Fifth task B

Select one exercise from each of the following list of topics and solve them in your blog by providing a detailed explanation of your answer. Please, include the prompt (instruction), the passage and your explained answer. 

TOPICS: 

• Underlying assumptions

I think that the first line in the paragraph stated above: "Children are costing parents more" is the underlying assumption because the person who wrote this paragraph believes in something that he or she personally thinks. It might or might not be true, however he or she is giving his own belief from what he or she has experienced. The writer has provided some arguments to his assumption that children cost a lot. The examples provided are pretty clear and try to persuade even if I do not think the same as he or she does. 

• Implicit assumptions used as reasons 

I believe that the last 3 lines form the conclusion of the paragraph. 

The implicit assumptions used as reasons to support the conclusion are: 

1. That people were more organic because they used resources from the nature to cure themselves.
2. That plants were used as a method to cure illness.
3. The pharmaceutical industry often use plants as the basis for the medicines.
4. Medicines are expensive to produce. 
5. Medicinces are expensive to purchase. 

• False premises 

The above argument is based on a false premise because the writer of that statement believes that the quality of the programmes that are produced will improve by adding more channels on digital television. The fact that more channels are going to be added doesn't mean that the quality of them is going to improve.  Increasing the number of channels give us lots of variety about what to see, that is a real fact but it doesn't necessarily means that the quality of those are going to improve. There are many different kind of programmes that can be added (children, animals, tv shows, movies, adult programmes) but who will assure that there is going to be a better quality? 

• Implicit arguments

In the above example, the implicit argument is that the person who wrote this statement believes that the candidate is a hero and has done things that most candidates don't do like stealing from the nation or making electoral promises about taxes. This person believes on everything the candidate says even if he is lying. The person has already been persuaded by the candidate and now he believes in everything the candidate is saying. 

Here we can see that has been an appearance of attempting to persuade. The purpose of the candidate was to put an idea into this writer's head without appearing to do so. 

• Stereotypes

In the stereotype number 1 there has been a continuous belief that pink color always represents girls but we cannot just believe that because the blue or purple color can represent a girl too. Not only the pink one.

In the stereotype number 3 has been an assumption that all the British people eat roast beef only but that is not true at all.  

In the stereotype number 4 those people believe on the concept that all the people who have red hair are angry which is not true. 

In the stereotype number 6 the judgement of football fans being trouble in the game. 

In the stereotype number 8 the fact that people retire and get old doesn't mean that the interest of being involved in fashion or computer fades out. 

• Assuming causal links 

In the example above, life expectancy is getting higher same as obesity is a fact but it doesn't mean that obesity must increase in life expectancy. I mean, it is only women who can give birth instead of men and in the example there are no diagrams or numbers that can prove that women are more obese than men. That means that obesity has nothing to do with life expectancy because men can be more obese than women but they do not procreate. 

• Identifying the nature of the link 

In the example above, there is not link between the reason and the conclusion. There exist a correlation among the three scientists about having long hair which let us know that there is a coincidental pattern only. In conclusion, having long hair doesn't mean that someone is going to be a great scientist. 

• False analogies

The analogy of the example above is the comparison between an argument and the premises. This comparison is valid. 

Fifth Task

ARABS STEREOTYPES 

1. Arabs are very loud and always sound like they're angry. 

From my experience, Arabs always sound angry. I met some Arabs during my stay in America last year. I was attending the first class at the university when I first had the chance to know those people. The first task the teacher asked us was to introduce ourselves so that we could get to know to each other. There were 3 people from Saudi Arab. The first thing I noticed from them was that they had a particular way of talking. I thought that all of them were family because of their phisical appearance and because of the way they talked. They all sounded mad. However, I didn't pay much attention to it. The next class we were talking about a piece of news that let us all shocked at the moment (I don't quite remember) and we decided to discuss that at the begining of the class. Same like the previous class, all of the Arabs in the class sounded mad. I couldn't believe it. That was shocking for me because it was happening all over again. Three or four classes passed by and I finally had the opportunity to get along with one of them and I decided to ask about that particular way of talking. That was when I realized that is how they express themselves. 

2. Arabs like showing off and their bling. 

I experienced the same. Arabs love shining and wearing expensive clothing accesories. Whenever and wherever I met with the Arabs the always wore a lot of jewelry on them. 

