Table: possible conflicting expectations about academic activities

Academic activity / Student’s expectation / Supervisor’s expectation
Learning / teacher-led / student takes responsibility for own learning
Lectures / contain the complete course; all facts and right answers are provided / should sensitize students to key issues; developing of ideas through self-study
Teacher’s role in seminars / provides unquestionable facts / raises argument, stimulates discussion
Course work / Right answers should be learned and reproduced on demand / Problem solving and original approaches are valued
Dissertations / Copying and plagiarism are legitimate since the outcomes contain correct information / Critical argument, discussion, evidence, evaluation and originality are values; plagiarism virtually a crime
Learning / rote learning (by heart) acceptable / student develops ability to think

Formal logic: a small test

  1. Perform AND and OR operations to the following strings of bits:

0000111100001111

10101010AND10101010 OR

Result:

1111111111111111

00101101AND00101101 OR

Result:

Logical operations in binary format:

AND0 00

1 00

0 10

1 11

OR0 00

1 01

0 11

1 11

NOT10

01

2.Please circle the correct answer to each of the questions below:

2AGIVEN: If Jim cut himself then Jim would be bleeding.

SUPPOSE: We found out that Jim did not cut himself.

THEN:

(a) It must be the case that Jim is bleeding.

(b) Maybe Jim is bleeding and maybe he isn’t.

(c)It must be the case that Jim is not bleeding.

2BGIVEN: If it is raining then the roof is wet.

SUPPOSE: The roof is wet.

THEN:

(a) It must be the case that it is raining.

(b) Maybe it is raining and maybe it isn’t.

(c)It must be the case that it is not raining.

2CGIVEN: If Roger drank tea then Tom sat down.

SUPPOSE: Roger did not drink tea.

THEN:

(a) It must be the case that Tom sat down.

(b) Maybe Tom sat down and maybe he didn’t.

(c)It must be the case that Tom did not sit down.

2DGIVEN: If this rock is a garnet then it is a semi-precious stone.

SUPPOSE: This rock is not a semi-precious stone.

THEN:

(a) It must be the case that this rock is a garnet.

(b) Maybe this rock is a garnet or maybe this rock is not a garnet.

(c)It must be the case that this rock is not a garnet.

When do you need logical thinking?
Examples:

Bella's presentation

  • discussion on research
  • "wikipedia is not reliable because anybody can edit the contents"
  • Metropolia in Finnish wikipedia (Esa Kokka)

Hobby Tracker documentation

LeCazard final report