RICHARD EPSTEIN'S BASIC ARGUMENT ANALYSIS
WORKSHOP EVALUATION ANALYSIS
April 7, 2000
N=11
1. Overall, how would you rate this workshop?
Excellent good average poor very poor
4/36.4% 6/54.5% 1 /9.1
Explain your rating.
Broad subject-short time.
Sometimes felt confused--possibly organization of rational problem. Felt some application of material to student skills too abstract.
Good discussion in everyday terms.
Clear, dynamic speaker, but some of the information was too basic.
Lively, concrete, good examples.
Highly interactive.
I enjoyed the workshop. It focused more on learning it rather than teaching, which is good, but not expected.
Good information, not the usual statistical and factual grind. Truly interesting.
This is a more concrete approach than the way I was taught the syllogism and this will be more useful in teaching argumentation by rubrics or other formulas. This will give students the tools to analyze the reasoning used when group evaluating essays.
I'm having a difficult time seeing how it can be applied to my discipline. A clear outline of his approach was not given.
2. What did you like best about this workshop? Please be as specific as possible.
The Pocket Guide to Critical Thinking.
Epstein was responsive to questions/comments.
Examples of typical reasoning structures.
I liked getting the book and the handout.
Above, plus lively participants.
Instructor animated - participants motivated to contribute. Pocket Guide appears interesting - as opposed to many handouts.
The fact that it inspires me to help students to understand the process of critical thinking.
Fresh approach.
Good breakdown of the components of the syllogism. Very useful in explaining these concepts for the uninitiated students with concrete examples that anyone could easily relate to. Extremely functional and easily applicable text and applicable across the curriculum.
Richard Epstein supplied materials (textbooks) to follow along as he gave his talk. They are useful for studying critical thinking in detail.
3. Will material from this workshop be useful for your teaching at
TVI?
Yes, very Somewhat No, not at all
5/ 45.5% 5/45.5%
What aspect did you find most useful?
The importance of definitions.
What I could most specifically relate to teaching of argument to students.
Students need to learn more about forming arguments.
Hard to tell how useful it will be before I think about how I could use it in my courses.
There was very little new information here.
Need to read it first.
Discussion.
Easily translatable to the needs of the various learning styles (visual, kinesthetic, etc.)
Gave me material to understand more clearly what critical thinking is.
4. What aspect of Epstein's approach would you like to hear more
about?
Application to teaching.
Definition of terms.
I would like to hear examples of how other disciplines could use these techniques to
discuss topics in class.
How can we use this with students one-on-one?
The "statistical" arguments in practical terms -- more direct than this range at 95%
confidence interval assuming ........
The rest of the story - beyond the definitions.
How to apply it with students.
Next course after Critical Thinking - perhaps Structures of Logical Argument.
How to apply it in more "concrete" ways.
5. Other comments/concerns/suggestions
I was very pleased that TVI brought in outside speakers. Mr. Epstein is clearly excited about this subject! 1. How to motivate students to get there- hard (by analysis), rather than easy (by claim). 2. Definitions--often ugly and full of details about the edges - rather than describing what you're talking about. When possible, I go for "characterizations" instead.