September 27

Jamie Mackenzie Questioning Scaffold

I just found a great article from Jamie Mackenzie on questioning presented concepts called “The evidence gap” http://questioning.org/oct08/evidence.html He gives three different examples of how this now permeates our life, and gives a scaffold for students to evaluate ideas at http://questioning.org/oct08/Wait.pdf

He uses the example of how Captain Cook “looked after” the indigenous people in countries that he visited, the Obama vs McCain Oil debate, and an example from the Medical field.

He breaks down each argument from McCain and Obama and finally determines (from facts rather than speeches that):

It turns out that the biggest problem is our dependence on oil, not our dependence on oil from “countries that don’t like us very much.” Once we close the “evidence gap,” a very different picture emerges than the one McCain hoped to evoke.

The scaffold would be a great tool to give students to discuss web based resources and the authenticity of such, and also to increase critical analysis of ideas.