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Professor Steve Joordens, Director, Advanced Learning Technology Lab; Professor, Department of Psychology, UTSC October 16 - Eating Cheeseburgers Reduces the Risk of Dying of Cancer: Using the News to Teach Critical Though One of our primary responsibilities as educators is to develop our students' critical thinking abilities. Among other advantages, strong critical thinking abilities help us evaluate information well, and ultimately draw appropriate conclusions from it. Thus, when the media accurately reports that eating cheeseburgers reduces the likelihood of dying of cancer, they will immediately know there must be more to the story. In my talk I'll highlight the win-win that comes from using news stories as a context for teaching critical thought. That is, the concreteness and relevance of using current news enhances the learning, and the students are learning critical thought in the context of world events, the likelihood that the learning will transfer to "real life" will be enhanced. |