Evidence, Beliefs, and a Science of Education
For those of us who like to consider ourselves rational beings, we read nutrition labels on yogurt, buy Consumer Reports for car ratings, search the Internet for explanations of that ache in the upper arm, listen to experts, and then make reasoned judgments about purchases, work, education, health, and safety. We believe in the importance of scientific research to advance knowledge and subsequent technological applications; we believe in collecting and sifting evidence before we decide what to do; we prize being logical, making rational decisions based upon scientific evidence.
Sure we do.
Yet each of us knows that so much of what we do in life is not only a matter of rationality, logic, and evidence but also actions anchored in beliefs, feelings, habits, and instincts. Choosing friends. Picking a college. Deciding on a job. Voting for a president. Getting married. Having a child.
Neither wholly rational nor emotional, our decisions and actions are a combination of both. We prize new knowledge derived from hard and soft sciences and their applications to life insofar as what they can do for us individually and collectively. We listen to experts. Yet every day in so many ways we pursue our beliefs, apply
