Spring 2012 Mentoring Experience (Group 8): Topic 3: Critical Thinking

Friday, February 17, 2012

Topic 3: Critical Thinking

Welcome back cornerstone students. My name is Mark Walker and I will be working with you this week to explore critical thinking skills. This is a skill that we use everyday in every aspect of our lives. A basic definition of critical thinking is the ability to take information and make educated decisions without the influence of your own views. In other words, the capability to engage in introspective and objective thought.

Someone with critical thinking skills will:

Understand the logical connections between ideas
Identify, construct and evaluate arguments
Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
Solve problems systematically
Identify the relevance and importance of ideas
Reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

Activity:

In this week’s activity we will apply these proficiencies.

First, visit the virtual philosopher website at http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/ethicsTechnology/video/VP/ethics_vp4/vp4.html and answer the questions that the virtual philosopher poses. After completing this exercise, please use the prompts below as jumping off points to share your perspectives on critical thinking in 4-5 well-developed paragraphs.

How were you scored and did your answers favor, need, equality or merit? Does this align with your personal beliefs? How? If not, why? If the virtual philosopher considers your score “inconsistent”, do you agree with his statement that you probably, “picked your answers based upon what sounded good at the time without much thought for consistency?” Why or why not? Were you surprised by how you were scored, why or why not?
Why do you evaluate ethical situations like those presented by the virtual philosopher in the way that you do?
The virtual philosopher examines the interplay of ethics and critical thinking. As discussed above, skills of a critical thinker include identifying, constructing and evaluating arguments and reflecting on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values. With this in mind, let’s take this a step further and examine another hypothetical situation:

You are a psychologist and a long-time patient reveals that they are a murderer and confesses their crimes to you. They continue by saying they won’t/haven’t killed again. The oath you took declares that a therapist should keep everything a client shares with you confidential unless he/she is an immediate threat to themselves or others. After spending many months treating this client, it is clear to you that they are not a threat. What would you do and why?

How has your experience as an IDS student enhanced your critical thinking skills? What about IDS studies encourages critical thinking? How do you think this will help you in your future endeavors like graduate school or your professional career?
Reply to at least one other student’s response. You can discuss their insights on the Virtual Philosopher activity, their response to the hypothetical situation, their ideas about critical thinking or any combination of the three.

Please take the time to really think about your responses and examine them using the critical thinking skills described in the bullet points above before posting. Also, please be sure to keep an open mind about each other’s responses. We all might not have the same opinions, but all responses should be balanced and logical.

As mentors we are here to try and guide you through these activities, so please ask us any questions you may have, our opinions, our experiences or anything else that may help enhance this activity.

Make sure that you post your responses as comments to this blog post and not as a brand new post. Again, be sure any responses to a particular person’s post are done as a reply to that person’s post and not a brand new comment. This helps keep the conversation going. I encourage you to respond to more than one post if you are so inclined and if someone responds to your comments attempt to engage them in further conversation and/or respond to their thoughts about your post.

I’ll leave you with this one last thought. Daniel Pink points out in his book, A Whole New Mind, that today’s knowledge economy is rapidly changing. This new economy will demand that workers are able to think creatively on their feet and synthesize many disparate pieces of information into new ideas. These skills are enhanced by well-developed critical thinking skills. So it is important to take the opportunities we have to further develop and fine-tune them.

We look forward to reading and responding to your responses this week and learning more about you and your critical thinking skills.

- Mark Walker

References:

Critical thinking bullet points were found here: http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

34 comments:

Lisa WestFebruary 22, 2012 at 10:12 AM
I completed the questions that the virtual philosopher posed, and he considered my score to be “inconsistent”. I disagree with his statement suggesting that I chose my answers based upon what sounded good at the time without much thought for consistency. I felt like I would handle each situation that the virtual philosopher posed differently. I feel that under certain circumstances you should act differently than you would in others. For example, the situation about the two men stranded on a desert island with a radio and a pizza; ordinarily I would say that it would be up to the person who paid for the pizza to distribute it to his liking, however, in this circumstance, the larger man would have died without a bigger portion. In dyer situations like these, I think people should make accommodations and view things from all angles.

