By: Megan Prats
03/23/2015
Evidence makes an argument believable. Also, evidence distances the ability of Bias to influence the student’s conclusion. In short, evidence tends to support the rational and objective problem-solver.
However, all evidence is not created equal so it is up to the student to determine which evidence to include in her problem-solving. Below are a list of attributes that solid evidence tends to contain:
“I’ll believe it once I see it.”; is a common expression that concisely explains the convincing
nature of physical evidence. As words or claims can manifest themselves in any form – real or not – physical evidence “solely” operates in reality. Thus, if the student has physical proof to support
her conclusion, her argument becomes much more convincing than if she doesn’t have physical evidence. For instance, a student of mine claimed that he did his homework before the lesson. Then, when he played his homework activity on the drums, the physical evidence showed the contrary as he could barely execute the groove. Thus, because he didn’t have physical evidence to back up his claim, I doubted that he did his homework. Then, once I presented this contradiction to him, he only had his word to back up his claim and thus he could not convince me that he actually did his homework. Because the physical evidence supported another conclusion, my student did not see an increase in his 2learn® Bank for completing his homework.
Credibility is really key in selecting evidence that is convincing as there is a direct correlation between the credibility of the evidence and its convincing nature. So whether or not the student uses physical evidence, intangible evidence, or a mixture of the two in supporting her answer, it is important that the student state why her evidence is credible. To assess the credibility of the evidence, the student usually has to go to its source. For instance, my student claimed that the guitar teacher in his band was correct in assessing the time signature of a rock song as being in 6/8 instead of 12/8. However, me, the drum set teacher and the expert on time and rhythm in music, presented a contrary conclusion that the groove was in 12/8 because the kick was playing on the 1 and the snare on the 7. My student erroneously found the guitar teacher’s conclusion to be more credible because that was the conclusion that he wanted to believe. However, if he had looked more deeply into the source of the evidence, then his conclusion probably would have changed. Because I am the drummer, drum set teacher, and expert in this area of music, the conclusion that I reach is more credible than that of a guitar teacher whose lack of experience in this area allows more room for error in his conclusions. It is not to say that the expert is always right but an expert’s opinion is more credible than a non-expert’s opinion because the source is more familiar with the nature of the problem being solved.
Evidence that is factual is absolute thus no matter what one’s opinion is on the matter, the facts don’t change. Thus, the student should ask herself, “Is this data objective?”, before applying it. A fantastic way for the student to verify the evidence’s objectivity is to research amongst several mediums and sources and see if the information is consistent. If the student looks for consistency within a pool of biases, then the student will likely be in the presence of fact.
The student must consider all of the evidence as partial evidence selected for the analysis will lead to a biased conclusion.
When it comes to evidence selection, the student should look for physical, credible, objective, and all of the evidence to support her answer. In general, when the student is problem-solving, she should always consider the evidence so that Bias does not pollute the problem-solving process.
© Megan Prats 2015
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