In this case two friends, Bertha and Cheryl, are watching an American TV programme on the 1991 Gulf War. The presenter, who is American, comments on the ‘pin-point accuracy’ of the US weapons and says that the fi lm shows heat-seeking missiles going down the chimneys of buildings to blow them up and ground-based US Patriot missiles intercepting and blowing up incoming Iraqi Scud missiles. Bertha and Cheryl watch and listen with fascination (as many people did during the Gulf War); Bertha remarks on how amazing it is that weapons can be so accurate and expresses her relief that America had them. Cheryl, who is majoring in media studies, is not quite so sure; she points out that the sequence showing the heat-seeking missile going down the chimney was supplied by the US Air Force, since it was taken by the plane which fi red it, and that we are not told how many such missiles missed their target completely. She also points out that the sequence showing Patriot missiles exploding Scuds in mid-air was hard for anyone but a military expert to interpret: ‘Was the fl ash a Patriot hitting a Scud, or a Patriot exploding too soon, and how many Scuds were missed altogether? Only the military really knew – and perhaps even they didn’t know at the time. But either way, the presenter clearly relied on the interpretation of the fl ashes given by military people, and they had a propaganda job to do.’ Bertha, who is studying computing and usually says she is ‘not really interested in politics’, is irritated by Cheryl’s scepticism and does not really want to hear about it. However, Cheryl says she has studied similar ‘news reports’ from other wars, which is why she has her doubts. Bertha says Cheryl’s teachers are all liberals and communists. Cheryl says this is rubbish, that some of her teachers are very ‘Establishment’ fi gures, sometimes acting as government advisers, and that her course is one of the most respected in the US. Again the question has three parts:
1.8.1 Look at Dewey’s defi nition and decide to what extent Bertha and Cheryl display ‘refl ective thinking’. Again, are they ‘active’, ‘persistent’, etc?
1.8.2 Referring to our list of skills, do Bertha and Cheryl: – identify and evaluate assumptions? – judge the acceptability, especially the credibility, of claims? – analyse, evaluate and produce explanations? – draw inferences? – produce arguments?
1.8.3 Would you say that Bertha or Cheryl display critical thinking skills? Give your reasons.