Anne CHONG Suet Lin
Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), NUS
Office of the Provost, NUS
Chong, A. S. L. (2024). Engaging students for community engagement courses and beyond: Overcoming confirmation bias [Lightning Talk]. In Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2024, 3 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecs/hecs2024-chong
SUB-THEME
Others: Engaging Students for Community Engagement Courses
KEYWORDS
Confirmation bias, student engagement, critical thinking, community engagement
CATEGORY
Lightning Talk
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
We are prone to many cognitive biases and logical fallacies despite and sometimes because of our knowledge and experience. One of the most pernicious ones is confirmation bias, which is the tendency to find evidence to confirm pre-existing beliefs (Wason, 1960). The pervasiveness of confirmation bias has led to many undesirable outcomes in societies, as articulately expressed by Nickerson (1998):
If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration. Many have written about this bias, and it appears to be sufficiently strong and pervasive that one is led to wonder whether the bias, by itself, might account for a significant fraction of the disputes, altercations, and misunderstandings that occur among individuals, groups, and nations.
In the context of learning, confirmation bias, not only seeks to collect evidence to bolster our beliefs, but more treacherously, it leads us to ignore or undervalue evidence to the contrary. Humans have somehow evolved this tendency to avoid the discomfort of cognitive dissonance and the pitfalls of societal non-conformity (Ling, 2020).
To combat confirmation bias, the first crucial step is to bring this very human tendency to the foremost of our awareness (Gilovich et al., 2002). It demands we challenge our pet hypotheses (Lord et al., 1979), forces us to consider others’ viewpoints and overcome the discomfort of finding we possess uncertain information or that we are simply wrong.
In this lightning talk, I would like to share a teaching innovation that I have used for two courses in which students already have pre-existing beliefs that impede their learning. Students who take the module GEQ1000 Asking Questions (now discontinued) and a current C&E course, GEN2061, generally come into courses with the beliefs that they know the content already and/or view the lessons as common sense and therefore are disengaged in the learning.
The activity comprises 2 steps:
- Ask students to answer a Yes or No question on whether they think the course is useful for them. Their answer will determine the colour of their responses for Step 2.
- Ask students to write down their expectations of the course, i.e. what do they think the course can or cannot teach them and colour their posts according to Step 1.
The placement of students’ posts will show a segregation of colour consistent with confirmation bias that students are not aware of.
Using an activity targeted at revealing the existence of confirmation bias leads to the re-engagement of students in the courses, especially when the need for critical and empathetic thinking is brought to the fore.
REFERENCES
Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., & Kahneman, D. (Eds.). (2002). Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge University Press.
Ling, R. (2020). Confirmation bias in the era of mobile news consumption: The social and psychological dimensions. Digital Journalism, 8(5), 596–604. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1766987
Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), 2098-2109. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098
Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175-220. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175
Wason, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(3), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470216008416717