleration of the target behaviors in the three groups. These patterns suggest that the Pinpointing Effect may be stronger than the Diffusion Effect, but further study is needed.