From 1 March 2024, you can say hello to a less cluttered inbox. The best part? You don’t have to do anything! Unless you want a customised experience. Let’s dive into how we’re making your Blackboard email notifications more manageable.
This month your UniSkills Focus On… blog is taking a brief detour from discussing resources to explore a phenomenon known as confirmation bias.
Developing your critical thinking skills is an important part of studying at university. Being critical is complex but includes:
carefully selecting appropriate sources of research
reading sources critically – e.g. by questioning arguments, methods and/or findings
writing impartially – e.g. by considering different viewpoints and evidence
analysing – e.g. pulling apart a topic to carefully examine what it’s made of
evaluating – e.g. weighing up advantages and disadvantages
You’ll find links to UniSkills resources which can help you develop your own critical thinking skills at the end of this blog. One common, natural psychological tendency which can negatively impact your ability to be critical and impartial is confirmation bias.
The publication of UNESCO’s Recommendation on Open Science illustrated that the move towards open research (or science if you prefer) is a global undertaking and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) cite open research as ‘integral to their mission to deliver economic and social benefit and accessible, transparent, reproducible, and cooperative research’ (UKRI, 2023).
