We all know the type - the young and usually male student who sits at the front of the class questioning everything the professor says and projecting his own views into every topic, discussion and example. I may even have been one of those students! My apologies to everyone around me. But according to this article this expression of privilege translates into a significant academic advantage. "He gets practice asserting his philosophical views in an argumentative context... he receives customized expert feedback on his philosophical views... he engages his emotions and enhances his memory (and) he wins the support and encouragement of his professor." These are all good things, though. So the question isn't how to shut down the privileged student, but rather, how to extend this privilege to everyone in the class? But, as the article notes, this approach does work everywhere. " If a first-year chemistry student has strong, ignorant opinions about the electronegativity of fluorine, it won't go so well." So this form of elevated engagement needs to be tempered with an ability to sense what's open for discussion and what isn't.
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