The Logic in the DTA Task Force (LDTATF)
As things stand, precious few college students in the state of Washington get dedicated instruction in logic. Those who do take courses in logic very often do so at a community or technical college in order to satisfy a basic reasoning skills requirement for transfer to a four-year institution in the state. In the spring of 2010, the Joint Access Operating Group (JAOG) and the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) will consider a policy change that would eliminate most instruction in logic at two-year colleges statewide.
At issue are the recommendations put forward by the (JAOG) Math in the DTA Task Force. The Direct Transfer Agreement (DTA) is an agreement between four year and two year colleges in the state of Washington that facilitates transfer of students from community and technical colleges to four-year universities including UW, WSU and WWU. The JAOG Math in the DTA task force has recommended replacing our current basic skills requirement in Quantitative/Symbolic Reasoning with a math-only requirement. The inevitable result would be a sharp reduction in logic instruction across the state.
The changes to the DTA proposed by the JAOG Math in the DTA task force are far more significant and problematic than their rationales justify. The most problematic aspect of this proposal is that it involves narrowing the scope of the basic skills requirement from formal reasoning generally to formal reasoning with numbers. The problematic aspects of narrowing the scope of the basic skills requirement go unacknowledged in the task force report. Rather the Math in the DTA recommendations read as if math were the only kind of formal reasoning.
The rationales offered by the Math in the DTA task force focus exclusively on bolstering and aligning math standards across the state. An admirable goal, but it is also one that should be attainable without arbitrarily narrowing the scope of basic skills requirements. This goal can be achieved by expanding the basic skills in reasoning requirement to 10 credits, 5 to be fulfilled by college level math and 5 to be fulfilled by courses in reasoning more broadly construed. Or it can be achieved by allowing only courses in reasoning to fulfill the current 5 credit QSR requirement and enforcing the current intermediate algebra requirement as a pre-requisite for QSR courses.
There are very good reasons not to narrow the scope of the Quantitative/Symbolic Reasoning requirement. Foremost is that the reasoning skills taught in logic courses are relevant to topics and domains far beyond math and its applications in the sciences. Every branch of inquiry involves reasoning. And the clarity and quality of reasoning across the curriculum, in the sciences and in the humanities, is bolstered by an appreciation of the formal structure of reasoning and the ways in which it can go well or badly. It is through mastering logic that one comes to fully understand and appreciate the structure and quality of reasoning generally. Given that logic is difficult, eliminating logic from the basic skills requirement for the DTA will dramatically reduce instruction in logic in WA. This cannot be a good thing for our intellectual health or our economic competitiveness.
Reasoning matters beyond math and its applications in the sciences. Our basic requirements for transfer to four-year institutions should reflect this. Maintaining a significant role for reasoning beyond math is essential to the intellectual integrity and vitality of higher education in this state, and thereby to the intellectual growth of the citizens of Washington. Keeping logic and critical thinking courses within the scope of the basic requirements for transfer would help a great deal.
LDTATF
On the conviction that eliminating logic from the DTA basic skills requirement is detrimental for higher education in the state of Washington, we hereby convene the Logic in the DTA Task Force (LDTATF). The mission of the LDTATF is to promote awareness of the importance of reasoning well in general and to make clear to the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and Joint Access Operating Group (JAOG) why we ought to retain or expand the role of reasoning without numbers in our basic higher education curriculum.
We ask that persons who would advance logic and critical thinking instruction in the state of Washington add your name to our Petition to the Washington State HECB.
Call for Papers: Essay Contest
Being advocates of logic, we would prefer to pressure the relevant authorities in the state of Washington to preserve a significant place for logic in higher education curriculum with reasonable argument. To that end, we are sponsoring an essay contest. A cash prize ($300) will be awarded for the best essay explaining why we should teach logic in college. Ideally entries should be editorial length and submitted to your local paper, campus paper or sent campus wide by e-mail. I you are inclined to write more, please stay within a 1000 word limit please. The essays will be judged by a distinguished panel of Washington philosophers. Send submissions by email to wpayne@bellevuecollege.edu. Deadline January 1, 2010.
The best essays will be forwarded to
JAOG and HECB. Should you feel inclined to contact members of the relevant state
aurthorities personally, here are the
JAOG
members and
HECB
members. Statewide discussion of the proposed changes to the DTA are
also being discussed on a math e-mail list (go figure). Mathematicians are not
unreasonable folks, but philosophers are needed in making the case for the
importance of logic instruction. Here's the address at which you can sign on to
the listserv:
http://lists.ctc.edu/mailman/listinfo/math.