Summary Of Timothy D. Wilson's 'Redirect'

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In the book Redirect, Timothy D. Wilson discusses various “practices” that are effective, not effective, or both and why. He displays research from evidence he finds to prove his argument true or false. He shares his points of views on the different topics and practices he mentions. LifeSkills Training (LST) is one of many programs he mentions. He uses studies from different schools and areas to demonstrate how LST works on students. He refers to one study which took place in New York on fifty-six junior high schools. Students were randomly assigned into LST. Students who were a part of LST were less likely to do any of the following by the end of high school, smoking, drinking, or doing other drugs. Similar results occurred in inner city schools …show more content…

He discusses specific studies, but he did not mention a few main points that lead to the effectiveness such as the importance of the teachers and the long-term effect. I found more evidence on different points that made the program effective. For example, a large sample size in the data recorded which makes the evidence stronger to prove the program as effective. Botvin did not stick to one study, he experimented with different populations throughout the world. Till this day, he is studying to make his program larger and much more successful than today. Wilson’s strengths include clearly stating the program as effective and giving few examples to prove his point. But his weakness is not giving the reader enough information on the program’s effectiveness and the reasoning behind the examples to show the program as effective. The evidence he gives did not convince me because he did not mention if the studies he mentioned were recent or old. In order, for me to accept the program as effective, I would prefer to have the dates of when the studies took place. From the research I did, I found information on the program’s background and developer. He does not give credit to Botvin for the program’s development. In my research, I found the effects of long term, more evidence on the studies, and how teachers have lots of sessions to teach students on the program. The sample size used in the evidence I found gave a better approximation of the LST to work. LST, till this day, is an effective program for up to twelve

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