The Ethical Practice of Critical Thinking by Martin Fowler (Carolina Academic Press, 2008) ISBN-13:

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1 SYLLABUS for CRITICAL THINKING Philosophy 210B Elon University Fall 2011 Belk Pavilion 208 Monday and Wednesday 1:40 pm 3:20 pm Faculty Contact Info: Dr. Martin Fowler, AVRP 11, Spence Pavilion of Philosophy and Religious Studies CB 2340, ext. 5250, Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 am 12:00 p.m., and by appointment. Required Texts: The Ethical Practice of Critical Thinking by Martin Fowler (Carolina Academic Press, 2008) ISBN-13: A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston (Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1992). ISBN-13: Course Description and Goals The three student learning objectives for this course are to understand, evaluate, and construct arguments. You ll meet these objectives by learning ten skills which make up the discipline of argumentation. Philosophers especially cherish this discipline, but every profession cultivates it. You need this discipline to function in negotiation, manage relationships, and succeed academically. Because individuals and institutions use arguments to convince you of one thing or another, you need to practice the skill of argumentation until you are excellent at distinguishing which arguments are worthy of your agreement and which are not. Likewise, you will need to argue to convince individuals and institutions that your own claims are valid, so you must become superb at argumentation. You ll do the hard work of mastering the ten skills so that you can understand, evaluate, and construct arguments. You complete this course through your expertise in the discipline of argumentation. The skills demanded by argumentation are cumulative. You must first understand an argument before you can evaluate it. Next, you need to learn what makes an argument strong before you can construct strong arguments. Each step builds upon the previous steps. 1

2 As a critical thinking student, you work on each of the ten steps in turn, to master each step s skill. With each mastered step, you continue to practice the skills you gained from previous steps. When your instructor is persuaded that you have mastered a step s skill, you prove it, usually by taking a quiz. The quiz also proves that you maintained the skills you gained from previous steps. Therefore, there are no prescheduled quizzes. Because a particular skill may challenge some students more than others, different students progress through the steps at different paces. Your grade is based upon how many steps you successfully complete by the end of the semester. Be careful: the fact that the work in this course is self-paced does not mean that all strategies will lead to success, or that you have time to spare. You need motivation, discipline, persistence, and focus to reliably demonstrate proficiency in these new skills. Because the skills are demanding, and only achieved through repeated practice, you need to work hard to make a good grade in this course. Class Attendance. Your attendance and absences are recorded, but this class has no explicit attendance policy. Attend as often or seldom as you see fit, or as emergencies require. In class, your ongoing work is evaluated, you receive individualized feedback on your progress, you take quizzes you're ready for, and you receive instruction on the steps you want to master. During an absence, your progress pauses and only resumes when you come back to class. So, no matter why you're absent, there's no reason to apologize; it s not the teacher's work which has been interrupted, but your own. However, continued or frequent absences will preclude you from arranging out of class meetings with the instructor. The instructor will meet with you outside of class for homework evaluation, quizzes, or instruction under two conditions: * You or an immediate family member has a documented medical emergency; or * When you request, you haven't been absent for two of the past six classes AND you haven't missed more than 15% of the previous classes. For example, if the class has met 10 times when you request a meeting, make sure that you haven't already missed more than 15% (1.5 class periods). If the class had met 20 times when you request a meeting, make sure that you haven't already missed more than 15% of those classes (3 classes). If you have racked up too many absences, attend class until those percentages drop, and then schedule out of class meetings with instructors. Reading. The final two steps have reading assignments. See the table below. You do this reading on your own and bring any questions you have about it to class for discussion. The other steps have no assigned reading. The instructors will teach the material to you directly in class. You work in and outside of class until you master a step s skill. Practice Exercises. On our class Blackboard site, under Course Documents, there is a Student Workbook. This workbook includes multiple exercises for each step of the course. Before the second class day, you are required to download the workbook, print it out, and 2

3 bring it to class in an easy to use form (a 3-ring binder works well). Note: printing the workbook out is required even if you intend to do all or most of the class work on your computer; a hard copy of the workbook will guarantee that even computer difficulties won t get in the way of your progress. You can use the exercises included in the workbook both in and out of class. You are required to bring your copy of the Student Workbook to each class. The instructors will not have extra copies of exercises on hand to share with you. These ten skills are built by habituation; practice is crucial, and your instructor will not permit you to take a quiz until you show exercises that demonstrate mastery of that step s skills. Work that you complete in class will be reviewed either within class or later in the same day (in the latter case, you will receive feedback from your instructor via ). Should you choose to do more work between classes, ing that work to your instructor of record no later than 7:30 pm prior to the next class will guarantee that your work will be evaluated by the beginning of the next class period (in this case, in addition to the written feedback on the work, you will receive feedback in person during that class period). Keep in mind that if you come to class with work you have completed but not yet shared with the instructor, you will most likely have to wait a significant amount of time to receive feedback. Assessment Tools; Quizzes. When your instructor has decided that you are sufficiently competent in a given skill to be tested that is, when your practice exercises have manifested a high level of fluency in that particular skill you will take the appropriate assessment tool. For most steps, this is a quiz. If your instructor judges that your quiz work demonstrates competency, you will earn a certain number of points (listed in chart below), and then move to the next step. If your work does not show competency, you keep working on that skill, and retake the quiz when you have demonstrated mastery. Keep in mind that there is no penalty for failing a quiz, and that you may take the quiz for a specific step as many times as needed. Quizzes are cumulativet; that is, the quiz for Step 6 requires you to do the skill you mastered in Step 5, as well as Steps 1 through 4. If a given quiz indicates that your competency in a previous step has weakened significantly, you must return to that step and re-demonstrate competency. So, you must retain the skills which you ve gained. Steps Nine and Ten involve different assessment tools: Written Arguments. For Step Nine, you write an argument on a topic of your choosing including a bibliography using a recognized citation format. To demonstrate competency for this step, your argument must be coherent, comprehensive, persuasive, and centered on an interesting and compelling claim. Expect to work through several drafts of your argument before achieving competency. Panel Presentations. For Step Ten, you will be required to engage in a panel presentation. This is a group assignment, which must include at least three students. Each group will be responsible for arranging a panel presentation for the class. The panel will be made up of the students, plus one or more person from outside the Elon community (and outside your family!) who will argue a position opposite (or, where appropriate, sufficiently different) from that of the students. In other words, you must: 1) Choose a topic; 3

4 2) choose a position; 3) Find a representative of a group which holds the opposite position to yours; 4) arrange for that person to visit the class and debate the issue with you; 5) Research the topic in preparation for the presentation; and 6) Give the presentation to the class. Each presentation should run for approximately 45 minutes. Presentations can take place during any class period, including the final exam period. However, you must provide your instructor of record with proof (i.e., a written commitment) that the outside member(s) of your panel will participate in your presentation no less than two weeks prior to the presentation date (please confirm with your instructor that your preferred date is still available before confirming it with your guest). You may choose any topic as long as you run it by your instructor first. The presentation must demonstrate good argumentative skills, strong research, and a strong understanding of the ethics of argumentation. Successful completion of this Step is necessary to earn full credit for the argumentative element of the class. (Note: it often takes quite a while to find a person willing to come into class and participate in these presentations. Therefore, if you believe that you will want to try to do this assignment, I suggest that you start organizing your group no later than halfway through the semester, so that you can begin looking for a guest. If you don t move through the Steps quickly enough to undertake this project, you will have to cancel with your guest; but this is easier than having to find someone on short notice!) Students often choose the same topic for both their Written Argument and their Panel Presentation, which makes sense. Keep in mind that both assignments require significant amount of research schedule your time accordingly! Panel Presentation Evaluations. These evaluations will be an alternative assignment, designed for those students who do not undertake the panel presentation assignment. Only students who have completed Step Eight are eligible to evaluate panel presentations; moreover, in order to complete an evaluation, students must read and be able to apply the material in Fowler s text. No more than two additional points will be allocated for the total number of evaluations completed; how many evaluations will be needed to be completed to earn those points will depend on how many panel presentations are scheduled. Panel Presentation Evaluation Forms are available under Course Documents on our Blackboard site. To receive any credit, the evaluations must be detailed and fair. They must include a specific letter grade, and must show competency in evaluating arguments for both their logic and their ethical quality. Some General Notes about Grading. All of the grading will show up on our Blackboard site. Keep in mind, however, that this class is graded cumulatively and that every assignment is an all-or-nothing prospect; therefore, any data that Blackboard has about your average of the different assignments won t be relevant. The only thing that will be recorded on Blackboard is your successful completion of any given Step (and keep in mind that even that record can be changed, if your mastery of that skill weakens). Your grade is determined by how many individual Steps you successfully complete by the completion of the course. Please notify your 4

5 instructor immediately if you believe that a mistake has been made in record-keeping. Your instructor will keep all graded quizzes until the end of the semester. Without solid evidence to the contrary, the instructor will assume that his records are accurate. Final Exam Period: Friday, December 9, 2011 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm There is no final exam for this class; this period will be considered additional class meeting time, and will be the last chance for students to earn points by taking quizzes, engaging in panel presentations, or evaluating panel presentations. At the very least, do not make any travel arrangements that would make attending the exam period impossible; if you do so, and plan to be absent for that class meeting, your instructors will not schedule out of class meetings with you for the last two weeks of the semester. If you ever have any questions concerning an assignment, please contact an instructor immediately. Additional Information Please Read Carefully! Because of the individualized nature of each student s progress, you may find yourself having to wait to discuss your work with the instructor. It is your responsibility to use that time productively and to not distract other students. The best use of your time, if you aspire to complete Step 9 or 10, is to research possible topics or guests for these steps. If you engage in behavior that is distracting in any way (yes, surfing the web, checking your Facebook page, and texting are definitely distracting), you will be asked to leave the classroom, and you will be recorded as absent for that day. If you are a student with a documented disability who will require accommodations in this course, please register with Disabilities Services in the Duke Building, Room 108 ( ), for assistance in developing a plan to address your academic needs. This course recognizes and adheres to the principles of the Elon Academic Honor Code. Students are expected to be familiar with the code and follow it consistently, regardless of whether the professor is present to enforce it. The Elon Academic Honor Code can be found in the current Elon Student Handbook. Questions about possible violations should be directed to the professor. Suspected violations will be reported to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Any violation will result in a failing grade for the course. All cell phones must be turned off during class time. If you have an emergency situation that requires your accessibility during class, please speak to an instructor about it prior to the start of the class period. Laptops may be used only for class purposes, and your screen must be clearly visible to an instructor at all times. If you are using a computer, cell phone, or any other device for purposes other than those related to this particular class, you will be asked to leave the classroom, and you will be recorded as absent for that day. 5

6 Summary of Material / Grading. STEP 1: SKY BLUE - Distinguish arguments from other forms of language. Quiz no. 1 Earn 5/100 points if you complete this step and go no further. STEP 2: YELLOW ALERT - Isolate conclusions.. Earn 10/100 points if you complete this step and go no further. Quiz no. 2 Now you re qualified to go FREE-RANGE! Attend class anytime between 9:25 am and 12:00 noon! STEP 3: ORANGE-MENTS - Diagram simple arguments. Quiz no. 3 Earn 25/100 points if you complete this step and go no further. Quiz 4 STEP 4: RED ROVERS - Diagram complex arguments. Earn 50/100 points if you master this step, but go no further. Quiz no. 4 STEP 5: TRUE BLUE - Evaluate arguments for acceptability. Earn 58/100 points if you complete this step and go no further. Quiz no. 5 STEP 6: GREENER GRASS Evaluate arguments for relevancy. Earn 66/100 points if you complete this step and go no further.. STEP 7: PURPLE PROSE Evaluate arguments for sufficiency. Earn 74/100 points if you complete this step and go no further. STEP 8: SUM BRONZED Evaluate arguments. Earn 82/100 points if you complete this step and go no further STEP 9: SILVER BULLET - Construct arguments. This step includes a reading assignment. Please read Anthony Weston s A Rulebook for Arguments in its entirety. Quiz no. 6 Quiz no. 7 Quiz no. 8 Written Arguments Earn 88/100 points if you master this step but go no further. STEP 10: BLACK ADDER: Panel Presentation Earn no additional points if you complete this step poorly. Earn 92/100 points if you complete this step acceptably well. Earn 100/100 points if you master this step exceptionally well. Panel Presentation (Read Fowler s book, The Ethical Practice of Critical Thinking.) 6