PrepTest 133, Section 3, Question 17
Educator: Traditional classroom education is ineffective because education(39 more words not shown)
The educator's conclusion follows logically(8 more words not shown)
- ADevelopment of insight(8 more words not shown)
- BClassroom education is(13 more words not shown)
- CAll social processes(8 more words not shown)
- DEducation is not(9 more words not shown)
- EThe teacher does(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why does failing to develop insight make education ineffective?
The educator calls the traditional classroom ineffective because it isn't genuinely social, and only social processes can develop students' insights. We might initially wonder why a room full of teachers and students doesn't count as social. The final sentence explains the educator's view: the teacher stands outside the group, and the interaction is rigid and artificial.
For this question, accept the stated claim that the traditional classroom isn't truly a social process. Since a social process is required to develop insight, that classroom won't develop insight. But we still need the last step. Could an education be effective in some other way even if it didn't develop insight?
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption that makes the conclusion follow. Give us a rule saying effective education requires the development of insight. Then the missing insight is enough to establish the claimed ineffectiveness.
Working the answers
- A
This makes genuine education a requirement for developing insight. We need to make insight a requirement for effective education. The direction matters: even if insight could arise only through genuine education, genuine education might still occur without producing insight. A doesn't rule out effectiveness in the situation we've been given.
- B
This tells us education is effective under a condition the traditional classroom doesn't meet: interaction that is neither rigid nor artificial. It doesn't say classrooms failing that condition are ineffective. Giving one situation in which education works doesn't settle every situation in which it doesn't meet that description.
- C
This connects social processes to nonrigid, nonartificial interaction. But the passage already states that the traditional classroom is not truly social. Reinforcing that earlier part of the reasoning doesn't supply the missing connection between developing insight and being effective.
- DCorrect
“Not effective unless” makes insight necessary for effectiveness. The complete reasoning is now: the traditional classroom isn't a social process; without a social process, students' insights cannot develop; without developing insight, education isn't effective. D supplies the final link to the educator's conclusion.
- E
This describes a nontraditional classroom. Such a classroom could be better, worse, or equally ineffective without resolving the argument about traditional education. We need a rule explaining why the lack of insight makes the traditional classroom ineffective, not another description of a different classroom.
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