1. Session 2 Paperclips and Toasters: Critical Thinking in Psychology. Jamie Davies How many uses can you think of for a paper clip?

2. Learning Outcomes By the end of the session participants: Should be able to describe what critical thinking is. Have reflected on teaching critical thinking skills. Should be able to describe what goes into a toaster. Have discussed strategies to embed critical thinking skills into the curriculum.

3. Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used. Carl Sagan

4. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. - Analysing arguments, claims, or evidence (Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Halpern, 1998; Paul, 1992) - Making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning (Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Paul, 1992; Willingham, 2007) - Judging or evaluating (Case, 2005; Ennis, 1985; Facione, 1990; Lipman, 1988) - Making decisions or solving problems (Ennis, 1985; Halpern, 1998; Willingham, 2007). (Lai, 2011)

5. Left to his own devices he couldn’t build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it. Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless, 1992 It takes an entire civilisation to build a toaster

6. What is critical (rational) thinking in psychology?

7. “savvy consumers and producers of research” (Sternberg, 1999).

8. Correlation not Causation

13. CT| Criticisms of Psychology 1.Is psychology only common sense? 2.Do psychological theories provide new insight into the human condition or do they document the obvious? 3.Does psychology simply formalise what any amateur already knows intuitively? “Day after day social scientists go out into the world. Day after day they discover that people’s behavior is pretty much what you’d expect.” Cullen Murphy, Editor, Atlantic Monthly (1990)

14. TASK In pairs look at the conclusions from Lazarsfeld (1949) and suggest reasons for the findings of the study. What could have led to his findings? Do the conclusions make sense? [5 minutes]

15. “Anything seems commonplace, once explained.” Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes Hindsight Bias 1.“I knew it all along phenomena”– the tendency to perceive something as obvious or unavoidable, after learning of the outcome. 2.Study of Hindsight bias: Teigen (1986) Evaluate actual proverbs and their opposites Actual Proverb Fear is stronger than love. He that is fallen cannot help him who is down. Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them. Opposite Love is stronger than fear. He that is fallen can help him who is down. Fools make proverbs and wise men repeat them.

16. Discuss a CT class activity How could you embed critical thinking into your classroom activities?

17. What is the quality of the evidence? Could the relationship have happened by chance? Is there a control or comparison group? Is the conclusion causal using correlational data? Are there any confounding variables? Are we over generalising based on an unrepresentative sample? Are there any biases in the research or data collection methods? Can you actually falsify the theory? Is the study claiming to have found the answer?

18. “… science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.” Popper (1963) p66.

19. The Thinking Ladder. Charlotte Russell www.resourcd.com

20. Developing opinions, judgements & decisions. Critical thinking skills. Separating a whole an examining it’s component parts or features. Using facts, rules, principles and applying them to examples or to solve a problem. Organisation and selection of facts, information and knowledge. Combining or organising information to form a new whole or create something new. Identification and recall of information. Also known as Knowledge!

21. Thinking Ladder Tasks Bloom-ing great!

22. Why do we study the WEIRDest people? http://jamiedavies.co/weird

25. “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.” Carl Sagan “savvy consumers and producers of research” Sternberg

26. http://jamiedavies.co/nslc14 @jamiedavies Thank You