Flinders CCC Reading for Life

Cults, Catchphrases and Snake Oil

21st century education, like health, has a snake-oil problem. Consumers want quick fixes for conditions they don’t fully understand. There are plenty of snake oil peddlers waiting to cash in.

This section explores why people buy into things that don’t work and what can be done in education to protect against shonky salespeople.

Cults_and_catchprhases
Snake_oil

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Flinders CCC Reading for Life

Lesson Resources

Cults and Catchprhases PDF
Snake Oil PDF

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Optional Resources

Video

Battling Bad Science Ted talk by Ben Goldacre

Article

Pediatrics 2009
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Lyn Stone

Have you ever bought into a resource only to discover it isn’t as good as you’d hoped? I have. I bought a whole ‘brain training’ app licence and foisted it on my poor students. One lives and learns. Leave your thoughts below.