The article reports that without explicitly applying critical thinking to pseudoscientific content, students may develop strong scientific reasoning while still holding uncritical paranormal beliefs.¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr1·q1
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q1 i? Further training within a scientific discipline is not sufficient to eliminate paranormal beliefs; critical thinking must be explicitly applied to pseudoscientific content. → Franz 2013
Evidence¶
Franz 2013¶
Franz, T. M., & Green, K. H. (2013). The impact of an interdisciplinary learning community course on pseudoscientific reasoning in first-year science students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13(5), 90–105. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1017127
q1 · i? · causal · r1
The article's interpretive argument, drawn from prior literature it cites (e.g., Farha & Steward, 2006, finding higher education does not necessarily lower paranormal beliefs); it concludes that without explicitly applying critical thinking to pseudoscience content, students may hold uncritical beliefs while developing strong reasoning skills.
"Thus it seems that even further training within a scientific discipline, which one expects to focus on scientific reasoning, is not sufficient to eliminate a student's beliefs in paranormal (or more broadly, pseudoscientific) phenomena, suggesting that individuals possess the capacity to engage in different modes of thinking selectively even though the selection may not be made a conscious level."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Without prompting, 14 students wrote on course evaluations that the course improved critical thinking, with other unprompted comments citing skepticism and scientific reasoning. — related
- Students in the interdisciplinary learning community had significantly lower paranormal beliefs at the end of the semester than at the beginning (Cohen's d = .74 on the full scale). — related
- LC students scored significantly lower on the full Paranormal Beliefs scale than other SJFC students, but only four of seven subscale comparisons were significant. — related
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