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).¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Post-test paranormal belief means were significantly lower than pre-test means on the full scale and all but one subscale, with effects in the medium to large range. → 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

q3 · i2 · causal · r1

Quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test study of two LC cohorts (n = 43) using paired-samples t-tests on the 25-item Paranormal Beliefs Scale; full-scale pretest M = 2.71, posttest M = 2.34, t = 7.10, p < .001, Cohen's d = .74, described as "medium to large range".

"All but one post-test mean was statistically lower than the pre-test mean, and of those that were significant, all were in the medium to large range (Table 2)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The article reports that without explicitly applying critical thinking to pseudoscientific content, students may develop strong scientific reasoning while still holding uncritical paranormal beliefs. — 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
• All post-test means were significantly lower than the Tobacyk and Milford (1983) norms, with many pre-test means also lower. — related
• The extraordinary life forms subscale showed no significant pre-test to post-test decrease (d = .03). — a narrower finding that bears on this claim