Lec 5
Contents |
Example: Value Proposition C (Personal development): motivation, talent, value
Show figure 3 of the paper “Millikan Lecture 1999: The Workplace, Student Minds, and Physics Learning Systems.”
http://ticc.mines.edu/csm/wiki/images/e/e5/MillikanLecture.pdf
Any comments? Which of the items along the vertical axis of figure 3 require critical thinking and which require content knowledge?
The definition of critical thinking from Harvard President Derek Bok’s book “Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More” is
“The ability to think critically-ask pertinent questions, recognize and define problems, identify arguments on all sides of an issue, search for and use relevant data and arrive in the end at carefully reasoned judgments-is the indispensable means of making effective use of information and knowledge.”
How to ask pertinent questions: a procedure
Sept. 28 is “ask a stupid question day.” What examples do you have? One of my favorite is “why are meteors always found in craters?”
Marilyn vos Savant (smartest person in the world) answers questions in newspaper column. Here is one which she thought appropriate for this day: “I do not understand women. Would the study of quantum mechanics help?”
What do these types of questions have in common? The person asking the question does not understand a model of how the world works. In one case how craters are formed and in the other the scope of quantum mechanics.
What are the pertinent questions based on? The model, heuristic, or pattern that is being discussed.
I’m going to show you a procedure or process to ask productive questions.
“To innovate you need more than rote knowledge. You need a trained imagination.”
Quote from philosopher Martha Nussbaum
Some of that training is follows.
Helicopter video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RihcJR0zvfM what questions do you have? what are you curious about?
6 categories of questions based on how we view the world through models/heuristics/patterns
INCONGRUOUS: To clarify seeming violations of a model or understanding of how the world functions Does this violate Newton’s third law because there is no reaction? How did they fake this video?
CONGRUOUS: To gather information on how to apply your understanding Is it possible to use the work-energy theorem to explain any part of the copter dismantling?
MODIFYING: To probe your understanding as assumptions, parts, applications, or parameters are changed What if the helicopter has only one propeller? What if . . . ?
GENERALIZING / ANALOGY: To search for similar patterns in one’s understanding Does the helicopter vibrate the way a loose ceiling fan does when it reaches a certain angular velocity? Is this like . . . ?
CAUSAL / CREATIVE: To generate novel patterns or improve on existing understanding. Would this still work in a zero gravity environment?
INFORMATIONAL: To find information simply for its intrinsic interest or diagnostic purposes. Is the helicopter attempting to take off, or is it tied to the ground?
The “stupid questions” indicate the person doesn’t understand the expected models/heuristics/patterns. The observer often finds this humorous. Humor is also found in violations of the expected.
Hand out the worksheet which takes about 15-20 to complete.
Discussion of the answers to the worksheet:
1.)This is analogous to the mechanical pencil problem. 2.) The rectangular PDF needs to be integrated over limits that yield 90% in a manner similar to the Gaussian. 3.) See above for examples of questions in different categories.
