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Thriving in Academe
Best Practices

Different ways of seeing

Virginia Anderson (Towson University, biology) shows a picture to her students of two people in a lab: a man doing a procedure and a woman watching. She asks them to describe what’s going on in the picture. Two-thirds of them say, “he is showing her how to do it” and the other third say, “she’s making sure he does it correctly.” Anderson uses this as an opening to discuss how our observations and interpretations are filtered through our own assumptions and experiences, and what the implications are for students’ future practice.

Michele diPietro (Carnegie-Mellon University, statistics) uses the statistics of the gay and lesbian population to help students think critically about how statistics are used and where they come from. In his course, students examine the features and limitations of various research methodologies, evaluate the content of research and popular press articles, and draw informed conclusions that reflect an understanding of multiple (and sometimes conflicting) sources of information. His course gives students the statistical and critical thinking tools necessary to take an informed position on important societal issues.

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