#12 - The school principal insisted that student failures

[silent7706]

Hi,

OH boy, parallel reasoning can be really time consuming if not tackled properly. For this question, I used the phrase "In a relatively short time...." from the question stimuli to help me quickly narrow down potential correct answers. Since (B), (C), and (E) did not contain similar parallels, I crossed them off quickly.

I think this is the "matching the premise" technique described in the book, but want to confirm that I applied it correctly.

Thanks in advance.

[Brook Miscoski]

silent77,

What you're describing works. My own approach was to realize that there was a motive to lie, and look for a similar choice.

[lenihil]

Dear Powerscore,

Could you please help me find out what is wrong with this argument?

Thank you.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi lenihill!

To identify flaws, first identify the conclusion, then the premises, and then ask yourself why those premises don't fully prove that conclusion. So let's start there:

Premise: Failing grades disappeared (after the principal insisted that bad teaching causes failing grades).
Conclusion: Teaching has improved at the school.

The principal is essentially observing an effect (failing grades disappeared) and concluding a cause (teaching has improved). The principal thinks that improved teaching is the cause of the disappearance of the failing grades. But is improved teaching the only potential cause of the disappearance of the failing grades? Nope! As with most causal arguments, there are usually potential alternate causes. And in this case, we have a pretty big alternate cause.

The principal basically went out and told all of the teachers "your bad teaching is causing your students to have failing grades." Now, if you're a teacher, you don't want the principal to think you're bad at your job--he could fire you or keep you from getting a raise! So you've gotta make sure that your students don't get failing grades anymore. How could you do this? One way might be to improve your teaching--if you really think that bad teaching is the only cause of failing grades. But wouldn't it be easier to just stop giving your students failing grades?

So just because the failing grades disappeared, that doesn't necessarily mean that teaching improved. It's also possible that the teachers decided to just stop assigning failing grades to students.

Answer choice (D) matches this flaw: The manager told the employees that workers who filed complaints don't have enough work to do, and complaints disappeared. The manager concluded that workers were now productively filling their time. But is that the only possible cause of the disappearance of complaints? Nope! Maybe the workers were like, I don't want my boss to think I don't have enough work to do so I'm going to stop filing complaints. So just because the complaints disappeared, that doesn't necessarily mean that workers are now productively filling their time. It's also possible that the workers decided to just stop filing complaints.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey