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Learning Experience Design Proposal

Part 1: Learning Experience Description

PDF Copy of Proposal​

Critical Reading: Identifying Logical Fallacies & Evaluating Reasoning

Abstract: This Learning Experience focuses on cultivating your critical reading skills by learning and applying knowledge of logical fallacies to assess the logic and validity of an argument. To this end, this learning experience will engage you in a variety of concepts and activities that will greatly improve your critical reading skills. Critical reading is important to our everyday lives as it conditions how we receive and evaluate information, which in turn conditions how we form our beliefs and make important decisions in our life. Developing an understanding of how logical fallacies function provides us with an effective tool with which to evaluate the logic of the information and ideas we are presented with, as well as assess the logic of the information and ideas we present to others.

Audience/Primary Users

The intended learner audience are students at Las Positas College who have taken entry-level English composition. Las Positas College stands at the outskirt of the San Francisco Bay Area, attracting urban students from Bay Area cities and rural students from the Central Valley. Gender demographics at Las Positas consist of 52% female, 46% male, and 2% unknown. Ethic demographics are about 30% Hispanic, 30% Caucasian, 20% Asian, 6% Filipino and Pacific Islander, and 4% Black and African American with 8% of students identifying as multiethnic. 57% of students are 19-21 years old, 23% 22-29 years old, with 10% in their 30s and 10% 40 or older. Student in English 7: Critical Thinking and Writing typically have declared a varied range of majors given that this is a GE course required for students to transfer to a university (not necessarily those whose goal is to earn an Associate degree or Certificate).

Educational Use

  • Curriculum / Instruction

  • AA/AS GE. Transfer CSU, UC; CSU GE: A3, C2; IGETC: 1B, 3B; C-ID# ENGL 105.

Language of Instruction

  • English

Material Type

  • Instructional Material

  • Modules

  • Content pages

  • Instructional Videos

  • Activities/Exercises

  • Quizzes/Interactive

  • Assignments

  • Images and Illustrations,

  • Primary Source material

  • Supplementary readings/references

  • Writing Process Guide

  • Discussion boards

Keywords 

  • Critical Reading

  • Logical Fallacies

  • Argumentation

  • Rhetorical Analysis

Time Required
for Learning Experience

  • Four Weeks

Targeted Skills

Key skills covered in this Learning Experience include:

  • Evaluate the logic of arguments

  • Understand a variety of logical fallacies

  • Identify logical fallacies in written, spoken, and visual texts

  • Explain how logical fallacies function in a variety of contexts

Learning Objectives

By the end of this Learning Experience, the learner should be able to:

  • identify and explain logical fallacies in a variety of contexts

  • evaluate the logic of both sound and faulty arguments

Prior Knowledge

Learners will have successfully completed an entry-level college English course (English 1A) that focuses on critical reading and composition skills before taking the critical thinking course at Las Positas College. They will be able to identify and discuss main themes and arguments of a text and apply reading strategies such as annotation and reflection. They will also have working knowledge of academic research and composing persuasive, analytical, and reflective essays. Students will have also completed modules that covered differentiating between facts and inferences and identifying stated and unstated premises and conclusions in arguments.

Required Resources

This Learning Experience is facilitated entirely online and in asynchronous format through Canvas. It is important to have the required software on your computer for this course and that you know how to access technical support. Chrome is the preferred browser for Canvas. However, make sure you have multiple browsers installed because if something doesn't work in one browser, it should work in the other. (Do not use Internet Explorer with Canvas). In order to view documents and certain multimedia on the Web, you need specific browser plug-ins. The most popular plug-ins are Acrobat Reader and Flash and are typically built into your web browser. The files you submit as assignments in Canvas can be in Microsoft Word, PDF, or Google Docs.

Part 2: Learning Experience 

Instructional Strategies & Activities

Week 1

Warm-Up / Intro: 

Students are presented with a list of tweets and asked to explain the logic of each argument. The tweets are obviously logically challenged and funny as well, so this activity functions as part ice-breaker, part introduction to the unit content. If this were to take place as a classroom discussion, the instructor can begin facilitating discussion by asking students to identify the premises and conclusions before having them explain how the logic of the statement breaks down. In an online class, the instructor would need to provide some initial context and examples and facilitate discussion between students on a discussion board; in this case, I would ask students to bring in three statements from twitter of their own to discuss.

 

Presentation / Modeling / Demonstration: 

Students are presented with a brief introduction to logical fallacies and walked through definitions and examples of some of the more common fallacies. Students are also given a resource list of fallacies to reference and work with throughout the unit. In an online class, this content will be presented in Canvas pages, with a quiz or interactive follow-up activity that simply assists students with processing the reading material and gain working practice of some of the fallacies.

 

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Week 2

Guided Practice:

Students read short essays and view a debate, identify their arguments, and evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses, identifying and discussing logical fallacies in the process. Students do this in a collaborative discussion board.  

 

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Week 3

Assessment:

Students write a short essay in which they evaluate both sound and faulty arguments in a text of their choice, making sure to identify and explain any logical fallacies that occur in the process.

 

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Week 4

Application:

Students write a reflection discussing the logical fallacies that occur in the media and conversations that surround their everyday lives. They will be asked to take notes for three days and then summarize and reflect on their observations.

Key Terms and Concepts

  • Argumentation: a form of persuasion that relies on logical reasoning to convince an audience.

  • Conclusion: the key assertion that the other assertions support.

  • Fact: information that can be verified.

  • Inference: a conclusion based on the facts.

  • Logical Fallacies: faulty logic or errors in reasoning.

    • Ad Hominum: Attacking personal characteristics instead of thier argument; refuting arguments based on association with a particular group

    • Ad Populum ("Argument to the People"): appealing to popular assent, often by arousing emotions in place of building argument

    • Appeal to biased authority: basing your argument on evidence from an authority that benefits personally, professionally, or financially from it

    • Appeal to improper authority: basing your argument on evidence from an authority not in the field of topic

    • Appeal to tradition: asserting that a premise must be true because people have always believed it or done it.

    • Begging the question: passing off as true what needs to be proven

    • Circular reasoning: when the premise and the conclusion, though worded differently, mean the same thing

    • Either/Or Fallacy: also called false dilemma; setting up a faulty two choice option

    • Equivocation: using different definitions of the same word or phrase

    • False Analogy: Comparing things that are not comparable

    • False Cause: setting up a faulty cause/effect relationship

    • Hasty Generalization: jumping to conclusions; the conclusion needs more premises to be logical

    • Loaded question: phrasing a question or statement in such a way as to imply another unproven statement is true without evidence or discussion

    • Misleading Statistic: statistics that leave out contextual information and draw hasty conclusions

    • Non Sequitur: literally means "it does not follow"; the conclusion does not follow from the premises

    • Red Herring: a diversion tactic; switching the argument focus or topic instead of addressing it directly

    • Slippery Slope: assuming a faulty chain reaction of events; a domino effect

    • Stacking the Deck: only including evidence that supports the author's point while ignoring evidence to that disproves it

    • Strawman: misrepresenting another's argument so that it is easier to refute

  • Premises: reasons that support the conclusion.

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Part 3: Supplementary Resources & References 

Supplementary Resources

William, Owen M. Master List of Logical Fallacies (N.d.), University of Texas,

https://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/ENGL1311/fallacies.htm.

References

Cooper, Sheila & Patton, Rosemary (July 9, 2016). Writing Logically, Thinking Critically,

8th ed. Pearson.

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