The master detective Hercule Poirot had a knack for sizing people up to flush out a murderer from a tight network of suspects. During his investigation, he’d propose a number of narratives based on the evidence he turned up. By detailing each suspect’s motive and means, and closely observing their actions, he would unmask the murderous spouse, lover, or solicitor, or all three acting in league.
Many of the skills Poirot employed as a detective, including observation, evaluation, and experimentation, are applicable in the classroom. Provide students with opportunities to practice and master detective skills needed to make them life-long learners. Let’s start with the tool Poirot used most: close observation.
Close Observation
Poirot had an eye for small details that would escape the average observer. Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs across the Curriculum provides students with training and practice in close observation skills using photos of international student protests, Depression-era portraits, brain stem nerve cells, and Martian craters, among other subjects. Students learn to extract information from photos, giving depth and context to a lesson or an argument. Each student will notice different details, which sparks classroom dialog, especially for students who have difficulty with text documents. For example, students can examine photos of immigrant housing taken by Jacob Riis in 1890s New York City with current photos of refugees and displaced peoples.
Finding Patterns
A number of similar details can reveal a pattern, providing clues to larger processes at work. Students can learn strategies of pattern recognition with Mystery Operations and People Patterns from Teachers’ Lab: Patterns in Mathematics. Students can work in pairs or groups to sort through features and conditions that may constitute a pattern, as they narrow down the correct pattern that applies to all the data.
Experimentation
Our detective now has some details and a possible pattern in order to develop a theory. How can he know he is on the right track? By experimenting! Experimentation is a precise business. In order to establish a cause and effect relationship, as opposed to a strong correlation, the experimenter has to rule out alternative explanations.
Large scale experiments can run for years and be costly. For the purposes of our situation, we’ll look at experiments and epidemiological studies that were conducted to establish a connection between a habit and its health outcomes. In Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, the unit “The Question of Causation” looks at how medical researchers untangled the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Researchers used epidemiological studies comparing non-smokers and smokers who did not have cancer, statistical analyses of smokers’ cancer rates, and lab studies of the effect of cigarette smoke on animals. Taken together, this collection of evidence pointed to smoking as the culprit rather than an unidentified “lurking variable.”
Evaluating Evidence
In many situations, the evidence may not be decisive, so the investigator has to weigh the validity of each piece of evidence and make the case for the conclusion. During a lesson on the Industrial Revolution, a 7th grade history/social studies class reviews primary and secondary source material. Together, students develop their skills of annotation, sourcing, corroboration, and class discussion to evaluate the source materials at hand. Watch the students’ analysis, guided by their teacher in “Blended Learning: Evaluating Source Material” from Reading and Writing in the Disciplines.
Students can practice these skills with two interactives – Balancing Sources and Evaluating Evidence — from America’s History in the Making.
Presenting an Argument
Even Poirot knows that the evidence does not speak for itself. It takes a well-reasoned argument based on facts relevant to the question to make a convincing case. In Reading & Writing in the Disciplines, “Facilitating a Socratic Seminar,” Teacher Kristen Ferrales demonstrates how having her 11th grade students write to prepare for a discussion about the lasting impacts of the Haitian Revolution creates a deeper understanding of the topic and leads to a more productive Socratic seminar.
In today’s multi-channel media and learning environments, students need to be aware of the many sources of information. They need to build the skills for evaluating the validity of those sources and develop their own understanding. With training and practice, your students can develop their grey cells to become as masterful as the little Belgian detective.
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