Teacher Approval Ends Discussion

After years of classroom research, Dillon (1988) concluded that teacher interventions during student discussions tend to shut down student thinking and student talk. He found this to be particularly true of positive feedback or praise. The rationale, of course, is that when a teacher communicates agreement with one student’s thinking, both the speaker and other classmates conclude that there is no need for further thought because the teacher has gotten the answer he or she was after.

 Shock: Social Science Fiction

What happens when a mind is no longer tied to a body? What happens when those of greatest ability are enslaved by those of greatest power? What happens when Humanity is the new kid on the block? When minds are read like books and books are illegal? Shock: Social Science Fiction is a game, a set of rules, that you’re about to use with your friends to create some science fiction stories. You’ll create a world sitting around a table, or on a floor in a circle, and use these rules to reach a...

 Science Unites

One of the great advantages of the naturalist worldview is that it serves as a basis for bringing people together under a common set of ground rules. Knowledge in science is public, not private, because it must be submitted to others for verification or falsification. A naturalist believes that the empirical truth is waiting to be discovered, and that we can all agree on the empirical truth so long as we believe in a few important criteria. Science can exist in any culture and any nation. It ...

 Francis Bacon Takes Issue With Postmodernism

The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known. I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise and supply helps for the same.