One of the better skills you can impart on them is internalizing their own fallibility. And not a one-time exercise that leaves them feeling that it was all a trick that does not apply to their day-to-day life. A personal reflection on how you came to realize your own limits, and how you grappled with being overconfident in something you believed. Maybe have them describe, to the class or in small groups, a case where they were 100% sure of something, and then realized they were wrong, and discuss the reasons they ended up being wrong, and what lesson they learned, or didn’t learn. Then another exercise talking about what they are currently 100% sure about, and why, and which of their implicit assumptions would have to be invalid for this certainty to decrease to something reasonable. Bonus points to those who, after doing the exercise, actually changed their mind about something important and dear to them. Extra bonus points to those who concluded that they need to learn more and ask for more information on how to do that. Just off the top of my head, anyway.
One of the better skills you can impart on them is internalizing their own fallibility. And not a one-time exercise that leaves them feeling that it was all a trick that does not apply to their day-to-day life. A personal reflection on how you came to realize your own limits, and how you grappled with being overconfident in something you believed. Maybe have them describe, to the class or in small groups, a case where they were 100% sure of something, and then realized they were wrong, and discuss the reasons they ended up being wrong, and what lesson they learned, or didn’t learn. Then another exercise talking about what they are currently 100% sure about, and why, and which of their implicit assumptions would have to be invalid for this certainty to decrease to something reasonable. Bonus points to those who, after doing the exercise, actually changed their mind about something important and dear to them. Extra bonus points to those who concluded that they need to learn more and ask for more information on how to do that. Just off the top of my head, anyway.