Click to enlargeCRITICAL THINKING: HOW TO EVALUATE INFO & DRAW CONCLUSIONS

Help students learn to think for themselves-a key to sucess in every endeavor. They'll learn to assimilate information, dig beneath the surface, and draw their own conculsions. The program covers interpretive skills such as finding the main idea, determining the relationship between cause and effect, and sorting out fact from fiction. It illustrates basic reasoning powers such as the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning and irrelevant arguments. Available in PAL format. (47min)


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Teacher's GuideCRITICAL THINKING: HOW TO EVALUATE INFORMATION AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS

Lesson Plan Objectives

1) Guide students toward reaching good conclusions through rational analysis of facts.

2) Define “verbal maps” as the way we interact with reality by using words to form pictures of our world. 3) Point out that verbal maps are made of words, and words have elusive meanings.

4) Help students evaluate information they receive by determining what kind of information it is: personal observation, factual report, opinion or propaganda.

5) Offer a logical method of organizing information that can simplify complex decisions.

• Summary of Content

Critical thinking is a set of skills that are used to make rational decisions. This program will aid in developing those skills by illustrating examples of rational thinking and irrational thinking with scenarios similar to those in everyday life.

The first part of the program, “You Can’t Get There without a Map” introduces the concept of “verbal maps,” which are pictures we draw of the world using words. However, one word can have a hundred meanings; a car running is not the same as a person running. To get at the heart of a situation, critical thinkers ask, “What do you mean?” In this part we meet Dave, a teen who is undergoing the arduous process of choosing what car to buy. His friend Brad claimed one car was the “best car on the road.” When Dave asked him, “What do you mean?” Brad said it was the “best-looking car on the road. Dave had a long way to go before making his final decision.

In the next part, “Consider the Source: Opinion, Persuasion or Fact,” Dave is still collecting information that will help him select a car. The first step in evaluating information critically is determining whether it is fact, opinion or persuasion. Dave’s friend Donna said her car got “good gas mileage.” This was an opinion Donna had formed by weighing the average number of miles per gallon against her personal driving habits. Dave remembered to ask the exact number of miles per gallon the car got so he could decide whether this was “good mileage” for him.

Many times the information someone gives is intended to persuade us to act a certain way or believe a certain thing. As critical thinkers we must be especially aware of information that comes from people who have something to gain by persuading us. For instance, the program describes a TV interview with a doctor who had devised a weight-loss plan that contradicted established rules of fitness and nutrition. He had also written a book on it, so chances are he was more interested in making a profit than in making people thin.

Part three advises viewers to “Watch Out for the Traps” by dramatizing examples of faulty reasoning that can lead to making poor judgments. “Hasty generalization” is shown when Dave’s mother warns him against buying a certain model of car because her friend owns one that gives her nothing but trouble. Three more types of faulty reasoning, “inconsistent argument,” “irrelevant argument” and “false analogy,” are also examined in part.

Advertisers often draw from an extensive bag of tricks in hopes of leading us to faulty judgments that will benefit their purposes. Part three also analyzes a wide range of these techniques, including “transfer,” “word magic,” “card-stacking” and “bandwagon.”

The final part of the program demonstrates how critical thinking is used in “Making Rational Judgments.” Here, Dave, who had by this time begun to rely solely on consumer magazines for advice on cars, learns something further about the decision-making process: It’s necessary to look at the advice of experts in terms of what’s valid for us individually. Therefore, after Dave narrowed his choices down to four cars, he began to evaluate them using what was important to him as a yardstick. Dave created a simple chart by checking each car against his list of priorities. With one glance at the chart, Dave’s logical choice for a car was obvious.

• Related Activities

You Can’t Get There Without A Map

a) Verbal Maps

a) Place on the chalkboard the following quotation from Leonardo Da Vinci: “All knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” Generate discussion on the implications of what the artist is saying. Guide students to an awareness of what Da Vinci might mean by perception. Perception is the map that each of us has in our head. No two people will share exactly the same map of the same territory.

b) Follow the discussion by playing a word association game to illustrate the point of the discussion. Have the students write the first five words that come to mind as you place the word “Africa” on the chalkboard. What words came to mind? Point out some of the territory of that continent that is rarely mentioned by the students in such an association exercise (the cosmopolitan cities, the snow-capped mountains, the desert). Ask how the verbal maps they created differ from the pictures or comments about the continent you have shared with them. Why? What does this tell them about maps and territories? Other words that you can use in this activity are: Hitler, automobile, bikini, strawberry shortcake or poetry.

