How Can We Move Students Away from Dualistic Thinking?
As part of the process of developing a collaborative research project with your students, you should pay attention to their tendency toward dualistic thinking and work to re-orient them toward multiple perspectives.
For instance, in working with students to develop a research problem, you might wish to demonstrate to students the ways that dichotomous thinking limits our abilities to engage in reasoned decision making. Most students think of common argumentative topics—abortion, gun control, death penalty—as having a “for side” and an “against side.” Ask students to generate third and fourth stories for these common issues, and to consider what is to be gained from letting go of a bi-oppositional stance.
Using Learning Teams
In order to combat the idea that research means collecting information and facts to win an argument or prove a point, students need to be encouraged to both generate and gather a wide diversity of perspectives to inform their decisions. Their collaborative work in learning teams can support them in doing so.
Learning Teams can explore perspectives within the classroom community, through traditional research, through interviewing relevant people (face to face or via email), by accessing documents on the Internet, and by using other kinds of sources to understand, draw conclusions, and debate different perspectives with a goal of informed decision-making.
Learning Teams can work within a climate that includes “checks and balances” that guards against dualistic thinking. Members can use their unique experiences and attitudes to build more robust pictures of problems and their potential solutions.