3. Arab girls are expected to be submissive: cook, clean and be a good wife. 

In the video, it shows that is a myth and true. However, all of my three Arab friends told me that it happened a lot but in old times not now. They both, men and women believed that women were more than just that and that they respect a lot women empowerment. 

4. Arab men are very jealous and possessive. 

Personally, I was dating an Arab guy who lives close to the suburb where I was living in America and something I absolutely hated from him was that he was absolutely jealous and controlling. He always wanted to know what I was doing during the whole day. He would text me 10 or 15 times a day asking me about what I was doing. Fortunately, I decided to stop that and I let him know that I wasn't used to that in my home country and asked him to respect my free time. He agreed but I couldn't handle that. He never stopped. Finally, I got pretty tired and sick of that situation and we ended up being just friends. 

5. Arab men will spoil you like there's no tomorrow. 

That is absolutely right. The same guy I was dating as above mentioned would buy me as many stuff as he could. That was something unstoppable. I wasn't used to that before and he would day everytime we saw each other. He never ever went to my house without having an expensive present for me. It was something unique because Latin men do almost the same but they do not expend as much as Arabs do. This guy would had spent all of his money on buying me presents for no reasons. That was quite weird until I talked to one Arab girl from my class at the university and she told me that they will give you even all the money they had for no reason only if they are crazy for you. That was when I understood that Arabs love spoiling girls. 

Task 4

EXERCISE IN CLASS

Position: "I think a doctor's own comfort level in talking about the reality of death and dying goes a long way with receptiveness in the patient." commented by Gwen M. 

As far as I am concerned, this is a clear point of view of what she thinks about the opinion column. 

Argument: "They do not have the right to fight on and use up limited resources.  I work in palliative care in an acute care setting.  I  see oncologists give chemo to patients who are actively dying.  Oncologist give false hope with statements like "we see results with ........".  Patients hear cure or remission.  You do not mention that oncology get up to 15% of cost of the medication and at$30,000 a month that is a good addition to fees. Cancer care in America is big business with huge profits for cancer centers (they cherry pick those with good insurance) and chemo/radiation that make the quality of life for their patients very poor.  They will treat and treat until one day an oncologist walks in and says "there is no more I can do you, get your affairs in order."  They walk out of the room and leave the patient in shock." commented by Michael White.

I consider this comment as an argument because Michael is supporting his idea with strong evidence and facts which makes an argument a real argument. 


Agreement: "If you ask them they will tell. So long as patients are given a choice to continue chemotherapy, or to go to the ICU they have every right to choose efforts to sustain life." commented by Stephen%20workman. 

This man is agreeing with the whole opinion column written by Doctor Chan. As doctor Chan has persisted during the whole document that he supports his patients on any decision they make even if those decisions are pretty radical, he always stands by his patients sides until the end of their days. 

Disagreement: "Cancer is an unpleasant way to die, my mother said if she knew the end would be so hard she wouldn't have stuck around so long." commented by Thormon.

As stated, this person totally fits in this category because he is giving an opposite view of patients fighting against cancer by using chemotherapies, He sets an example of his mom suffering a lot due to chemotherapies until the end of her life while doctor Chan expresses just support without paying much attention to how much pain the patients suffer. 

Task 3

Title of the column:

The Washington Post: “My patients are dying. But it’s their right to keep going by Isaac Chan.”

Position:

Mr Chan relies as a doctor to support his patients’ decisions throughout chemotherapy sessions.
Even when doctor Chan talks to his patients about different treatments such as palliative care which
is about reducing symptoms related to cancer providing relief, they reject this method because
they believe they can fight against cancer. However, Mr Chan’s position in his opinion column
is that he stands out communication as part of the process and that is why he assists his patients
on any decision they make according to their desires.

Arguments:

Mr Chan states that aggressive treatments, such as more chemotherapy are not going to
cure his patients (the ones he presents in his opinion column). But he says that therapy like
palliative care aims at controlling cancer symptoms and it helps patients live their remaining
days more comfortably. This is the reason number one because he also finds himself caught
between his medical recommendation to pursue less aggressive care and his patient’s primal
desire to rid their bodies of cancer. However, he does not want to put out of the way his patients’
desire to choose what they want to bring to bear because if he does that, it might lead to paternalistic
medicine which is where physicians make decisions for the patients in the belief that they know best.