b) The Word Is Not the Thing

Have a student write “one dollar” on the chalkboard. Have the student remain at the board. Then hand a second student a one-dollar bill. Have the class list all the things that the student can do with the bill that the student at the board cannot do with the word. Ask the class how this experiment illustrates a point raised in the video they have viewed. Work for the concept of the word is not the thing and the map is not the territory.

c) Denotation vs. Connotation

To illustrate the concept of how word connotations can create problems in thinking and communications, first point out the difference between “denotation” and “connotation.” (The difference between a word’s dictionary meaning and the other meanings it suggests in the maps within our heads would be the difference between denotation and connotation.)

Place the following “word chain” on the board: skinny—thin—slender. Point out that all three are defined by the dictionary to mean underweight. Ask which of the three the class would prefer to be called. Have the three ranked from most to least desirable. Other word chains that might be used to further illustrate are: courageous—daring—foolhardy; thrifty—frugal—miserly; husky—chubby—fat. Encourage students to generate other word chains.

d) Truth Party

Have a class session that will be called the “Truth Party.” If appropriate, plan on punch and cookies or other refreshments. Have the class sit in a circle and then have each member of the circle share an experience in which he/she completely misunderstood the feelings of another person as “Suzanne” does with her teacher in the video. Another round could be devoted to a time each student was misunderstood by another person. In either case have the circle discuss the reason that led to the confusion. When the sharing has been completed the class should develop a “Ten Commandments for Better Communication.” These “Thou shalt not…” statements could then be made into a poster for the classroom or placed on the board for the unit on thinking.

CONSIDER THE SOURCE: OPINION, PERSUASION OR FACT

a) Advertising Claims

Advertisers use many techniques to try to persuade the consumer that the advertised product is superior to other competing products. Review the advertising claims dramatized in the program: unfinished claim (“Four out of five doctors recommend Viviprin for their patients.” For what ailments?); celebrity endorsement (ex-baseball star touting beer); scientific claim (“Mr. Shiny floor polish contains acrylic barrier molecules.”) Add to that list the following two claims:

a) The Weasel Word Claim: The advertiser has created a slogan for the product, which contains a modifier that makes what follows practically meaningless. Common weasel words are: enriched, strengthened, virtual(ly), acts, works, up to, fortified, the feel of, the look of (e.g. “leaves dishes virtually spotless.”).

b) The Rhetorical Question: A question is asked in such a way that the audience is supposed to respond in a way that affirms the superior quality of the product (e.g. “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?”)

Have students bring to class for discussion examples of these kinds of claims in advertisements that they find in magazines or on TV. Demonstrate their connection to the situations and concepts dramatized in the video program.

b) The Twelve Most Persuasive Words

Place the following list of words on the chalkboard:

You New Money Easy Discovery Free Results Health Save Proven Guarantee Love

Explain to the class that these are the most persuasive words in the English language according to a study by the Psychology Department of Yale University. They share three characteristics: they are simple, familiar and dramatic. Have students determine how often these words are used in the advertisements from the previous activity. Have them look for additional examples in other advertisements.

Note: The class can apply the techniques used in the previous two activities to political speeches and to life situations to see how persuasion is used in areas other than advertising.

ORGANIZING INFORMATION AND DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

1. Generalizations

a) Ask the class, “What makes generalizations hasty? What makes one useful?” Discuss. Check the ability to apply the concept to the following exercise:

• Student shopping the local supermarket selects five apples from a barrel in the produce department. All five are spoiled. Is he justified in saying that the apples in the barrel are rotten?

• Student notices that 19 of the 24 students in his class are wearing jeans. Would she be justified in saying that most students in this school wear jeans?

• Student has stayed up most of the night studying for an exam, which he fails. Would he be justified in saying that it is useless to study the night before an exam?

• Student watches her favorite baseball team play ten games in a row on TV. She notes that the team wears white caps at the five “home” games and blue caps at the five “away” games. Would she be justified in saying that in this league the home team wears white and the away team wears colors?

