![\"James](\"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/james-taylor-1-150x150.jpg\")
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A couple of years ago, I gave myself a new self-description to go alongside the already existing \u201cteacher\u201d, \u201cfootball fan\u201d and \u201cmusic lover\u201d. I started calling myself a \u201csceptic\u201d. Simply put, a sceptic (or skeptic, if you\u2019re from the US) is “a person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions”<\/a>. I became interested in skepticism, the movement of activism and engagement that has emerged in the last couple of decades due to my love of podcasts, somehow stumbling across both the Skeptics Guide To The Universe<\/a> and Skeptoid<\/a>, two shows that investigate the world with an open-minded, inquisitive but demanding set of criteria centred around one key premise – what\u2019s the evidence?<\/p>\n Most of the issues that sceptics deal with are science based, and as someone whose background in the subject is limited to secondary \/ high school level, the main influence that it has had on me has not been my science literacy, although I\u2019m sure that has improved. Nor has it been the welcome introduction of the word \u2018woo\u2019* to my lexicon. Rather, the main thing I have gained, I like to think, is a way of thinking, a more critical, nuanced, reflective and demanding set of cognitive skills.<\/p>\n Listening to sceptics go through their reasoning is a very valuable thing to observe. Us humans find it difficult sometimes to choose the correct, rational option, instead falling foul to one of many possible \u2018logical fallacies\u2019, as they are called. For example, we may be discussing a subject with a colleague who is more experienced than us and we find ourselves agreeing with them, based on nothing more than the fact that they\u2019ve been doing the job for longer than we have. This is an example of the \u2018argument from authority\u2019 fallacy, where the assumption of knowledge due to experience is assumed to have more credibility than any other factor, including evidence to contrary.<\/p>\n By listening to the sceptics, we can begin to develop our own critical faculties and more accurately look at the world around us. Russell Mayne, on his blog\u00a0Evidenced Based EFL<\/a>, which is in his words is \u201cdedicated to looking at language and language teaching from an evidence-based viewpoint\u201d and is therefore essential reading for any with an interest in EFL from a sceptical point of view, recently asked for us to `ask for evidence<\/a>.\u2019 In his words, \u201cthe next time someone claims that ‘teacher talking time should be reduced’ or ‘grammar mcnuggets are bad for students’ or that ‘students have nine different types of intelligence’ politely enquire on what grounds the speaker makes those claims and be cautious of accepting ‘my experience’ or ‘it’s obvious’ as answers.\u201d<\/p>\n As a sceptic, this obviously appealed to me. The questions he asked made me reflect on my own teaching. How much of what I do in the classroom, moulded from my years of experience, personal beliefs about how language is taught, and the training I have received, is backed up with research? The honest answer is that I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m trying to be skeptical in my day to day life, but right now I don\u2019t feel I\u2019m successfully bringing this into my teaching practice.<\/p>\n The central issue here, for me, is how can I make my teaching more evidence based? With all the will in the world, I can\u2019t do the research myself. I would definitely encourage teachers to do their own experimental practice and investigate a particular area of their teaching, but we can\u2019t investigate everything we do. If we want to access the research of MA students who are looking into all these areas, where do we go? Most research never sees the light of day after graduation, and if it does it\u2019s published behind paywalls and in subscription only journals, which we can\u2019t access and even if we could, would we have time to read them?<\/p>\n So I don\u2019t have a satisfactory answer to this question. At this stage, I don\u2019t know how I, as regular teacher, can separate the myths from the beliefs and from the truths, but this doesn\u2019t invalidate the question. If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned from sceptics it\u2019s that the absence of evidence doesn\u2019t equate to evidence for the opposing view. Perhaps in time we will find a workable solution. Until then, I will continue to ask awkward questions of those who make claims about teaching English, and of myself. I am absolutely convinced that this makes me a better teacher, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll have the same effect on you.<\/p>\n *Woo\u2019 is shorthand for pseudoscientific nonsense. For example, homeopathy? Woo. Healing crystals? Woo. Chemtrails? Woo. A very useful word!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Connect with James and other iTDi Associates, Mentors, and Faculty by joining iTDi Community. Sign Up For A Free iTDi Account<\/a> to create your profile and get immediate access to our social forums and trial lessons from our English For Teachers<\/a> and Teacher Development<\/a> courses.<\/p>\n Separating Myths, Beliefs and Truths in the Classroom James Taylor A couple of years ago, I gave myself a new self-description to go alongside the already existing \u201cteacher\u201d, \u201cfootball fan\u201d and \u201cmusic lover\u201d. I started calling myself a \u201csceptic\u201d. Simply put, a sceptic (or skeptic, if you\u2019re from the US) is “a person inclined … Continue reading Myths, Beliefs, and Truth in ELT – James<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myths-beliefs-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Like what we do? 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