Social controversy swirls in the public space. Controversial issues carry into the classroom and affect how students interact with each other and the material. Teachers must have the courage to address contentious topics in their classroom, the wisdom to know where their expertise lies, and the resolution to see their choices through to the end. We examine the writings of Dr. Diana Hess, an expert on the subject of controversy in the classroom, as we try to determine best practice for educators at each grade level.
Later, we return to another article shared with us from the listener community. An Op-Ed considers the purpose of public education and what value it adds (or doesn’t add) to the nation. We debrief the author’s comments and then examine what the research actually says about the value of American education.
Finally, we let the mic run to share with you an Outtake. We get to musing on the unique situation scientific controversy presents. How do you deal with topics that are politically controversial, but not scientifically controversial?
- First Segment – 1:43 – Controversy in the Classroom
- Second Segment – 23:40 – Student Growth and Educational Value
- Third Segment – 35:11 – Scientific Controversy
Primary Citations
Hess, D. (2018, January 16). The Problem With Calling Scholars ‘Too Political’ [Editorial]. Education Week.
Caplan, B. (2018, February 11). What students know that experts don’t: School is all about signaling, not skill-building. LA Times. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-caplan-education-credentials-20180211-story.html
Supplemental Citations
- How High School Students Experience and Learn from the Discussion of Controversial Public Issues (Hess 2002)
- Innovation and American K-12 Education (Chatterji 2018)
- How common is the common good? Moving beyond idealistic notions of deliberative democracy in education (Knowles 2018)
- The Impact of K12 Civic Education on Political Participation and Voting in an Era of Political Polarization (AERA)
- No Time to Take a Pass (Hess 2016)
- The Backfire Effect: Why Facts Don’t Win Arguments (Big Think)
- The Destructive Dynamics of Political Tribalism (The New York Times)
- Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments (APA PsychNET)
- Feel like a fraud? (APA gradPSYCH)
- Fishbanks: A Renewable Resource Management Simulation (Learning Edge)
- [Archive] There is a war on teachers in Kansas (KPR)
Featured Beverage
We drink Nitro Merlin, a nitro-brewed milk stout from Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, CA.