I see the practice of logic and its use in discussion as essentially a form of mutual aid. Logic should never be used only as tool for winning debates or poking fun at the reasoning of others. As Socrates demonstrates through his continuous efforts to seek and engage potential opponents, logical criticism is of little use, unless it is given respectfully to others as a gift in return for which one hopes to receive their criticism. This is because the ultimate purpose of the skills of critical thinking is to create conditions for self-criticism (Socrates' motto is, after all, "know thyself"). In other words, the heart of the Socratic Method is: Your arguments are only as good as the strongest criticisms they have been able to stand up to. This is the most fundamental rule of logic, and it makes one's intellectual "opponents" really one's best friends. Students, therefore, must learn the skill of giving and receiving criticism because it is the foundation of good scholarship in both the arts and sciences.
To facilitate this end I schedule class discussions throughout the term. To help make these discussions more lively and informed I always have a certain number of students do a written assignment addressing the topic of the discussion, which must submitted that day. This means there are always some students prepared for the discussion. I make sure to call on these students and to observe their participation to make an assessment of the participation component of their course grade. To provide an incentive for the other students to participate, I base the exam essay topics on the class discussion topics. Students must choose topics for their exam essays that they have not already done written assignments for during the term. Thus, coming to class discussions is an easy way to prepare for writing exam essays and students can experience the connection between reading, discussion and their own research and writing. I also encourage students to engage in discussion of course topics with others outside of class and, should they desire, to visit me to discuss their topics before their assignments are due.
Although I love logic, most students have neither the time nor the opportunity to study it in detail. So I have developed three basic types of assignment that will help students to produce well-reasoned positions, without having to take classes in logic or critical thinking. At the core of these assignments is the basic Socratic approach mentioned above. The essay assignment asks that students present objections to their own arguments, which they must respond to if they are to properly complete the assignment. In the case of the critique assignment, students get the opportunity to examine two opposed readings for arguments and then identify relevant objections to one of these positions. In the case of the research paper, the focus is on seeking to identify some significant opposing viewpoints on a issue. Thus, all three assignment types present students with opportunities to practice seeking and grappling with potential opponents so that their views can help test and improve their own reasoning.
Although learning the rules of logic is important, critical thinking today requires more than just an ability to tell the difference between fallacious and non-fallacious forms of reasoning. Students need to understand how the media environment in which they live can profoundly influence the ways they think and what they think about.
They need to know how to use one medium to offset the deficiencies of other media. For example, they need to understand that the content of each medium will be affected by the kinds of financial mechanisms required to support that medium and that the physical characteristics of a medium will encourage certain uses over others--TV is better for chilling out, newspapers for finding out. Our search engines feed us each different results based on past searchs. But the "algorithm" used to make these determinations is not just determined by us, but also by the corporation in charge of that service.
Students need to be able to categorize and assess the evaluative viewpoints different kinds of media sources. This can be achieved by having them engage with the contending viewpoints of advocacy groups like the Fraser Institute, the Vanier Institute of the Family, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the David Suzuki Foundation, and the reports such groups present on social issues being discussed today like climate change, funding for health care, abortion and suburban sprawl.
They have to understand how a book differs from an e-zine and a peer-reviewed journal differs from a web log. They have to understand how editors and other kinds of gatekeepers shape the information we receive. Such lessons can be glimpsed in some very good documentaries (which I like to use in my classes), such as the NFB's "The World is Watching" about news coverage of the Nicaraguan revolution and the Contras. I traveled to Nicaragua in the 80s, and I like to draw on my experiences there and other places I have visited (North Korea, Kenya and Tanzania) to help students understand both the benefits that gatekeepers provide and the limits they can impose on our understanding of the wider world around us.
In short, to be good critical thinkers students need two kinds of media awareness. First, they need to understand the unique characteristics of the new media and the characteristics of all media that help structure content in various unique ways. Second, they need to be made aware of more traditional ways of communicating, such as good old-fashioned face-to-face discourse, and the key role these ways can play in the preservation of certain critical social functions. Consider the difference between the kind of public forum created by a community newspaper editorial page, with its letters to the editor, versus the kind of community created by an Internet site and a web log. The difference is between the creation of a general public forum and a forum essentially oriented towards the nurturing of a subculture.
In a highly mediated world it is easy to lose the skills of face-to-face discourse. As Harold Innis, one of the first modern media theorists, repeatedly notes, it is only in situations of face-to-face discourse that we can experience a full awareness of the subtle forms of extra-verbal communication and emotional nuance that can occur between human beings. Such communication, therefore, remains one of the most important tools for overcoming misunderstanding between radically different points of view.
MY LATE POLICY
The primary purpose of my assignments is to provide students with opportunities to practice the skills necessary for creating and presenting informed positions on complex and controversial subjects. It is not one of their primary purposes to teach basic time management skills. University is a form of adult education, and I assume that students are adults leading complex adult lives. Therefore, I have a flexible late policy that emphasizes the natural repercussions of delays in the completion of work. I work very hard to arrange the marking tasks of all my classes so that students who submit work on-time can normally expect to receive them back within 2 weeks. Any assignments submitted late and which lack properly documented excuses are put in my "late pile." This pile has the lowest priority when it comes to the marking schedule that I have pre-arranged for each semester. Students, therefore, should not expect to know when such unexplained late assignments will be returned (it could be any time right up to the final exam). Thus, the primary penalty is to risk the opportunity to benefit from feedback that can be used to improve one’s performance on subsequent work. All such unexplained late assignments will also receive a flat 4% penalty. However, if a student simply wants a day or two extra, I am willing to level a 1.5% per day late penalty, and I will not put the assignment in my late pile. However, students must contact me in advance of the due date to arrange for this option. I also mark all late papers with a slightly higher standard in mind--I assume students will have heard the class discussion on the assigned topic, or could obtain notes for it, and therefore should be aware of some of the best sources and arguments presented in that discussion.
Copyright © James Gerrie 10 September 2010