Imagine someone, let us call him Andy, standing beside a used car trying to decide whether to buy it. Andy does not have much money and he does not know much about cars, but he has just left college and been offered a new job which requires him to have a reliable car. A salesperson has told Andy all the advantages of the car in question and has offered a ‘bargain’ price.
(Case 1): Let us suppose that Andy has come to like and trust the salesperson in the course of talking about the car (though they have never met before and Andy knows nothing of the company for which she works) and he likes the ‘look’ of the car so he decides to buy it.
(Case 2): Let us suppose instead that Andy comes to like the salesperson but treats what she says with caution, gets an expert mechanic to check the vehicle over, checks prices of comparable vehicles in a used car price guide and gets a knowledgeable friend to advise on negotiating a price.
The question now has three parts:
1.7.1 Look at Dewey’s definition above and decide whether Andy displays ‘reflective thinking’ according to that definition in either case. Is he ‘active’, ‘persistent’, ‘careful’, etc?
1.7.2 Referring to Glaser’s list of abilities, does Andy: – recognise what the problem is? – find workable means for dealing with the problem? – gather and marshal pertinent information? – recognise unstated assumptions and values (etc.)?
1.7.3 Would you say that Andy acts reasonably in either case?