Monday 17 August 2015

In fact, that's true in my opinion, so it can't be false. Or can it?

Academics in every field are concerned with the concepts called by the English words fact, opinion, true and false. Since we spend some time in class doing vocabulary exercises and today grammar exercises, it was useful for us to clarify our ideas about what exactly a vocabulary and a grammar are.

Similarly, as the summary of responses to the online survey we did this morning shows, although there is some agreement, there also seems to be some disagreement about our understandings of what facts and opinions are, and by the meanings of true and false ("Survey of Ideas," 2015).

One reason for the survey is that it gives us some specific examples to think about and work with. I tried to think of related examples from very different academic fields, and a couple that are not academic. I asked you not to discuss your answers before submitting them because that gives a more accurate view of what we think initially. Since there is considerable disagreement, some of us, perhaps all of us, might decide after some reflection to revise our initial ideas.

The first four statements (two really, with each repeated) come from the history of astronomy and physics. They are based on how our ideas have changed from the time of Aristotle to today. If you know a bit about the very dramatic history of that sudden change in our understanding of where we are in the universe, that might be helpful. I put these statements first because I thought they might be in some ways the easiest to deal with; however, as the pie charts colourfully and plainly show, there is already substantial disagreement here.

Can you help us to resolve this disagreement? What is causing it? What exactly are you going to present reasons to persuade your classmates to agree with?

Comments are welcome. Over the next week or two, we will also follow up in class the issues raised here. And if you think that there are related issues we need to discuss, feel welcome to add them to the list of things to be explained, clarified, given examples of and reasons for, and so on.

This might give you something more interesting to think about than the important but not-so-exciting grammar homework today.

As you might have noticed, I've now turned off the survey form we used in class this morning: we want to keep that set of responses as an unchanged record. If you would like to look at or do the survey again, there is a copy of it here, which you are welcome to try out.
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Reference
Survey of ideas on fact and opinion - AEP rw2 [Summary of responses]. (2015, August 17). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/a/auathailand.org/forms/d/1BVn-gSUszQnHkqqj512vhxSpP3TgzisVanwc91lo5OA/viewanalytics
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6 comments:

  1. Unknown17 August 2015 at 18:10

    After I did this survey, I was wondering that a fact with a completely misunderstanding, Can we still call it the fact?

    For example, "The sun is a centre of the universe" This sentence does not true at all, in the same time, it's likely a scientific fact, no any opinion or emotion, but can we still call it the fact? If at least on part of the sentence is wrong. While for some sentences, I think we cannot group it into either fact or opinion because there is something weird in the sentence.

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    Replies
    1. Peter AUA17 August 2015 at 19:52

      I like Ling's questions. They sound useful and likely to be productive as you help her to answer them.

      "... because there is something weird in the sentence," also seems to me a productive comment to explore. (I am, however, in two minds about my sentences being labelled weird.)

      Thank you Ling for some thoughtful questions and comments to start the discussion here.

      Delete
    2. Unknown17 August 2015 at 21:26

      Sorry Peter, I used the wrong word. What I mean is some sentences made me confuse, especially when some words like 'killing', 'morally" or "acceptable" are put in the sentences.

      In genaeral, if we consider by relying on moral, killing is completely wrong, but when we claim by law, killng criminal will be acceptable. This is the same case for abortion, killing an infant is wrong by moral but become acceptable when we think that It is a good way for solving some problems, so when I saw people claim that they did something wrongs with good moral, it seems like something contradict. On the other hand, I may say that being moralist means people have some allowances to something bad, if there are a law or a social norm to support them.

      Delete
    3. Peter AUA17 August 2015 at 21:41

      Ling, I really did think your word choice, weird, was useful, and your following explanation confirms that.

      I wrote the questions to push you and the class to think about the issues involved.

      Delete
  2. Unknown17 August 2015 at 21:55

    I am looking forward to having some discussion towards all these topics. It looks pretty more exciting than today's homework. :D

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  3. Unknown18 August 2015 at 00:40

    Although all the questions in the survey of ideas on fact and opinion are not too difficult for everyone in terms of meanings and the complexity of the language to understand, to think what they should be (fact, opinion, true, false) is very challenging because I believe that almost all of them—this includes me too—would be confused about them and hesitated to answer. The most important thing that made our answers different would be the fact that we all might understand the definitions of the terms “fact, opinion, true, false” in different ways. Thus, it is a good idea to provide us the survey to check whether we really understand them correctly or not and then, discuss again in the class to clarify the concepts of these terms.

    I like your online survey since I think it is one type of teaching and learning activities that is really helpful for both teacher and students.

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