Brief Report

Module Overview: In
this module you will apply your understanding of learning, attention,
memory, and critical thinking to a developmental process that you are
all currently engaged in: college education. First, you will watch
watch/listen to 2 brief segments from public t.v./radio on the issue of
vaccine denial/refusal. You will consider the consequences for all of us when college educated adults do not think critically about issues of great importance.

Next,
you will watch 2 segments of a talk given by sociologist of education
Richard Arum on his work with his colleague Josipa Roksa. In their
research they explored three “generic” skills: critical thinking, higher
order reasoning and writing skills. Their findings show that these
vital “generic” skills are developed best when: 1) faculty hold high expectations for students, 2) students are given challenging reading and writing assignments and 3) students spend greater study time alone,
NOT in groups. (The latter finding should remind you of the brief talk
by Geoff Colvin who described how “deliberate practice” could lead to
extreme growth in skill). Arum and Roksa also followed students over
time to illuminate the very real consequences of inadequate college
education for their futures and for our entire society.

After the successful completion to this learning unit, you will be able to:

1. Identify the likely presence (or evidence) of “pre-reflective” and
“quasi-reflective” judgment among college educated parents who refuse to
have their children vaccinated.

2. Identify how critical thinking, higher order reasoning and writing
skills can be reliably measured and what happens when students fail to
develop these generic skills. (Note: Arum will use the term “quintile.”
This means 20%. So the “top quintile” would be the top 20%, etc.).

Before you Begin:

The graph below presents the results
of a study by King and Kitchener (review Reflective Judgment in your
text, Ch. 7) that compared the Reflective Judgment scores of students
who were enrolled in high school (10th grade), college (freshmen to
seniors), and graduate school (early post-college and after years of
Ph.D. training).

You will see that, on average, 10th
grade students and new college students scored slightly above 3 or at
the pre-reflective stage; college seniors and new graduate students
scored between 4-5 or within the quasi-reflective stage, and only advanced Ph.D. students scored closer to 6 in the reflective judgment (i.e., critical thinking) stage.

The implications of this are clear: on
average, college graduates have NOT learned how to think critically and
regard the “truth” of particular claims as largely a “matter of
opinion.” Said differently, they have not learned how to evaluate evidence to arrive at a more accurate position.

Other researchers have reported results that are similar to those above. This leaves us with at least 2 important questions.

First: What impact does this have on our society’s ability to deal
with issues of critical importance to our nation and our planet?

Second: Why do so many college students fail to learn to think critically during college?

For example, consider the case (also in Ch. 1 of your text) of parents
who insisted that their children’s autism had been caused by the MMR
vaccine despite that fact that empirical evidence does not support that
claim. As a result of an inability to think critically, some parents
have refused to vaccinate their children and diseases, mostly unseen for
decades, are now on the rise. As you will hear/see in the Public
Radio/T.V. pieces below, outbreaks have occurred in areas with
relatively high levels of education. Given the work of King and
Kitchener, that should actually not be all that surprising.

After teaching for many years I’ve come to the conclusion that many
students do not learn how to think critically for the same reason
chronic multi-taskers overestimate their abilities to multi-task and
poorly performing students overestimate their test grades: We don’t know
what we don’t know. That is, before they learn how to think critically,
most students do not realize that they are not thinking critically.
I’ve made it a point to try to convince my students that most of them
have not yet learned to think effectively. You might guess that this
would make me pretty unpopular. But that is not what has happened.
Instead, many (many!) of my students have made it their mission to learn
to think critically and then they do!

STEP 1: To successfully complete this learning unit, first review Reflective Judgment in Ch. 7 of your text. Then listen to/watch 2 segments from Public Radio/T.V.

Note: At the start of the Marin video, listen very carefully to what
the doctor advises about the flu vaccine and how the mother replies.
Also, listen carefully to the mother’s reasoning behind her resistance to the Chicken Pox vaccine.

Marin County Vaccine Refusal (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

and

Santa Monica Vaccine Refusal (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

STEP 2:
watch 2 segments of a lecture given by sociologist Richard Arum on his
studies (with Josipa Roksa) of the causes and consequences of inadequate
college educations.

Watch the video from: 8:28 until 39:34 and then from 54:45 until the end.

Richard Arum Video (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

STEP 3: Write

a 250-350 word (maximum) brief report on the issue of inadequate

critical thinking/reasoning among college educated persons. In your

brief report, address both questions below.

Address the following questions:

1. Identify the likely presence (or evidence) of “pre-reflective” and

“quasi-reflective” judgment among college educated parents who refuse to

have their children vaccinated. What did the parents say that lead you

to that conclusion?

2. Identify how critical thinking, higher order reasoning and writing skills can be reliably measured and what happens

when students fail to develop these generic skills. (Note: Arum will

use the term “quintile.” This means 20%. So the “top quintile” would be

the top 20%, etc.).

Make sure to refer to information presented throughout the audio/videos, that is, your report should make clear that you listened to/watched the audio/video assignments in their entirety. Please don’t plarigism.