Online Teacher Summit: In the Flood of Facts
Teaching strategies to navigate towards knowledge
between scientific facts, personal values and conspiracy theories.
A complex world requires sharp navigational skills. Fast newsflashes, complex disputes, disinformation and polarised values can make the flood of facts difficult to assess. Let’s learn more about how we teach these skills.
What can teachers do to prepare students to distinguish facts from values? How do we teach strategies to debunk lies? What methods can we use to encourage curious questions and critical thinking? And is it even possible to teach trust?
We need better didactic methods to prevent knowledge resistance and to reveal disinformation, lies and conspiracy theories.
Watch the broadcast here
Speakers
Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011
Saul Perlmutter is Professor of Physics at University of California, Berkeley and a Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”
Perlmutter received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. He conducted his Nobel Prize-awarded research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Saul Perlmutter is a co-founder of the Supernova Cosmology Project.
Åsa Wikforss, Professor of Philosophy and member of the Swedish Academy
Åsa Wikforss is a Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Stockholm University. Since 2019 she leads a large interdisciplinary research program om knowledge resistance. She is the author of Alternative facts (2017) and most recently of Why Democracy (2021), where she discusses the essential role that knowledge plays in democracy. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Science and the Swedish Academy.
Dan Larhammar, Professor and President of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences
Dan Larhammar, Professor in Molecular cell Biology. Does research on hormones and the nervous system including appetite regulation, colour vision and the mechanisms of learning and long-term memory, all with an evolutionary perspective. Has a strong interest in science communication and debunking pseudoscience such as alternative medicine and creationism.
Andreas Önnerfors, Professor in Intellectual History and expert on conspiracy theories
Önnerfors has extensively researched the link between radicalization into violent extremism and conspiracy theories as well as their artistic expressions. He has written a report on conspiracy theories and COVID-19 for the Swedish civil contingency agency MSB and is involved in various projects countering the negative influence of conspiracy culture in society and Education.
Annika Rabo, Professor Emeritius in Social Anthropology
Rabo has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the Middle East and Sweden since the late 1970s focusing on state-citizen relations through working on topics such as, migration, family law and education
Philippe Longchamps, Teacher of the year 2020 Sweden for his transdisciplinary pedagogy
Teacher of the Year in Sweden 2020 and Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize 2021 is a Canadian educator from Québec who moved to Sweden in 2002. He is the co-author of two upcoming publications Creativity Thinktank and Transformative Education. He is working tirelessly to stress the importance of empowering teachers and the youth of the world with adequate fact-checking and critical thinking skills.
Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation
Norway’s former State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of European Affairs and Minister of Climate and the Environment. The world needs scientific breakthroughs to solve the major challenges that humanity faces, for example the climate issue and most recently the coronavirus. We need a critical approach, with debate and decisions based on knowledge, at a time when falsehoods spread like wildfire. We also need to strengthen free expression, which is being suppressed by more and more governments. The world needs peaceful dialogue and interaction when facing global challenges, and quality education is key to achieve this.
Workbook
A printable workbook with the theme, speaker’s presentation and suggested questions to discuss can be found here.
Presentations
Nobel Prize laureate Saul Perlmutter
Scientific-style critical thinking – can be found here.
Åsa Wikforss
Resisting the facts – can be found here.
Dan Larhammar
Debunking pseudoscience – can be found here.
Andreas Önnerfors
The White Rabbit – can be found here.
Annika Rabo
Curiosity killed the cat… but satisfaction brought it back – can be found here.
Philippe Longchamps
Let us teach to empower a generation to seek authenticity! – can be found here.