PURPOSE: One of my goals in this course is to introduce students to critical thinking. One important usage of critical thinking is to be able to analyze the logic of an assignment, a chapter, a textbook, or even a scientific discipline such as psychology.

Intellectual humility involves the ability to distinguish between learning that is deep and learning that is superficial.

In this activity, I ask you to test your ability to do this. Think of a course you completed in which you received a high or fairly high final grade. If you were asked to write and elaborate on that course without consulting any sources, answers to the following questions: What is (name of subject—for example, history, biology)? What is the main goal of studying this subject?

What are people in this field trying to accomplish? What kinds of questions do they ask? What kinds of problems do they solve? What sorts of information or data do they gather? How do they go about gathering information in ways that are distinctive to this field? What is the most basic idea, concept, or theory in this field? How did studying this field change your view of the world?

If you find it difficult to answer these questions, consider the hypothesis that you might have received your high grade by cramming for tests or by some other means of superficial learning. Are you able to identify the difference between what you have learned superficially and what you have learned deeply?