Kylie Sturgess

Winner of the 2007 Australian Skeptics Prize for Critical Thinking.

http://skeptics.com.au/prizes/2007skepticsprize.pdf

I am currently working as a secondary school English and English as a Second Language teacher in Western Australia. Since 2003 I’ve gained Levels 1 and 2 accreditation in the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Association’s ‘Philosophy / Teacher Educator’. I have focused on how to encourage links in the English classroom to science outcomes and have become more interested in skepticism and applied critical thinking for young people. The challenges I have faced include consolidating my understandings of critical thinking and how to teach such skills effectively in secondary schools. I was particularly intrigued by the many tertiary-aimed College courses on critical thinking and skepticism – more than what is available for the lower years of schooling…

During the time I attended the Amaz!ng Meeting 3 and helped as a volunteer, I heard a lecture on ‘Teaching Critical Thinking in the Physical Sciences’ by Liam McDaid of Sacramento City College, I started to reflect on how skepticism could be investigated in English classes too…. it was at the beginning of 2006, however, that the West Australian Skeptic Association ran their Awards for challenging pseudoscientific and paranormal claims – aimed at primarily at students in science classes and requiring a formal report. Since there was no limitation on which department could enter, I made this the ‘theme’ for my Term 2 upper-ability English class (along with studies of Macbeth, GATTACA and The Chrysalids) and they submitted six group reports. They were commended with two awards and one honourable mention. This was later repeated in 2007 with two Awards and three honourable mentions.

I was recognised for this work by a runner-up award by the Australian Skeptics in 2006. At that conference, I presented a speech written by the West Australian skeptics regarding their project and their request for support. With the proceeds I began a phase of my studies that I always hoped to begin when younger – a Graduate Diploma in Psychology at Monash University by distance education. Also as a result of this award, I was invited to speak on Radio National in December 2006. The transcript then became an article in the Australian Skeptic.

At the beginning of 2007 I had completed my first Masters of Education in Special Learning needs, with a particular focus on Gifted and Talented education and gender issues. I then began the final unit for my second Masters of Education, which involved writing a thesis proposal. I chose to focus on the criticisms raised by Watt and Wiseman, Aarnio and Lindeman regarding the Tobacyk Revised Belief in the Paranormal Scales , particularly in reference to beliefs in teenagers. I intend this to become my work over the next few years.

At the 2007 Amazing Meeting 5, I presented a paper for the Sunday Paper session. The paper, entitled ?The West Australian Skeptics Awards for Young Critical Writers: Investigations and Questions about Future Directions when Studying High School Students? Beliefs in the Pseudoscientific and the Paranormal? was well received and I was interviewed by Skepticality podcast with Michael McRae… As a result of my work with APIS, the Australian Philosophy in Schools group in Western Australia, I was employed by the Curriculum Council of Western Australia to be a course writer and presenter for the new Philosophy and Ethics subject that will begin in 2008. When writing the material for the 2A unit, I enthusiastically designed a model for teachers that drew on many popular science and skepticism texts including Sagan, Shermer, Dawkins and Gould. The resulting document has been distributed to teachers wishing to teach the subject and is resourced using a wide variety of online and text mediums, demonstrating the contribution that science has made to ?Philosophy of the Person?. I was also a PD presenter in 2007 for the new course.

I also wrote an article for the Journal of the Science Teachers Association of Western Australia and the Journal of Creative and Critical Thinking about the experience of my teaching skepticism in the English classroom. My last article was published in the most recent Australian Skeptic, summing up my experiences of online skepticism called ?Forums for Skepticism? – suggesting ways to move forward in our local communities by emphasising networking, consumer affairs awareness and general recognition of the problems involving online cliques detracting from the goals of communicating science in a respectful and effective manner.

I hope to further investigate the efficacy of teaching skeptical ideas, particularly via simple, community-based projects that are relevant to local schools and contributes to curriculum requirements. I often hear talk of the problems faced by teachers when meeting curriculum demands in other departments and I believe that we can take proactive steps through collaboration, both amongst teachers and those who care about education of young people. I know through studying cross-curricular activities which share outcomes across departments and integrate thinking skills, that they can enrich the experience of education for both students and teachers. I also think that encouraging a skeptical mindset in the face of the many credulous claims which influence young people is very important, considering the power of group thinking and complacency in regards to potentially damaging activities and beliefs.

Innovative teaching of thinking in the classroom is made possible by communicating what the ongoing testing process is and how much we care about the effects of claims, which can go from the outright fraudulent practice to the unfortunately deluded idea. It’s going to take time, but every day is another step.

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