Q16 - Editorial: Contrary to popular belief

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: Teaching preschoolers is relatively easy.
Evidence: They develop strict systems and they are intensely curious.

Answer Anticipation:
Missing links: "having strict systems" and "being intensely curious" make students relatively easy to teach. We could weaken the argument by attacking that link. Or, we could just simply raise some OTHER factor about preschoolers (temper,lack of potty-training, lack of sharing, frequent illnesses, etc.) that makes them HARDER to teach.

Correct Answer:
B

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) What does "imitating adults" have to do with whether it's easier / harder to teach preschoolers?

(B) Looks good! This attacks the connection between "being intensely curious" and "being relatively easy to teach". Someone with a VERY short attention span is probably not that easy to teach.

(C) Beware the weak language of "some" in Strengthen/Weaken. Even though this argument insinuates that preschoolers are somewhat distinguished from other students by the fact that they develop strict systems, it doesn't hurt the author if "at least one older child also develops strict systems".

(D) Hmmm, could we get from "ask as many creative questions" to "difficult to teach"? We could, but we'd have to add more assumptions than we did with B, in getting from "very short attention span" to "difficult to teach". First of all, creative questions could easily be a GOOD thing, from a teacher's standpoint. Secondly, this answer doesn't say what we would need to hear, that preschoolers ask A TON of questions (that might undermine our teaching). It just says that they ask "AS MANY" questions as older children. Well, how many is that? Who knows?

(E) This strengthens the argument, by offering corroborating evidence that preschool teaching might be relatively easier than other forms of teaching.

Takeaway/Pattern: Because this argument is very short and allows us to hear clear missing bridge ideas, (i.e. "strict systems make you easier to teach" / "being very curious makes you easier to teach"), we should anticipate that the correct answer will attack one of those links, as B did.

#officialexplanation

[robowarren]

I was going back and forth on B and D, and in the end picked D because I thought it drove the point home more than B, in regards to proving that teaching preschoolers is actually challenging.

I felt like B was asking you to assume too much - That if the kids have ADD, THEN there is a ton of work to do.

D actually tied it to the fact that it is possible that teaching preschoolers can be as challenging as teaching older kids....

Would you mind discussing? Am I over thinking this?

[ohthatpatrick]

Here is the essence, to me, of what can make Strengthen/Weaken answers challenging.

They often don't directly connect to the key words in the argument; they indirectly connect and we're responsible for using common sense as the connective tissue between the wording in the answer choice and the key words in the argument.

And so you often get into a debate with yourself over whether you're telling yourself "too much of a story" in stretching your answer to connect with the argument.

Let's just remember that ultimately we need to judge this on the level of "common sense".

(B) says these kids will have very short attention spans

(D) says these kids will ask as many creative questions as older children.

If we want to weaken the conclusion that "teaching preschoolers is not especially difficult", we want an answer that will make it seem like "teaching preschoolers IS especially difficult".

Would common sense say that teaching someone with a "very short attention span" is difficult?

I think it would. In order to teach someone, you need to have their attention.

Would common sense say that teaching someone who asks "many creative questions" is difficult?

I don't think it would necessarily. As a teacher, I like students who ask questions. They tend to be more engaged and attentive.

So I do think common sense leans more heavily towards (B) being a teaching difficulty than (D).

However, VERY IMPORTANTLY, I have grossly distorted what (D) actually says.

(D) does NOT say that these preschoolers "ask many creative questions". It says they "ask as many creative questions as do older children".

Well, how much is that? A lot? A little? Just right? Who knows?

Are older children difficult to teach? If so, then comparing preschoolers to older children would weaken this argument. If not, then comparing preschoolers to older children would strengthen this argument.

So the easiest way to eliminate (D) from contention is to recognize that we aren't told anything about how easy/difficult it is to teach older children or how frequently/infrequently older children ask creative questions.

Hope that helps.

[joseph.m.kirby]

(B) Children intensely curious about new things have short attention spans
-This answer choice weakens: the assumption is that it will be especially difficult to keep these children engaged.

(D) Preschoolers ask as many creative questions as do older children.
-This answer choice actually strengthens the argument: teaching preschoolers is not especially difficult (the difficulty could be similar to that of teaching older children).