BSAD 145 Critical Thinking Questions

Since the course material addresses issues and strategies, it is important for students to exercise critical thinking in dealing with the subject matter. By this I mean a broad range of analysis and synthesis skills, such as inference, recognition of assumptions, deductions, evaluation of arguments, and interpretation. Each student is responsible for generating one critical question per textbook chapter as part of the homework for class.

During each class, students will be selected at random to ask the class a critical question. After a 5-10 minutes discussion period, the next student will be selected to pose their critical question.

For the purposes of this exercise, a critical thinking question is a:

The following qualifying criteria define an effective critical question:

• It draws upon the existing knowledge and experience of other students about the textual material.
• It is always written with an emanation (reference page) point in the textual material duly noted.
• It is discussible (or answerable) without the need to refer to some second source unavailable at the time of discussion.
• It is clear, concise, and non-confusing as written; i.e. it does not require paraphrasing to be understood.
• It is well focused to avoid vague generalizations or rampant speculation during discussion.
• It cannot be answered with a simple yes or no answer.

NOTE #1 critical does NOT mean most important; it does not mean disparaging. It connotes instead the image of a student acting in the role of "critic" or "analyst" relating to the subject material at hand. The following desired behaviors offer evidence that critical thinking is taking place:

• identify and state important points and their supporting arguments
• identify assumptions, biases, and their implications
• identify contradictory or irrelevant information
• recognize and state relationships
• relate process and content
• explain one's own thinking
• identify significant elements in one's own experience
• abstract from and generalize about one's own experience

WARNING: Your critical question must be properly posted to the BSAD145 list for all class members to preview and consider.

NOTE #2: In order to receive full credit for your critical thinking questions:

• It must be posted on or before the day prior to the class for which a text chapter has been assigned. CT questions should be separately posted (not included with other homework). For example, the critical thinking questions for chapter 1 must be posted with a subject starting with CTQ#01.
   
• Of course, all of critical thinking questions must be individually prepared and posted. You should check earlier postings to make sure your critical question posting does not essentially repeat someone else's efforts. [Note that early posters have an advantage.] Please reference the text book page number at the end of your CTQ, like this: [page 6-7]

NOTE #3: To allow for unexpected events and excused absences (e.g. recruiting visits, sickness, etc.), your semester critical thinking questions average will be calculated after dropping your lowest two question scores. Your semester critical thinking question average will be worth 10% of your final course grade.