Analyzing Peter Elbow's Essay '
In Peter Elbow’s essay, he proposes two games that people used to organise their thinking. Students are taught to “think critically”, but Elbow suggests harnessing the Doubting and Believing game methods instead. Critical thinking is when a student's uses the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue to form a judgment, but teachers have a difficult time directing their students to think this way. Furthermore, this is exactly the reason why Elbow suggest using different methods. These methods used in the Doubling and Believing method build on the natural thought process of humans. Instead of just analyzing and solving, these methods encourage students to question the answer and converse with others. The doubting game focuses on seeking
…show more content…
Maybe because this method is closer to the critical thinking method, or because it’s easier. However, the main reason why is because this method is all about finding errors. Elbow states that the “monopoly of the doubting game” comes from the idea that people are logical. He points out that we live in a scientific world and pride ourselves on immunity to being gullible. Since people think this way Elbow’s proposal of the Doubting game perfectly fit the mindset for the majority of individuals have. This is also true because as elbow points out, individuals believe the only thing in the brain is the “doubting muscle”. Individual find themselves doubting their work than believing it. Because we are scientifically minded and tend to doubt more often than believe, Elbow’s doubting game reflects the human intellectual process. On the flip side of this, multiple individuals find it easier to believe everything until proven wrong. People demonstrate this be believing anything they hear on the news, taking the word of a friend for fact, and not checking to see if their is fact behind information presented to them. The believing game represents the people who seek to find truth rather than errors. Both of elbow’s methods represent the different mental processes of the majority of
Maybe because this method is closer to the critical thinking method, or because it’s easier. However, the main reason why is because this method is all about finding errors. Elbow states that the “monopoly of the doubting game” comes from the idea that people are logical. He points out that we live in a scientific world and pride ourselves on immunity to being gullible. Since people think this way Elbow’s proposal of the Doubting game perfectly fit the mindset for the majority of individuals have. This is also true because as elbow points out, individuals believe the only thing in the brain is the “doubting muscle”. Individual find themselves doubting their work than believing it. Because we are scientifically minded and tend to doubt more often than believe, Elbow’s doubting game reflects the human intellectual process. On the flip side of this, multiple individuals find it easier to believe everything until proven wrong. People demonstrate this be believing anything they hear on the news, taking the word of a friend for fact, and not checking to see if their is fact behind information presented to them. The believing game represents the people who seek to find truth rather than errors. Both of elbow’s methods represent the different mental processes of the majority of