What I've Learned

1). What have you learned in this class over the course of the semester?  Be specific.

When I first signed up for critical thinking, I was really nervous because I had no idea what a class about critical thinking would be about. When I first thought of critical thinking, what came to mind were questions from math textbooks that said, “thinking critically,” which are always the questions I can never get right. However, I was happy to discover that this critical thinking class would be about analyzing arguments and statements in ways I had never thought of before. This may sound silly, but before taking this class I didn’t even know what a premise was, and now I find myself using the word all the time when I’m evaluating claims (there’s a premise and a conclusion). I also now know how to identify when an argument is weak, or valid or invalid, which is also something I didn’t fully know how to do before taking this class. This class also taught me how to tell when arguments needed repairing and what makes for a good argument such as that the premises are plausible, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument is valid or strong.  I also learned what type of strategies to look out for in the real world that people tend to use to convince you of their argument, such as all the appeals to emotions.  Finally, this class has taught me how to work in small groups effectively by the small group communication book. Loved my group!!

Thanks for Reading!