Is Social Science Politically Biased?

[warpus]

I don't get what's so important about making sure students are presented with bad points of view. Sure, every once in a while, why not, teach them a thing or two about how looking at a situation from a certain point of view can distort the issues. 95% of the time though, you want to present them with points of view that teach the material in the most effectively fashion, though.

 

[Lexicus]

I don't get what's so important about making sure students are presented with bad points of view. Sure, every once in a while, why not, teach them a thing or two about how looking at a situation from a certain point of view can distort the issues. 95% of the time though, you want to present them with points of view that teach the material in the most effectively fashion, though.

The point of education is to teach critical thinking, not to learn facts. Anyone can learn facts with Google.

 

[warpus]

Thanks for that laugh, black cat man.

 

[Lexicus]

Thanks for that laugh, black cat man.

Wait, so you really think that the desired result of education is students being able to recite facts by rote?

To quote George Takei, Oh, My.

 

[Ryika]

Thanks for that laugh, black cat man.

But he's completely right. Critical thinking, learning how to learn stuff and the skill (and importance) to differentiate between opinions and facts are such important factors of a good education system that are often completely ignored.

 

[Lexicus]

But he's completely right. Critical thinking, learning how to learn stuff and the skill (and importance) to differentiate between opinions and facts are such important factors of a good education system that are often completely ignored.

Not to mention that what is 'fact' and what is not often varies depending on whom you're talking to.

And no, that doesn't mean that anything goes, but it does mean that a measure of humility is called for, and it does mean it's a good idea to constantly strive to lay bare our own assumptions and to try to incorporate multiple points of view (or at the very least, to be exposed to multiple points of view).

 

[warpus]

Wait, so you really think that the desired result of education is students being able to recite facts by rote?

To quote George Takei, Oh, My.

You keep putting words in my mouth. Thank God you're not Takei either, as you might try putting other things in my mouth as well.

 

[Zkribbler]

Liberals go into teaching.
Conservatives go into business.

Is it any wonder then that most professors are liberals?
Should we be demanding more political diversity in small business?

 

[Flying Pig]

The point of education is to teach critical thinking, not to learn facts. Anyone can learn facts with Google.

That's true to varying degrees depending on which subject you're talking about. When learning history at school, for example, the facts themselves are of quite secondary importance - yes, it's important that people grow up knowing the basics of how the world got to be as it is today, but it's much more important that they learn about how to weigh up evidence about the past, decide which is reliable and which isn't, and string it all together into an interpretation. That's much less true when learning engineering at university, where the facts you learn really do matter: you pay for the expensive education because it's difficult to learn them without somebody to explain them.

That said, I absolutely agree that we've moved a long way past the Gradgrind school of learning and reciting facts - at least when we do education right.

 

[Lexicus]

That's true to varying degrees depending on which subject you're talking about. When learning history at school, for example, the facts themselves are of quite secondary importance - yes, it's important that people grow up knowing the basics of how the world got to be as it is today, but it's much more important that they learn about how to weigh up evidence about the past, decide which is reliable and which isn't, and string it all together into an interpretation. That's much less true when learning engineering at university, where the facts you learn really do matter: you pay for the expensive education because it's difficult to learn them without somebody to explain them.

Yes, that is true - but even in the case of engineering or physics I'd say the methods - which are at least related to, if not actually synonymous with critical thinking - are at least as important as the facts (particularly given that computers can handle a lot of the facts now).
And of course to do academic work in these fields you need to understand the theory, which involves lots of critical thinking.

 

[Flying Pig]

Also true, particularly the more you drift into 'pure' sciences away from applied sciences. To use an extreme example, the amount of physics you learn training as a radio operator is tiny compared with the amount you would learn studying how radios work as an engineer or physicist - I suppose there's a debate as to how far that should count as 'training' versus 'education'.