This exercise in inductive reasoning is attempting to build awareness that this form of reasoning involves a process of reasoning from particular instances or cases to a generalization. The generalization is valid only if the cases are appropriate to the generalization and if there are sufficient cases or instances so that a reasonable person would accept the generalization as valid.

b) Have students read the editorial page of several newspapers. Have them research for the conclusion the editorialist has reached. (Remind them it might be in the beginning). Then have them search for the evidence or instances that have been used to support the generalization. Have them decide if the evidence is appropriate and sufficient.

2. False Analogy

As a tool for reasoning the analogy can be misleading. Review the fallacy of the false analogy. Have the class discuss why the following two statements are false analogies.

a) It has often been demonstrated that an old dog can be taught new tricks. That proves that adults are never too old to learn.

b) My older sister gets to stay out after ten on weekend nights. I am in high school, too. I should have the same right.

Next, divide the class into two groups. Each group is to try to create at least ten examples of false analogies, then ten statements that are either true analogies or statements that do not use an analogy. When finished, one group should “quiz” the other to determine if they can separate false analogies from the other statements. Then reverse the procedure.

3. Propaganda Techniques

Refresh the class’s memory about the propaganda techniques explained in the program: card stacking (see Mr. Shiny “man-on-the-street” interviews); name calling (see Patrick Politician); transfer (see “beauty shots” of cars). Introduce these additional techniques:

a) Glittering Generality: An exaggerated statement that uses abstract words with positive connotations and with few supporting facts. (“Jane Lane is a candidate with a vision of the future and a rich heritage of American values.”)

b) Bandwagon: The statement that everyone else is buying or using the product is employed to suggest that to conform you should, too. (“Catch the wave. Coke.”)

c) Plain Folks: This can refer to any one of three insinuations: The candidate is a regular guy; all the “ordinary” people like you choose the product; ordinary people like you make the product and have your best interests at heart. (“Joe Blow takes pride in his work. You may never meet Joe, but you will thank him when you step on those brakes he has installed in your car.”)

Have students look for examples of these propaganda techniques in advertisements. They can also create ads that employ the techniques.

MAKING RATIONAL JUDGMENTS

1. Mystic

As a fun activity to demonstrate to the class how perception, language and failure to think critically can lead to misunderstanding, tell the class that you have developed the ability to read minds. When they show doubt, tell them you will demonstrate that you do have the ability. Select five students at random from the class. Tell each student to write a number on a piece of paper. Have each student conceal his number. Select the first student and tell him or her to concentrate on the number. Say, “While you are concentrating I will write, ‘Exactly the same number’ on a sheet of paper.” Then write those words on a paper.

Go on to the next student and ask that student to concentrate while you write “Exactly the same number” on a paper. Follow the procedure for the other students. Feign deep concentration each time. Repeat the claim you made at the beginning of the exercise Then show the first student what you wrote. Ask, “Did I write ‘Exactly the same number’?” When the student agrees, go on to the next student and so on. Then reveal or have the five students reveal the trick you have played.

Conduct a class discussion on how perceptions of maps have contributed to the trick you were able to play. The student maps had assumed you would write a number; your map had assumed the statement. Encourage students to find additional factors that may have contributed. One possible answer is that teachers do not usually play tricks on students, so they were not expecting the trick. Failure to listen to what was actually being said may be another answer.

2. Stereotyping

Have a class discussion in which each person shares with the class an experience in which a failure to use the “who index” led to the kind of stereotyping “Alison,” “Megan” and “Brad” succumbed to in the program. It can be a situation where the student was the person doing the stereotyping.

3. Final Critical Thinking Project

Divide the class into three to five groups depending on the class size. Assign each group a product that would appeal to students of their age (stereo system, car, surfboard, video camera, mountain bike, personal computer, skis). Once each group has its product, indicate that the group is to conduct an exercise similar to that which “Dave” used to select his car.

The object of the exercise is to study the many brands of the product to find the one that would best fit the needs of students like them. The group should interview students who might already have such an article and evaluate the comments they get. They might next study advertisements for competing brands of the product, look up information on the product in Consumer Guide and talk with sales people at stores that sell the product. The group should prepare a chart similar to the one Dave used in making a rational decision about buying a car. They should also keep checklists of the persuasion techniques they are faced with in the process and of the errors in critical thinking they encounter. When the groups have completed the activity, have each group share their results with the rest of the class.

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