Explanation:

Doctor Chan says that end-of-life care is not just about statistics or studies but it
is about achieving true shared decisions. End of life care is an interactive process that
takes time and engagement which leads to mutual trust. He later explains that it is
about continuously setting honest expectations for what is possible and making sure
all parties truly understand what the consequences are likely to be. Sometimes what  
patients need most is just more time: time to accept the terminal diagnosis and time to
grieve and hopefully to find peace. As part of a doctor’s guidance involves agreeing
on the personalized therapies or more symptomatic control, that can deliver that meaningful
extra time to its patients.

Agreement: Mr Chan expresses agreement with the Palliative care as a strategy to
live longer and to have a better quality of life than what chemotherapy does.
He also shows his patients research studies about palliative care so that his patients
can be aware of what this could boost to their lives.

Disagreement:

Mr Chan believes that chemotherapy is a very aggressive
treatment to cure patients who suffer from cancer. He does not share this treatment because
it makes the patient feel more deteriorate on their last days of living.

Description:

The opinion column describes the health of two patients
suffering from different types and stages of cancer.
The doctor of those two patients Mr Chan treats them with chemotherapy
as they are in the late stages of cancer. Even though the patients absolutely
reject the idea of quitting chemotherapy because of many different reasons or
believes Mr Chan shows them research studies about Palliative care. However,
those two patients decline the idea of starting this new treatment. Mr Chan feels
a little uncomfortable because he has to deal with his professional recommendation
and his patients primary desires. He also shares that both of his patients died
because of cancer but he never put out of the way his patients’ ways to cure using
chemotherapy even when he told them to use another treatment.

Summary:

Isaac Chan is a medical oncology member at John Hopkins Sidney Kimmel
Comprehensive Cancer Center. He shares his experience through an article on
The Washington post which is about two of his patients who suffer from cancer.
They both are in the late stages of cancer. The first patient, a 68-year-old man who
has kidney cancer which continues to grow until it gets to many of his organs and
the second patient, a 34-year-old woman who has gallbladder cancer that has
metastasized into her lymph nodes, liver, lungs and bones. Mr Chan does the everyday
tests and while he studies the last ones, he decides to discuss the Palliative care treatment
with his patients. Both of his patients reject the idea of starting that new treatment which
is about reducing symptoms of cancer that leads to give its patients live a better quality
life of the time they have left. The first patient denies to start this new method because
he is very positive about fighting cancer with chemotherapy. The second patient does
not even pay attention to his doctor when he is telling her about this new treatment which
is a way to ignore and reject that idea. To conclude, doctor Chan believes that his role
as a doctor is to support his patients so that they can have the dignity to make these difficult
choices and feel empowered to make their own paths, no matter how frightening the decision may be.

Introduction:

“Dr. Chan, please, please keep me alive a little longer and God will surely bless you.”

Isaac Chan, the writer of the column begins with a petition given by one of his patients
and he turns it into a textual quotation that makes it the introduction of his column.

Background information: Doctor Chan has treated patients with cancer by doing
chemotherapy on them even when he believes that chemotherapy is not the most
accurate strategy to treat them. He does support his patients throughout this whole
process of fighting cancer with chemotherapy though he does not share the idea of
using chemotherapy.

Conclusion:

Mr Chan maintains that his role as a doctor is to support his patients so that they can
have the dignity to make these difficult choices and feel empowered to make their
own paths, no matter how frightening the decision may be.

Summary of Stephen Brookfield's lecture

Mr Brookfield explains critical thinking as an attempt to identify assumptions (beliefs, decisions, actions, judgements, choices in life).Assumptions are classified as casual, prescriptive and paradigmatic. And then to check them out whether they are valid or well grounded and finally to take informed action about it. So, to take informed action is when we stand a chance of achieving, we base evidence or experience that can be justified, it can be viewed in different perspectives and finally, it can be enacted via multiple ways.

