Seminar
Seminar Course Description
This course is designed to challenge students to reflect
critically on diverse ways of knowing and areas of
knowledge, and to consider the role which knowledge
plays in a global society. Students will be challenged to
become aware of themselves as learners and thinkers, to
become aware of the complexity of knowledge, and to
recognize the need to act responsibly in an increasingly interconnected
world. The course will be seminar based. Class will be conducted
primarily through discussion.
Learning Objectives:
The primary objective of this course is to help students develop their
own critical thinking skills. Class activities and discussions are designed
to allow students to:
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Identify the elements in a reasoned case, especially reasons and
conclusions;
Apply intellectual standards in communicating ideas and interpreting
the ideas of others;
Identify and evaluate assumptions;
Clarify and interpret expressions and ideas;
Judge the acceptability, especially the credibility, of claims;
Evaluate arguments of different kinds;
Analyze, evaluate, and produce explanations;
Analyze, evaluate, and make decisions;
Draw inferences;
Produce arguments.
Teachers:
Mr. Bugenhagen (jbugenhagen@umasd.org) / Mrs. Oren
(koren@umasd.org)
Course web site can be accessed from http://www.umasd.org. Follow links from
Mr. Bugenhagen’s staff page or from the high school services/gifted and
talented page.
Course Topics
 Metacognition
 Epistemology
 Critical Thinking
 The Nature of Questioning
 Qualitative Inquiry
Seminar
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Skepticism
Philosophy
Ethics and Integrity
Truth and Wisdom
Globalization
Class Readings:
Intellectual Integrity (from True to Life Why Truth Matters)
Michael P. Lynch.
Democracy and Education (excerpt) John Dewey
Wide Hats and Narrow Minds (essay) Stephen Jay Gould
Becoming a Critic of Your Thinking (article) Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul
The Fine Art of Baloney Detection (chapter from The Demon Haunged World
Science as a Candle in the Dark). Carl Sagan
Meditation I - Of The Things Of Which We May Doubt Rene Descartes
Allegory of the Cave (pdf) Plato / Allegory of the Cave (online) Plato
The Lottery In Babylon (from "Labyrinths") Jorge Luis Borges
The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
Into The Wild Jon Krakauer (book to be distributed)
To Build A fire (excerpt) Jack London
Nature (excerpt) Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walden (excerpt) Henry David Thoreau
Ring of Gyges Plato
What Makes Us Moral? (article) Time Magazine
Is Morality Neutral? (article) Newsweek Magazine
Seminar
Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle
The Singer Solution To World Poverty (New York Times Article) Peter Singer
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka