History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
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Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
The critical condition of critical thinking
- 04-19-2011
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Guest blog by Roxanna Elden/Washington Post
When I started teaching freshman English, one of my favorite lessons covered errors in logic, including these three terms: ·Oversimplification: The argument presents one cause or solution without considering other factors. ·Circular reasoning: The argument treats the point to be proven as if it is already a proven fact. ·Either/or reasoning: The argument reduces multiple possibilities to two options. It’s not just about memorizing definitions. The point of teaching terms like these is so students can apply them to wider world issues. This is time-consuming in a classroom of low-level readers; students who don’t read about current events have trouble discussing them critically. Much in-class background discussion is required, for example before students can recognize oversimplification in a statement such as: Teacher effectiveness is the most significant factor in student achievement. What additional factors does this statement fail to consider?” (more...)
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