Believing and Doubting

Posted on by Nattasit Dancholvichit

PURPOSE

To help develop critical thinking skills by exploring and engaging with multiple perspectives. 

DESCRIPTION

Games and exercises in which students methodically believe or doubt an idea, allowing them to think critically about their position without becoming emotionally involved. 

UNDERLYING EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

Empathy, debate, critical thinking 

PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS 

  • Believing an assertion allows students to more deeply explore it and connect it to real-world applications. 
  • Doubting an assertion allows students to react logically against a position while also realizing their own positions. 
  • Participating in both regimes helps students to develop critical thinking and reasoning skills by calling upon them to craft a sound, logical response fitting to the regime. 

STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION 

For the believing game: 

  • Provide students (individually or in groups) with an assertion. Prompt them to believe the assertion without doubt. 
  • Prompt students to empathize/associate/engage with the assertion so that they can reasonably explain why they believe it. 
  • Support students in explaining the assertion and its veracity to their peers. 

For the doubting game: 

  • Provide students (individually or in groups) with an assertion. Prompt them to contradict it. 
  • Prompt students to search for illogical points, contradictions, mistakes, etc. that support their refute of the assertion. 
  • Support students in explaining the assertion’s flaws to their peers. 

After the activity: 

  • Regroup to discuss the activity and reflect on students’ experiences. Consider how students should be assessed. 

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING 

Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom, 142-143 and 156-157, John Wiley & Sons.  

Fuglei, M. (2021). Build critical thinking skills with believing and doubting games. Resilient Educator. Retrieved [12-June 21] from https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/build-critical-thinking-skills-with-believing-and-doubting-games/. 

Resources for First-Year Writing. Retrieved [12-June 21] from http://blogs.shu.edu/english/playing-the-believing-and-doubting-games/.