Dr. Rodney Schmaltz is a professor in the Department of Psychology at MacEwan University. His research focuses on the psychology of belief, with a particular interest in how people evaluate extraordinary claims. He is committed to helping people develop strong critical thinking skills and an appreciation for the value of scientific evidence in everyday life. His work aims to improve scientific literacy in both academic and public settings, using research-based strategies to help people separate good information from bad.
In today’s episode, Rodney explains the importance of critical thinking - though he prefers the term scientific skepticism - and why we should expand science education to include how we know what is true, and not just the facts and frameworks of scientific knowledge. We talk about how being intelligent and educated is not related to belief in pseudoscience, and how it’s dangerous to dismiss someone you disagree with as a "conspiracy theorist” in a world where some conspiracies are real.
If you learn half as much as I did from this conversation, you’re going to love this episode of Podcast for Inquiry with Rodney Schmaltz.
Email: rodney.schmaltz@macewan.ca
Website: https://www.rodneyschmaltz.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rodneyschmaltz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rodney.schmaltz.9/
A video recording is also available:
Schmaltz!
ReplyDeleteI went to average public high schools, and although perhaps my elementary public schools were average for the era, l'm still angry at how they wasted my time, so it feels as though they were crap. And even so, l was exposed to the scientific method early, albeit through my own initiative. That is to say, the crappy teachers just told us to do science fair projects and left us to our own devices, with minimal materials about the process. But the content was there for any kid who cared to bother, so l have little sympathy for whiners who probably went to better schools than l did when they cry waa waa waa, nobody ever taught us about the scientific method! Maybe take some ownership of your education, kids, and quit expecting to be spoonfed every fucking thing? I find it shocking that Rodney Schmaltz is offering remedial education for university seniors!
Having said all that, yes, primary schools should absolutely be teaching the scientific method explicitly, but then when most teacher's college graduates can't pass an elementary-level math competency exam... So perhaps we should start with not allowing kids to drop math after grade 10? We require 5 English credits to graduate from Ontario high schools, even after the elimination of OAC, but only two math? Oh, right, math is hard, so the graduation rate would plummet if we did... But l digress. My point is that although I always found stats both easy and boring, there's nothing like statistical thinking to cut through all the crap! When you see it you can't unsee it, and you find yourself applying it on a daily basis. And if you're doing science every day in your daily life, no one will be able to tell you that your knowledge is merely belief because you haven't independently investigated every little thing. Trust in the process is not the same as blind belief!
My experience with very high IQ people is that they are never driven by ideology, so maybe the people referenced by Rodney Schmaltz are not as smart as he and they think they are? I myself will update my model of the world on a dime when presented with better information and analysis, and l have changed my mind in a big way many times in my life. It's amazing what and who passes for brilliant these days...
On conspiracy theory, all you need to do is point out that game theory clearly demonstrates that in scenarios where all conspirators have perfect information and equal rewards, someone will spill the beans when the number of participants exceeds four. Sure, things get more complicated with imperfect information spread asymmetrically among individuals and when rewards are unequal, but the more people involved the higher the probability of a whistleblower, and this goes to 100% over time. But then game theory is hard if you drop math after grade 10...