Using Critical Thinking to Solve Problems By Dean Berry, Ed. D. This PowerPoint represents the first half of the lesson. Use the video version to view the complete lesson.

Mental short cuts are called heuristics. There are several types of mental short cuts used to save time when drawing conclusions about large amounts of information, including the over simplifying fallacy, confirmation bias, and cause and effect errors. /

Determining what causes an event can be confusing.

When an event follows another event one does not necessarily cause the other.

School is killing us. Textbooks are made from paper, and paper is made from trees. We need trees for oxygen. Therefore, school is killing us.

Some people pay psychics money to predict events, and they feel certain that cause and effect relationships must exist even if the prediction and the resulting events could be coincidental.

Finding the true cause of events is very Important. However, faulty thinking can result in serious errors and incorrect conclusions.

Over simplifying a problem results in solutions that fail to address all of the important causes and results in solutions that do not solve the problem. Discuss the points being made in these visuals.

Most problems have multiple causes and require multiple solutions.

There is almost always multiple causes of serious problems.

Some politicians have suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be banned from re-entering the country if they leave to visit the Middle East. They believe this action would help protect Americans from terrorism.

The United States has a military treaty with Turkey. The U.S. supports the Kurds and the opposition (rebels) in their fight with the Syrian government.. However, turkey hates the Kurds and supports the opposition (rebels). The Kurds, Turkey, rebels, and the U.S are all at war with ISIS and the Syrian government. Russia hates ISIS but supports the Syrian government against the rebels. Iran is providing direct support for the Syrian government. As you can see, Syria is a very complicated region with many different groups vying for power and control.

What might be the unintended consequences of carpet bombing towns in Syria?

Quick Write Write a paragraph with a minimum of five sentences to discuss the issue of carpet bombing in Syria. Explain the problem created by unintended consequences.

Let’s analyze this analogy. What are the two events that are being compared? What does this analogy suggest is similar about these two events? Are there enough differences in these two events to make this analogy a weak or irrelevant argument? Do drivers have to have licenses? Do cars have to be insured? Do gun owners need licenses or insurance?

You can avoid over simplifying problems by using the following steps.

Class Discussion Solutions to problems may have unintended consequences.

Unintended Consequences Using advanced technology to build robots that can perform human jobs saves money and makes factories more efficient and reduces the cost of products for consumers. However, the consequences of using more robots means fewer jobs for people.

Quick Write Write a paragraph with a minimum of five sentences discussing both sides of the robots versus jobs issue. Think About It 1.If consumer prices are reduced as a result of robotics, is it best to use robotics even though it reduces the number of jobs for Americans? 2.Is it possible that other types of jobs could be created by using robotics?

Unintended Consequences

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