Students must figure out which sensory channel provides the essential information, and they may not always guess correctly. We can increase students' learning by offering them the opportunity to review each lecture in a meaningful and timely way. o Give students short breaks throughout lecture to review their notes and ask questions. Lecture 9 - Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey) Overview. Click Here To Have Your Mind BlownGet discounts on vibrators, rings, and cutting-edge sex tech now through the end of the week. In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, he proposed a thought experiment that challenged the way we look at introspection and how it informs the language we use to describe sensations. Because we live in a universe with no apparent purpose, and because our lives are often characterized by less-than-ideal conditions, like toil and suffering, we have no good reason to not opt for something substantially better — even if it is “artificial.” But what about human dignity? What they probably all shared, however, was presence. For instance, students should note two or more of the following: philosophical inquiry, scientific inquiry, folklore and common wisdom explanations, and indifference. (2000). When students have a firm grasp of the If you confess and your accomplice remains silent I will drop all charges against you and use your testimony to ensure that your accomplice does serious time. People often have thoughts about their partners that they can’t put into words, but that affect the way they feel about their partners and the relationship. If an online discussion forum is part of the course, ask students to respond to questions related to the most recent lecture. Nagel acted out of empathy, assuming that the spider would fare better — and perhaps even enjoy life — outside of its normal existence. Kantians, because they see people as ends and not means, would argue that you can’t treat the single person as a means for the benefit of the five. While recounting the efforts that led to the specialtheory of relativity, he recalled "...a paradox upon which I had already hit at the age ofsixteen: If I pursue a beam of lightwith thevelocity c (velocity of light in a vacuum), I should observe such a beam oflight as an electromagnetic field at rest though spatially oscillating. Imagine you're standing on a train while your friend is standing … Both care much more about their personal freedom than about the welfare of their accomplice. A 1905 thought experiment laid another cornerstone in Einstein’s special theory of relativity. In yesterday's Daily Explainer we told you all about pain — why it exists, how it works, and how…, If we're to believe the predictions of futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey, we may be as, Here’s one for the ethicists — and you can blame the renowned moral philosopher Philippa Foot for this one. In general, students capture only 20-40 percent of a lecture's main ideas in their notes (Kiewra, 2002, p. 72). The whole argument rests on the premise that the room is "obviously" not sentient but there is no good reason to accept that. This book shows how to apply the cognitive learning process theories to the classroom with many well-thought-out examples. Titsworth, B. Scott, and Kenneth A. Kiewra. Cognitive theories describe three phases of the learning process (see Schneider for an extensive discussion of theories). Guest lecturer Peter Salovey, Professor of Psychology and Provost of Yale University, introduces students to the dominant psychological theories of love and attraction. The “dilemma” is that each suspect is better off confessing than staying silent — but the most ideal outcome would have been mutual silence. Consequently, Wittgenstein says the subsequent descriptions cannot have a part in the “language game.” Over time, people will talk about what is in their boxes, but the word “beetle” simply ends up meaning “that thing that is in a person’s box.”. That said, Searle is right in his suggestion that there is the potential for an AI to act and behave as if there’s conscious awareness and understanding. Sometimes, the best way to illustrate a complicated philosophical concept is by framing it as a story or situation. And do our lives actually do us any good? "How classroom teachers can help students learn and teach them how to learn." Boston: Little, Brown and Company. So what do you do? So you should do nothing. Of course, your students' learning process does not end in the lecture hall. Students need to absorb, record, and understand the steady flow of auditory and visual information. At each waking, she is put back to sleep with a drug that will make her forget that waking. To avoid the Dr. Fox Effect, keep in mind that expressiveness is more about communication than entertainment. This strategy guarantees that students will fully integrate the material and make the knowledge their own-and that is what makes a lecture truly memorable. Davis, James R. (1993). What do you do? How can we help students attend to the most important information, so that they understand and remember the key points of each lecture? He got the idea when he noticed a sad little spider living in a urinal in the men’s bathroom at Princeton where he was teaching. What if you’re a developmentally disabled person? From his book, Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974): Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Sometimes referred to as the Inverted Spectrum Problem or the Knowledge Argument, this thought experiment is meant to stimulate discussions against a purely physicalist view of the universe, namely the suggestion that the universe, including mental processes, is entirely physical. The full class can then discuss both the process and outcome of the thought experiment. Thought Experiment The effect of student loans on your future: What to know before applying for financial aid The student debt crisis starts with insufficient education and information. 1178. Students rush from one class to the next, and spend time in extracurricular activities, athletics, jobs, and socializing. And the satisfaction of our “true” desires? We best be careful, therefore, around seemingly “smart” machine minds. ... Next, a thought experiment asked students to choose between allowing a bomb to detonate near several family members or next to a much larger population of innocent people. All instructors hope that their lectures will be the exception, but these numbers present a clear challenge: How can we guarantee that students learn and remember what we teach? Of course it might be his natural habitat, but because he was trapped by the smooth porcelain overhang, there was no way for him to get out even if he wanted to, and no way to tell whether he wanted to...So one day toward the end of the term I took a paper towel from the wall dispenser and extended it to him. The audience's attention in a lecture drops dramatically after ten minutes of listening (Bligh, 2000, p. 53). The thought experiment: Sleeping Beauty takes part in an experiment, where researchers put her to sleep. “You may choose to confess or remain silent. We are then given the task of selecting which system of justice we feel would best suit our needs in the absence of any information about our true selves and the situation we may actually be in in the real world. For example, ask students to summarize or paraphrase the last few important points, either in their notes or with the person sitting nearest them. Get discounts on vibrators, rings, and cutting-edge sex tech now through the end of the week. Theory into Practice, 41 (2), 71-80. All of these techniques will make it more likely that students will remember the information from lecture, because students will integrate the material into already existing knowledge structures and experiences. Students are more likely to pay attention to instructors who exhibit expressive behaviors, because expressive instructors are more interesting to attend to and easier to understand. Here’s a thought experiment. o Don't give students two conflicting things to attend to at the same time. Philosopher John Searle asks us to imagine someone who knows only English, and they’re sitting alone in a room following English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters. Without curiosity, Sir Isaac Newton would have never formulated the laws of physics, Alexander Fleming probably wouldn't have discovered penicillin, and Marie Curie's pioneering research on radioactivity may not exist. o Aim for three to five main points in each lecture. The expressiveness that follows from full presence is a natural attention-grabber-no gimmicks needed. 