Evaluating Evidence (212-0-20)
Instructors
Leoandra Elaine Rogers
Mary Caroline McGrath
Meeting Info
Tech Institute Lecture Room 3: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
‘Brain training' games can improve your memory. Gun control reduces violence. Racial protest
leads to improved race relations on college campuses. Trigger warnings are good for students.
Acupuncture heals. True or false? The answers to such claims are too often based on
anecdote, political opinion and intuition, instead of empirical evidence. This course will discuss
how to evaluate the evidence of others - and how to marshal your own - across social science,
politics, society, health, education, psychology and industry. We will provide an overview of
three types of evidence: the type of qualitative interviews that social scientists use to understand
human psychology and the experience of racial bias and discrimination; observational data,
collected by observing and measuring the world as it is; and experimental data, collected by
designing and conducting a randomized controlled trial. Assignments and readings will focus on
real-world questions drawn from newspaper articles, podcasts, and op-eds (e.g.,
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate), as well as the research literature and data science
media (e.g., www.fivethirtyeight.com) that collect and evaluate empirical evidence.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
Collect and analyze qualitative data.
Collect and analyze quantitative data.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both qualitative and quantitative data.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of arguments made by others using qualitative and quantitative data.
Understand the role of uncertainty in making estimates, and the role of perspective in drawing conclusions.
Know what epistemology refers to and how different epistemologies underlie different methods of investigation.
Teaching Method
Lecture
Evaluation Method
Quizzes, research project, final paper
Class Attributes
Empirical and Deductive Reasoning Foundational Dis
Formal Studies Distro Area
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area