I am going to revert back to a theme that I have identified in my writings during this course (especially during the annotated bibliography) and that is, the need to have science literate teachers before students can be expected to follow suit. While I read this article, I thought about the frequency with which I use newspaper and magazine articles in my class room (3-4 times per month) and how I pick them. Typically, I find articles that are well-written, pertain to the subject at hand, and are based in valid science. I think this practice is important in making the connection between the “real world” and science and to help make students able to intelligently ingest science writing. However, I can also see this being dangerous and harmful to student health if the articles were selected and taught by teachers who didn’t know what they were talking about. There are a lot of articles, especially in the newspaper, based on BS science. If a teacher is not teaching his/her students how to CRITICALLY analyze and read an article because he/she does no know whether the science is valid, this could be a dangerous practice and that teacher would be better off sticking to science texts. I think of it being parallel to doing research on a college database vs the World Wide Web, one requires much more filtering and, therefore, a more critical eye.
An example that I can think of where alternative/popular medium was used to the detriment of students was this year in a history class. The teacher showed students a “documentary” on youtube called Loose Change. The premise of the movie was that on 9.11.01, the World Trade Center was brought down by demolition charges and the Pentagon was hit by a missile, not an airplane. Their “evidence” was presented by self-proclaimed scientists. The documentary was very convincing to the uneducated or naive mind. One student even said to me, “well the scientists showed equations and stuff, so it has to be real.” I had a discussion with three students who were thoroughly convinced that this movie explained what really happened on 9.11 and I could not convince them otherwise. Thinking that perhaps I was too emotionally involved to have been clear, that night I printed out a 15 page article from Popular Mechanics which debunked the 9.11 conspiracy theories (including all of those presented in Loose Change). This article contained legitimate scientists and reliable sources and theories. When I showed these students the article the next day, they did not even want to look at it. The format was as sexy as a youtube movie and therefore was not convincing to them. In this case, the alternative media did a huge disservice to these students due to the fact that it was presented in an irresponsible manner… uncritically.
Sorry for the long story, but I keep this in mind when I use articles and movie clips because it reminds me about the awesome responsibility and impact that we can have on students. I think it is very important to use articles, but we must do it carefully and make sure that those people using them are responsible and scientifically literate.
You’re relating to a theme in the blogs thus far, Eric. And you are right about teachers having to be scientifically literate themselves and thinking very critically about an article before bringing it into the classroom. Likely that’s why many teachers focus so narrowly on the textbook…they’ve not that critical ability themselves.