432. You provide a strong foundation for learning during class, but students typically are overwhelmed by other demands on their time and thoughts. A lecturer must connect with students and draw them into the lecture. How can you use this information in your lecture? For example, ask students to create a matrix, flow chart, table, or concept map based on the information presented in lecture (Titsworth & Kiewra, 2004, p. 450). -------------------------------- 2,958 words ---------------------------------, The Learning Process: From Attention to Comprehension to Integration. You can post the problem or discussion question on a slide at the beginning of the lecture, so that students attend to the lecture with the anticipation of applying the information. He also speculated that we’d likely choose a system that ensures fair educational and employment opportunities. One of the most basic and direct ways to attract and keep students' interest is instructor expressiveness-the use of vocal variation, facial expression, movement, and gesture. Share on Facebook. Students are also more likely to remember information that relates to ideas or experiences they are already familiar with. The experiments used six videotaped lectures, all given by a professional actor assuming the persona of "Dr. This one’s reminiscent of Plato’s Cave, another classic (and disturbing) thought experiment. Rickards, J.P., and C.B. By the end of the day, any information that is not reviewed may not be accurately remembered. Show students how specific skills can be applied to real-world problems. Expressiveness is simply a tool for engaging students with the material, not an end to itself. It is from the newsletter, Speaking of Teaching, produced by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Stanford University -, http://ctl.stanford.edu/Newsletter/ Winter 2005, Vol. One way to do this is to prepare a study guide for your course that describes each lecture's objectives, key concepts, and questions to consider (Schneider, p. 57). Nozick’s thought experiment may appear easily dismissible, but it’s one that’s challenged philosophers for decades. Trouble is, the suspect doesn’t know how their accomplice will respond. Expressive behaviors intrigue students, and encourage them to actively consider the lecture material. However, engaging students needn't be at the expense of high academic standards. "High seductiveness" was defined in terms of expressive behavior: the use of movement, gesture, vocal emphasis, humor, and charisma. Students can remember most of the first ten minutes, but very little from the middle part of the lecture. The argument is supposed to show that, while advanced computers may appear to understand and converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language. Murray, Harry G. (1997). Another common way to overload attention is to give students two conflicting things to attend to at the same time (say, a transparency on the overhead and a verbal narrative that does not directly relate to the overhead). In the second step of learning, we organize what we observe into a coherent mental pattern or structure. The authors coined this last finding the "Dr. Fox Effect." During lecture, be as explicit as possible about what students should focus on. What would the reaction be from politicians, businesspeople, the media? Lecturers are often encouraged to use a wide range of presentation materials, including audio, video, and written materials. When we think back to those teachers who captivated our attention during a lecture, they undoubtedly used different strategies suited to their individual temperaments, styles, and disciplines. Define thought experiment. If you imagined that thought experiments were mere mental gymnastics meant to bamboozle the uninitiated, think again. Provide students with a framework for each lecture. In this newsletter we take up this challenge, by considering how students attend to, make sense of, and absorb new information. Engaging Large Lecture Classes. This has implications to everything from the coordination of international cooperation (including the prevention of nuclear war) through to our potential contact and communication with extraterrestrial intelligences (i.e. Old enough not to have to personally take the advice handed out by NBC’s Think portal today, surely, but also old enough to recognize it as yet another bout of neo-Malthusianism. Some Students Want Me Fired for a Thought Experiment Civilization’s progress depends on the freedom to express eccentric and provocative ideas. How could we be anything but charmed by the delightful storyEinstein tells in his Autobiographical Notesof a striking thought hehad at the age of 16? The originator of the concept, Frank Jackson, explains it this way: Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. Students must decide how to organize this information in their own minds (and notes). Some may have been more typically charismatic, and others less showy but deeply passionate about ideas. Imagine that you’re at the controls of a railway switch and there’s an out-of-control trolley coming. Albert Einstein famously used thought experiments—experiments carried out in the mind only—to work out complex ideas. You can also create a think-tank situation by inviting volunteers to talk through their thought processes as they try to solve the problem or respond to a question. However, as Murray argues, there is no reason to believe that expressive behaviors "are in any way incompatible with more traditional criteria of effective teaching, such as content coverage and high academic standards" (p. 196). In the classroom, students are constantly interpreting what you say, what they read on the blackboard, and what they see on slides. Whenever possible, tell students how new information relates to previous lectures in your course. A short break that includes students' questions can also give the lecturer an opportunity to assess student understanding and adjust the remaining part of the lecture if needed. The Center for Teaching and Learning provides a number of resources for instructors looking to develop expressive skills (including class videotaping and oral communication training). We encourage you to apply these strategies to your own teaching, and find out what works best for your lecture content and personal teaching style. Thought experiment definition is - gedankenexperiment. o Show students how specific skills can be applied to real-world problems. So, for example, what if you came back to “real life” to find out that you live in a shanty town in India? She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. Before students engage with ideas, however, they must first be engaged by the instructor. This thought experiment forces us to consider the quality and meaningfulness of not just animal lives, but our own as well. A final consideration involves how lecturers present information. Thereseems to be no such thing, …