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Your feelings will betray you

 

 

 

Apparently, we’re more likely to die from a toaster than a shark attack.

 

The availability bias is the tendency to overweight information that is vivid or easy to recall. 

 

We do this, in part, because of the limitation of our memory. It leads to misjudging the frequency or magnitude of events. 

 

We often assume the more examples we can remember about something, the more common that thing is. The problem with that is, we remember some things much more easily than others. Like shark attacks. 

 

These things are usually emotionally resonant and vivid in description. (Unlike toaster deaths).

 

As a result, our beliefs are shaped by such biases and will lead to us inaccurately assessing the risk associated with those things.

 

The availability bias affects the way we teach 

 

  • Even though we’ve read stuff to suggest learning styles is a myth, we really do feel like we learn stuff through doing... so we continue to let it inform our teaching strategies.

  • When marking assessment papers, we inflate the grade of that student who clearly didn’t revise but has so much potential and you know really wants to do well and produced that really good paragraph that one time and you were so proud of them. So we grade them based on this belief rather than the actual marking descriptors and the evidence in front of us.

 

The fact is, your feelings will betray you.

 

How to avoid the availability bias

 

Make decisions based on facts.

 

Example 1: covering content in lessons

It feels more time efficient to continue explaining content as students write down notes on what you’re saying. 

 

But the fact is, we can’t multitask. Working memory limitations, namely the redundancy effect, means our efforts to cover more content are in vain. Important learning is being lost.

 

Example 2: predicting grades

It feels kinder to predict a grade that you feel like the student deserves. They are on a behaviour report but they seem to behave for you, they have written really thoughtful pieces in class so you know they have potential and they have problems at home which might have affected the lack of answers in their exam. 

 

But the fact is, they didn’t perform in the exam. Our efforts to assume the best despite the facts will mean the student won’t learn from their performance and the data cannot be used to provide important intervention to get them back on track.

 

The fact is… 

 

Facts don't care about your feelings.

 

We need to rely on objective truths, or best bets. Here are 3 actions to help us achieve this:

 

  1. Rely on mark schemes and the marking expertise of colleagues to verify your grade predictions. Triangulate the data. Ask for a second opinion.

  2. Attention is ‘the gatekeeper to thinking’ (Peps Mccrea) and working memory limitations mean we can’t multitask. Maximise how hard students are thinking through consistent use of SLANT and follow through to ensure task switching is not taking place.

  3. Be careful when using the toaster.

 

 

Have a great week.

 

Thahmina