I evaluate situations like the ones presented by the virtual philosopher based on what I feel is the right thing to do. My emotions, morals, and sincerity for others play a huge role in my decisions. I am great at placing myself in another person’s shoes, which allows me to take a step back and examine the pros and cons of my decisions. I think it is important to be fair and even, however, I also think that depending on what situation you are in, it is important to really evaluate what benefits or downfalls could come from your decisions.

If I were a psychologist treating the client described in the scenario, I would more than likely report that client to the proper authorities. Despite the fact that I no longer felt this client would be a threat to society, who am I to know for sure that my client would not murder another innocent person again? I do believe that it is important to keep things confidential; however, when dealing with people who could potentially hurt themselves or another, I think it would be best to turn them in. I could not live with myself if I had known this information and then my client committed another crime, especially when I could have prevented it from happening.

I think my experience as an IDS student has really given me the opportunity to sit back and take a good look at the world around me. I feel like I can see how things all around me relate to and work with one another. I think that knowing that IDS expresses how things work together, that I can take deeper looks into situations and ideas and figure out ways to make them better and more efficient. I think that in the future I will be able to weigh my options better and really decide what is best for me and what decisions will benefit me the greatest.

-Lisa West
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Justiss WilderFebruary 22, 2012 at 4:22 PM
I was considered "inconsistent," and I do not agree with it at all! While I enjoy the theoretical application of this activity, it is, for me, missing some valid points. In Case 1, I can see both sides of the coin. While the average student with poor finances deserves a portion of the money, so does the average financially situated student because merit is important to me. What I feel was missed in this particular case is the idea that poverty-stricken persons generally (not always) have grants provided by the government to pay for education...I am not financially average, and PELL paid for this class. :-) Another facet is that the wealthier family has money with an implication of "money is everything." While I understand this concept, it does not provide the explanation nor the consideration of educational values and importance of education in these households. Money is money...we all need it; however, oftentimes money warrants education, thus instilling the sense of commitment to such. I feel both students should receive some of this scholarship money, but not 50/50 because their situations are not 50/50. I would adjust the distribution accordingly...more money would go to the merit student as I would appreciate the reciprocal investment of an educated graduate. This isn't to say the needy student wouldn't succeed (as I have), but it is a capitalistic world!

Much of the second point here is aforementioned, but to be clear, I do not have much money and I am becoming educated and successful (although at the age of 24). Had I known the value of education from the outset, I would have graduated with a Masters Degree by this point. I am in no way bitter, but I do think educational values are more often prominent in families with average finances. My partner's family is extremely educated (2 ophthalmologists, a surgeon, and a lawyer); as such, the children we co-parent are being taught educational values I never knew. He has some money, but the most important to me is the reflection of successful values I wish my parents had employed.

If I were this particular psychologist, I would not report the client for three reasons: Firstly, he has been a patient of mine for a long time, and I would know whether or not another killing was immanent; Secondly, because this is a long term patient, I would imagine statute of limitations has ran its course; Lastly, it has already been established this person is not a threat to society, and my position requires me to protect his interests.

IDS encourages critical thinking through activities such as these, and through the mentoring project itself (just to name one). Although I have only started as an IDS student, I can already feel the experience of knowledge expansion and synthesis through my classes. I believe IDS does a fantastic job of encouraging relationships with other students who have dissimilar ideologies and interests...this is a great point for me. The more I think critically, the better I will get at it, and, who knows, maybe one day I will create or invent something fantastic because of my interdisciplinary background!

Thanks,
Justiss Wilder
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DavidFebruary 23, 2012 at 12:28 PM
The virtual philosopher scored my answers to the questions as inconsistent. I would have to whole heartedly disagree with the virtual philosopher that I was picking my answers based on what sounded good at the time. I was basing my answers on the values I that I hold to be true, along with my educational background. Each situation was treated differently because I tried to make the decisions on what would benefit the most people for the greater good. Scoring the way I did as “inconsistent” does not surprise me because the same thought process will not always lead to the same kind of solution.

