Fall 2009 Course Syllabus
Course: 0824.001.
Course Title: Mathematical Patterns.
Time: Wed, Fri, 10:00 - 11:50.
Place: BE 160.
Instructor: Coughlin, Raymond F.
Instructor Office: WA 434.
Instructor Email: raymond.coughlin@temple.edu
Instructor Phone: 215.204.1659.
Office Hours: W, F, 8:30 - 9:45.
Prerequisites: placement exam.
Textbook: Critical Reasoning by George Francis.
Course Goals: GEN ED QUANTITATIVE LITERACY AREA: DESCRIPTION AND GOALS Gen Ed intends to develop your ability to reason, solve intricate problems and communicate effectively. Gen Ed courses are designed to help you understand how this particular field of study relates to important controversies, issues and societal themes. We further hope that you will see how these ideas are connected to other fields of study. The overall goal of the program is to encourage you to become a proactive learner. This means that we dont want you to merely memorize facts, but we urge you to become expert at analyzing, organizing, evaluating and synthesizing information to create new and exciting ideas. This course fulfills the Quantitative Literacy area of the program, one of the nine areas in Gen Ed. The goals of the Quantitative Literacy area are to help students: Communicate logical arguments and their conclusions. Understand quantitative models that describe real world phenomena and recognize limitations of those models. Recognize, absorb, and appreciate quantitative reasoning for solving problems that are part of everyday life. Retrieve, organize, and analyze data associated with a quantitative model. Understand the various sources of uncertainty and error in empirical data. Perform simple mathematical computations associated with a quantitative model and make conclusions based on the results. CRITICAL REASONING: Strategies for Analytical Judgment: Transcending the Limits of Incomplete Information Critical reasoning is about how we make judgments and reach conclusions, not just about the judgments and conclusions themselves. Critical reasoning entails making a cogent decisions and mental leaps from the immediate to the uncertain. This course, then, is not as much about getting the right answer as it is about how did you reach that decision and did you use proper and accepted reasoning to make that conclusion. Once the need for a more formal approach to studying the topic has been established, the course will then cover the terms, definitions and techniques of formal logic. The role of logic as the foundation for critical analysis will be studied. Problems directly related to national standardized exams, such as the LSAT, will be the crux of this section of the course. The optimal goal of reasoned inquiry is complete knowledge, but often this goal is unattainable. Almost by definition of inquiry and disciplined thought, complex issues arise that are fraught with considerable uncertainty. Critical reasoning can then be described as the process of reaching decisions by transcending the bounds of incomplete information and using analytical judgment to sort through a wide range of possible explanations to find the most compelling one. As problems become more complex their solution requires deeper reasoning. Blooms taxonomy provides a simple backdrop to illustrate levels of complex thought. Many college courses are information-based and require no more reasoning than level 2 or 3 in Blooms taxonomy. In this course we get to levels 5 and 6 early on and stay there. The course, Critical Reasoning, is a direct consequence of my years as Honors Director and pre-med advisor and what I saw was lacking in our students development. In a snapshot, national standardized exams such as the GRE, MCAT and LSAT examine students ability to solve problems posed at Blooms sixth level of reasoning. Few of our courses get to the third or fourth levels. We get to the fifth level Synthesis by having the students answer question such as: How do you combine these three or four ideas to form a new structure? What would you predict or infer from these statements? What ideas must be added to these statements to make the argument valid? How would you create or design a new or similar type of reasoning or argument? What would happen if you combined these ideas or statement in a different order or pattern? We get to the sixth level Evaluation by having the students answer question such as: How would you draw a proper conclusion based on these value decisions? How could you resolve the following controversy or difference of opinion? How could you develop a valid opinion, judgment or decision based on these statements? Why is the following argument flawed? What criteria would you use to assess the validity of the following statements? These questions are the specific illustrations of the fifth and sixth levels of Blooms taxonomy. They are the specific types of questions that appear on national standardized exams. When you learn how to reason at this level you are mastering the complex material in your major, and to solving the intricate problems you will encounter in your career.
Topics Covered: critical reasoning, logical thiniking, problem solving, writing argument based papers, critiquing articles.
Course Grading: Grades: There will be three one hour exams, each graded on a 100-point scale. The final exam will be worth 100 points. The lowest score of the three one-hour exams will be dropped. Thus there will be a total of 300 points. If you miss an hour-exam that will be the exam that is dropped. There will be assignments made throughout the course. These will have differing point totals. These assignments will constitute extra credit points that will be added to you total on the exams. There is a total of 15 extra credit points. Your score on these extra credit assignments will be prorated to a total of 15 points. For example, if there is a total of 150 points in extra assignments and you accrue 120 of these points on the assignments, your extra credit total will be (120 / 150) x 15 = 12. You receive 12 points added to your total of the three exams. Grading: A(95%) A-(90) B+(88) B(85) B-(80 ) C+(78) C(75) C-(70) D+(68) D(65) D-(60).
Exam Dates: Exam 1 October 2: Exam 2 October 30: Exam 3 December 4: Final Exam December 15 at 3:30.
Attendance Policy: Attendance: You are expected to attend every class and you are responsible for all assignments made in class. You are allowed 4 absences. There is no such thing as an "excused" absence. For each absence after the fourth your grade will be lowered by one grade, so store up your absences for emergencies. (Here is a word to the wise: most emergencies occur at the end of the semester, so plan on attending every class, in this course and all your courses.).
Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources and Services at (215) 204-1280, 100 Ritter Annex, to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has adopted a policy on Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy # 03.70.02) which can be accessed here.
Students will be charged for a course unless a withdrawal form is processed by a registration office of the University by the Drop/Add deadline date given below. For this semester, the crucial dates are as follows:
- The first day of classes is Monday, August 31.
- Labor Day is Monday, September 7.
- The last day to drop/add (tuition refund available) is Monday, September 14.
- Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26.
- The last day to withdraw (no refund) is Monday, November 2.
- The last day of classes is Wednesday, December 9.
During the first two weeks of the fall or spring semester or summer sessions, students may withdraw from a course with no record of the class appearing on the transcript. In weeks three through nine of the fall or spring semester, or during weeks three and four of summer sessions, the student may withdraw with the advisor's permission. The course will be recorded on the transcript with the instructor's notation of "W," indicating that the student withdrew. After week nine of the fall or spring semester, or week four of summer sessions, students may not withdraw from courses. No student may withdraw from more than five courses during the duration of his/her studies to earn a bachelor's degree. A student may not withdraw from the same course more than once. Students who miss the final exam and do not make alternative arrangements before the grades are turned in will be graded F.
The grade I (an "incomplete") is reserved for extreme circumstances. It is necessary to have completed almost all of the course with a passing average and to file an incomplete contract specifying what is left for you to do. To be eligible for an I grade you need a good reason and you should have missed not more than 25% of the first nine weeks of classes. If approved by the Mathematics Department chair and the CST Dean's office, the incomplete contract must include a default grade that will be used in case the I grade is not resolved within 12 months.