J. Roth

English 201                              

 

READ-ME PAGE--Scavenger Hunt #2

 

 

Critical Thinking—from Practical Strategies for Critical Thinking, pp. 61-112

 

 

Some important points from this section of our text:

 

The final paragraph of p. 61--the three advantages of critical thinking:

 

 

ü      "Critical thinking encourages you to examine carefully the steps you follow and the activities you engage in when you think."

 

ü      "Critical thinking is also developmental . . . . By becoming aware of what you do or might not do when you think, you can learn and practice skills that will improve your thinking."

 

ü      "Critical thinking is active.  It demands that you use your initiative and develop your sense of curiosity, that you become involved enough to grapple with issues and tackle problems, and that you try to think for yourself and not just rely on the thinking of others."

 

"A person who engaged only in lateral thinking might generate lots of new ideas but would lack the skills to develop them.  A person who engaged in only vertical thinking might find a solution to a problem but never imagine that there could be a better solution or a faster way of arriving at it" (62).

 

 

THE FIVE STEPS IN PROBLEM SOLVING

 

  1. What is the problem?
  2. What are the alternatives?
  3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative?
  4. What is the solution?
  5. How well is the solution working? (Chaffee, as quoted in Rehner 65).

 

 

Rehner, Jan. Practical Strategies for Critical Thinking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

 

English 201                                                                   Name:____________________

J. Roth                                                                        

HAND-IN-TO-JIM PAGES--Scavenger Hunt #2 (20 points possible)

 

Due no later than Thursday, 4/15.  This assignment counts for and replaces the April 9, 12, and 13 journal entries.

 

Critical Thinking—from Practical Strategies for Critical Thinking, pp. 61-112

 

Using the text as a guide, please answer the following questions in your own words.

 

 

1. What is Vertical Thinking?

 

 

 

 

2.  What is Lateral  Thinking?

 

 

 

 

3. What are Open-ended problems?

 

 

 

 

4. What is Bias in general?

 

 

 

5. Bias in language:

 

            What is Emotive Language?

 

 

 

            What is Euphemistic Language?

 

 

 

            What is Advertising Language?

 

 

 

6. What are Stereotypes?

 

 

 

7. What is an Evidence Check?

 

 

 

 

 

8. What is The "Why" and "What's That" Strategy?

 

 

 

 

 

9. What is PMI?  How is it used?

 

 

 

 

 

10. What is The Optimistic View?

 

 

 

 

11. What is The Pessimistic View?

 

 

 

 

12. What is Provocative Thinking?

 

 

 

 

13. Briefly summarize the four suggestions in Generating Questions "When You Fear You Have None," pp. 103-4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. Try the logic puzzle on p. 63.  See if you can complete the following chart without looking at the solution:

 

Girl's Name:        Joann  ____    _________      _________      _________

 

Boy's Name:     _________      ___Billy___      ___Dan___      _________

 

Item:                 _________      _________      _________      __hot dogs_