In my mind each situation was different. The first question, I based that off my career goals of wanting to be a teacher and trying to help as many people as I can. When asked how to separate a college scholarship, of course I want to give it to the two students. One child earned the scholarship because he used his brain to scholarship instead of athletic skills. By this I don’t mean to put down athletes who get scholarships but it’s just a person using different talents that they were given to at birth. At the same, who am I say just because a child is poor, that they do not deserve chance at an education. Average grades do not always mean that the child isn’t capable. There is a possibility that the child was never challenged at the school they attended so he/she did not put that same effort forward. I went along the same concept of the greater good for the second example as well. I decided that the 400 lb man to get more food because he needed it more because the smaller man can survive with less. You never know if a situation will arise that the 400 lb man’s strength would be needed so he should at least be nourished.

For the third question I responded with imposing the tax on the people most able to pay. Why should the poor constantly be living under crude circumstances? If anything I think this matches my response to the first question. Choosing option C of imposing the tax only on people using the service seems silly. It’s like saying I don’t have any kids or my kids are grown why should I continue to pay taxes to support the school system. In the end everybody will benefit from the service one way or another. Although taxing everyone equally sounds like a great idea because everybody is putting in an equal share it’ll continue to make the poor poorer. Yes, they get to benefit from the services this tax gives them but the cost would seem too high.

Following the logic that I used for the virtual philosopher’s questions, I tried to apply it to the physiologist example. In the end I’d have to still turn this person in to the authorities. Why should this person be exempt from the law? This person still took a life and left a family in despair without ever knowing why their family member had to die. Even looking at the statistics, according to the Bureau of Justice 61% of people who committed violent crimes were arrested again for the same crime three years after being release. That a high gamble to take on someone who was not caught the first time.

I’d have to say it is fairly hard to say how my critical thinking skills have been enhanced as an IDS student, being under 2 months in an IDS class. Perhaps this is a better question to ask at the end of the program instead of at the beginning. That being said, IDS studies encourages people to think critically because they are looking at a situation from several disciplines using the different theories associated from those disciplines to come up with a solution to a problem. From a professional standpoint the ability to think critically eliminates a lot of time wasted from providing ridiculous solutions to important problems.

David Chicas
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UnknownFebruary 23, 2012 at 2:08 PM
After answering the questions from the virtual philosopher the first time, the philosopher labeled me as inconsistent, picking whatever sounded good at the time. I disagree with this. Each of the hypothetical situations that were posed had different qualifications of importance. That being said, I think each situation should be evaluated individually and not grouped together. Grouping them together would make problem solving less personal, resulting in the solutions being generalized.
I may have appeared to be inconsistent in my solutions because I looked at each situation individually. Sometimes fairness should override merit and need depending on the situation. I do not think that I merely picked what sounded good at the time. I just think certain situations need to be evaluated in different ways.
As a psychologist in the next hypothetical situation, I would not turn the patient in and continue to see them. This was a difficult conclusion to come up with, but legally I only have to turn in a patient if they confess that they want to, or plan to hurt someone. If this patient no longer poses a threat, it is not my place to report something that has happened in the past, and compromise my trust with the patient. This is a slightly uncomfortable solution for me, but it comes with the territory when one is a psychologist.
My critical thinking skills have broadened after becoming an IDS student. I have learned that there is no one-way of doing something or coming up with a solution. As you can see from my replies, being given this freedom, I exercise it to its full potential. I think that everything is circumstantial multiple problem solving skills are needed.
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HelenFebruary 23, 2012 at 7:02 PM
The virtual philosopher considered me as inconsistent. I feel that my answers were based on a little bit of equality, need and merit. I do believe that my answer lined up with my beliefs because I do try to make my decisions based on what would be best for everyone involved. I don’t agree with the philosopher at all about my decision because I don’t feel that I made my selections based on what sounded good because I feel I thought through my answers, considering the consequences and the benefits of those decisions. I was a little bit surprised about my score because I don’t feel that they were inconsistent but I guess when you are trying to do what is “fair” and it doesn’t fit perfectly in the boxes that have been created by others it would be inconsistent.
I think that the reason I evaluate situations the way I do is because of my background. I come from an ethically poor background but have gotten scholarships for my academic accomplishments. I have always been a thinker and have tried to view the world differently from what is considered the norm. I want things to be have fair as they could be but I know that it doesn’t necessary involve everyone contributing the same amount because it is unreasonable to think that everyone would be able to. Also why should certain group suffer because of the fact that they haven’t had the opportunities of others. So I feel that it is necessary to try to be fair to all parties involved.
I'm not really sure what I would do in this situation because I know as his therapist I took an oath to keep our meetings very confidential and I feel that oaths are a verious serious obligation but at the same time I morally don't feel that a murder should be set free. Although I know that he will more than likely not murder anyone else, I feel that he should face the consequences of his actions. But than again his conscience as a person may have been punishing him ever since he committed the act.
I feel that IDS has helped me to learn to look at problems from a different way. I also believe that because of these problems I have learned new ways to solve the problems I face. I think that trying to understand the concept of IDS and the importance of explaining it to others has helped me think of new ways to approach problems I face in my everyday life. I think that this will help me in the future because I will be working with students and in order to help them to learn my subject, I will need to be able to approach the problem from a different perspective. Also it will teach me to integrate other studies into my subject matter so that I can improve my teaching abilities.
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NickFebruary 26, 2012 at 1:50 PM
After taking the test, I found I was consistent with equality. I felt in all the situations that equality weighed more than any of the choices. Equality helps us all feel that no one is better than us for any reason. This result of the test aligns with what I believe in. We are all in this world together so we should all try our best to make it equal. Therefore I wasn't really surprised with the results. I somewhat agree though that I picked my answers based upon what sounded good at the time. Maybe if I reread the question another time I would have changed my answers. Maybe another time i would have given that fat guy more pizza. But for this time I didn't.