According to professor Brookfield, there are 4 keys of intellectual traditions that fit into critical thinking. The first one is the analytic one that is about a person who can construct or deconstruct and argument, he or she algo knows the difference between inferential and analogical reasoning, he or she knows what induction and deduction is and can recognize logical fallacies. As a second one, there is the natural science which is hypothetical deductive method that is about a creative process like generating hypothesis to explain a process. The third one which is the critical theory which takes critical thinkers as someone who has political consciousness about the way that moves within our society and micro realities of any kind of people. Last but not least, there is the paradigmatic key which is about someone who sees knowledge as something that is constantly reinvented.

Mr Brookfield asks his students at the beginning of each semester “what most helps students to think critically or creatively” he reached to the following findings: Teacher or instructor modeling as the greatest number of responses according to the question being asked in groups of 5 people. In this way, the first finding is about soliciting feedback from students in a regular basis and then, as teachers thinking about what the feedback means. Later on, there are the assumption inventories which are approaches and responding questions in different ways. Another finding is the activity of doing exercises with questions which is about saying here is what is unfinished and unanswer question that needs to be explore deeply in any area. The next finding he got was the chalk talk as a way to hold visual discussion where the instructor write a question in the middle of a board and make them be silent for 5 or 10 minutes and then, tell them to write any responses they might have according to the questions written on the board. Then, the instructor links comment or add any questions or reactions to it. The last finding he got was the Critical Incident questionnaire (CIQ) which is about moments when the learner was most engaged or most distanced, or actions that were helpful or confusing or what surprised the most.

Student say that they learn by having be provided with real world illustrations, by being the devil’s advocate which requires the listener to view both sides of a story not only one for convenience only. So, this person has the power to decide if they want to join another person who has different perspectives of a story or any other specific issue. Finally, there is the Speaking tongues response which is about understanding the same issue with different interpretations and we determine which represents the most to you or the one we better understand.

My reflections proposed by Stella Cottrell in her book "What is critical thinking?"

My reflections proposed by Stella Cottrell in her book "What is critical thinking?" 

Emotional self-management

For me, the emotions that most difficult to manage when others disagree with me are: that others people think way different from what I think. It sometimes makes me feel annoyed with others because it might hurt my feelings when the issues concerned are about topics like: social justices, machism, racism or poverty and the others think that this is not their problems (not on their business) so they do not worry about or do not do anything about it or even worse they start judging these people suffering from social inequality. Fortunately, I deal with these by: relaxing and try to stop taking things too personal and stop worrying about what others say start thinking about any backgrounds that these people might have had in their pasts that makes them think the way they think.


Influences of my thinking: 

For me, the influences in my own thinking that I need to be most aware of so that they don't prejudice my thinking are: thinking about both sides of any issue. What I mean by that is that I have to consider the positive and negative features of any topic so that I can not let any influences influence my own thinking. That is why it is important to do research about any topic that I am going to talk to others or to think about it and I deal with these by: validate the information that I research for, it could be anywhere on the internet or in the newspaper or going to the library for book where I can validate that information with real information.

Challenging opinions

For me, the things I find most difficult about challenging the opinions of other people are that I might hurt other people's feelings by saying the wrong words or using unappropriate expressions that might let people get another perspective of what I am trying to say. So, I believe that when speaking or expressing ourselves, we should first be aware of what words or expressions we are going to use in our speech, in such manner we must look for the information and vocabulary to subtle our speeches. I deal with these by looking for vocabulary and search for the topic before I talk about it.

Reflection: 

Do you recognise anything of yourself in Bodner's description of students? What effect would the approach he suggests have on your learning and understanding?
I do recognise Bodner's description in myself because I have had notice in my courses back in high school. I remember my chemistry classes when my teacher used to tell us about standard chemistry calculations and also, it happened with the math classes (calculation stuff) and they made us remember those ones by heart which I found as very old fashioned classes because anytime I would ask him about why did we have to learn those things by heart rahter than using those in our real lives. Any of them would never answer me with strong arguments but they used to say that it was meant to be learnt at the end of each term. So, that is one of the reasons why I hate chemistry or maths because of the lack of innovative activities to teach.


Reflection: 

Consider what you could do to manage these barriers in the next few months.

One of the biggest barriers I have when thinking critically is that I am very used to think that critical means going or creating arguments that go against any reason other people are giving. So, a way to manage this misunderstanding is to stat taking into account both positive and negative aspects about any issue in general.