Using Feature Films to Teach Poverty
Abstract College students, who often have little experience with persons living below the poverty line, can ignore or misunderstand the experience of poverty. Feature film is one way to illustrate poverty in educational settings. Through identifying with a character, students may gain insights into the daily issues related to poverty. This article presents a review of the literature of using film to teach social science. Six specific films for teaching poverty are presented.
Combining the Use of Progressive Writing Techniques and Popular Movies in Introductory Psychology
We designed a paper assignment for introductory psychology that used progressive writing techniques to discuss course material as illustrated in popular movies. We provided students with a written tutorial that explained a 6-step writing process and provided feedback on their progress at each step. Course evaluations indicated that students liked the assignment and believed that the progressive writing approach helped them write a high-quality paper. Although student motivation was lower than expected, paper performance was high with 44% of students earning more than 90% of the available points.
What is Enlightenment
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.