I evaluate situations like these because I believed that we all are equal. Inequality is the reason for all the Occupy Orlando movement. If we had more equality, the world would have less fights about certain things. Though I believe in equality, it doesn't mean I don't believe in diversity. These are two different things. Equality refers to that fact that we all get the same opportunity, diversity refers to what makes us all different. I respect what makes us all different like religion, culture, race, and etc. But I also believe we all should have a chance at the American dream.

Since, as the psychologist, I took an oath and the patient isn't clearly going to hurt himself or another person, there is no reason to break the oath and tell. I feel that if I did report what he did in the past, it might ruin my reputation as a psychologist. Plus it is more the police's job to discovery if he committed murder. What if the murder wasn't really a murder at all, but a liar? People will say anything sometimes. There still needs to be evidence that the murder committed the murder.

Since I am a new IDS student, IDS hasn't really affected my critical thinking skills. But my past classes, such as mathematics, has. In math one has to think critically all the time to solve math problems. My other subject, sociology, I too have to think critically about society and how it affects people. IDS studies encourage critical thinking because it incorporates so many different areas of study. One has to be able to think critically to combine or use all areas of study.
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BBoelensFebruary 26, 2012 at 7:37 PM
The philosopher stated that I was inconsistent in my views and that I did not have a grand philosophy. Although I know it is a simple computer program, I was still a bit offended. I do not place a mold for my philosophical and moral beliefs where in I have no room for inconsistency. If we look at every situation exactly the same then we lose our humanity. In the case of the two students I gave the scholarship to the one who earned it, because it discredits the organization and the merit of scholarship, if it is given for extra curricular reasons. In the case of life or death the need to sustain human life supersedes any philosophy on monetary equality. All that aside, I was not surprised that I scored inconsistently.

I am a Christian and being such I have a worldview that is consistent with Judeo-Christian ideals. All humans have a worldview, regardless of religious or irreligious belief, and it through these worldviews that philosophical and moral decisions are made. My own worldview shaped all of the questions the virtual philosopher put in front of me.

The Hippocratic oath states nothing of not reporting crime and all United States citizens have a responsibility to report crime; to not report it is to engage in it. If I were a psychologist I would ask for them to turn themselves in and if they did not, then I would invoke my right to utilize the Baker Act.

My experience as an IDS student has allowed to me to look at the world through different eyes. My minor is in international relations, and I have taken a particular interest in Asian culture. Looking at life from the perspective of others can change the way we approach our worldviews. I’m hoping that this will allow me to connect on a more personal level with my clients in the future.
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Spring 2012 Mentoring Experience (Group 8)

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Topic 3: Critical Thinking

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