Sustainability Education Podcast   /     Episode 6 - Melanie Trecek-King

Biography Melanie Trecek-King

Melanie Trecek-King is an Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College. There she teaches a general-education science course designed to equip students with empowering critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. Melanie Trecek-King has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry and a Master of Arts in Ecology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Currently, she is also the Education Director for the Mental Immunity Project and part of the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative. These initiatives aim to advance and apply the science of cognitive immunology to foster mental immunity against misinformation. In the past years she has created a wonderful website on critical thinking https://thinkingispower.com/ where she shares regularly insights and educational materials such as infographics, videos or lessons plans.

Short Summary of the Interview

In this episode, Dr. Stefan T. Siegel interviews Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College and Education Director for the Mental Immunity Project. Trecek-King shares insights on fostering critical thinking, combating misinformation, and addressing myths in sustainability education.

Key topics include:

• Defining Core Terms: Differentiating beliefs, misinformation, myths, and pseudoscience to establish clarity in educational discourse.
• Critical Thinking and Mental Immunity: Trecek-King discusses her broader definition of critical thinking as a combination of dispositions and skills, aligning it with the concept of mental immunity, which uses an analogy of cognitive defenses to combat misinformation.
• Myths in Sustainability Education: Common misconceptions such as “sustainability is only about saving the environment” are addressed.
• Inoculation Techniques: Trecek-King advocates for active and experiential inoculation exercises to help students identify and resist misinformation. Examples include creating misinformation to understand techniques like cherry-picking or logical fallacies.
• Addressing Core Beliefs and Values: The conversation highlights how the (perceived) restriction of autonomy or solution aversion can drive resistance to sustainability efforts and how educators can align to the values and (core) beliefs of learners to foster understanding and action.
• Effective Educational Practices: Trecek-King uses diverse media formats and humor to engage students while making critical thinking approachable and relatable.

The episode concludes with practical strategies for addressing misconceptions, fostering intellectual humility, and equipping students to navigate complex sustainability challenges critically and independently.

(Selected) References, Resources, and Persons Mentioned During the Episode

• Thinking is Power: http://thinkingispower.com/
• Mental Immunity Project: https://mentalimmunityproject.org/
• Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative: https://cognitiveimmunology.net/about-circe
• Burls, N., Pegion, K., & Cook, J. (2019). Misconception-Based Learning To Cement Learning. Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.13021/ITLCP.2019.2502
• Lifton, R. J. (1926/1989). Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China. University of North Carolina Press.
• Norman, A. (2021). Mental immunity: Infectious ideas, mind parasites, and the search for a better way to think. HarperWave.
• Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2014). The collapse of Western civilization: A view from the future. Columbia University Press.
• Trecek-King, M. (2022). How to Sell Pseudoscience. Skeptical Inquirer 46(5): . https://skepticalinquirer.org/2022/08/how-to-sell-pseudoscience/
• Trecek-King, M. (2022). Teach Skills, Not Facts. Skeptical Inquirer, 46(1), 30–34. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/12/teach-skills-not-facts/
• Trecek-King, M. (2024). Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking: What Do We Really Mean? Skeptical Inquirer, 48(6) https://skepticalinquirer.org/2024/10/thinking-critically-about-critical-thinking-what-do-we-really-mean/
• van der Linden, S. (2023). Countering misinformation through psychological inoculation. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2023.11.001

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The episodes can be downloaded, commented on, reused and integrated into courses. For feedback, but also for comments or topic requests, you can reach us by e-mail at stefan.siegel@unisg.ch

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