Posted by:
Cheryl
(
)
Date: March 02, 2018 01:44PM
Perhaps you've noticed that nutritional studies and expert advice change on a regular basis.
When I was a teacher, we made a U-turn in educational philosophy about every six years. We would learn the "truth" about how children learn and would receive intense training on how to implement the new data, then six years later we'd be told we were wrong to have believed any of it, and we had to take on the opposite point of view with new materials, new kinds of lesson plans, new testing, and new teacher evaluation emphasis.
For example I started teaching and learned that most teachers favored girls. A few years later I learned that new research proved that most teachers like boys better. This switched about every six to ten years. In truth I never favored one gender over the other and don't think that most teachers were so biased. But we had to prove we used tactics of management that didn't exhibit such a bias. We had to have kids line up in alternate ways which in fact reflected the actual bias of those who did the studies.
These experiences taught me not to assume that research is a gold standard reflection of reality. I think it's a good idea to use independent observation and critical thinking to assess issues and situations.
Look at the data. Listen to others, but don't assume any of that is the one true and valid opinion on the face of the earth.