Self-study
Conclusion It is not good for a university to have class sizes that are very large or very small, or to have professors with teaching loads that are very light or very heavy. █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████
Summary
Big classes and heavy workloads for faculty are bad for universities. Therefore, universities should not have either very big or very small classes, and should not have either very heavy or very light workloads for faculty.
Notable Assumptions
The argument’s premises explain half of the conclusion - they tell us why big classes and heavy faculty workloads are bad. The conclusion, however, also claims that universities should avoid small classes and light faculty workloads. We’re looking for some premise that would help explain why that’s also the case.
15.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████
a
Professors who have ████ █████ ████████ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████
Doesn’t lead to the conclusion. We want a reason why light teaching loads are bad, and professors using their time to research doesn’t provide that.
b
Classes that have ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████ █ ███ ██ █████████ ███████████
Doesn’t lead to the conclusion. We want a reason why small classes are bad, and if anything, having lots of classroom discussion seems like a point in favor of small classes.
c
Very small class █████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ████████ ████████████ ██ █████████ ████████████
This gives a reason to think that small classes and light teaching loads are bad. If they indicate incompetence, the conclusion that universities should avoid them makes sense.
d
Very small class █████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████ █████████████
How common these traits are doesn’t do anything to support the conclusion that they’re bad and should be avoided.
e
Professors with very █████ ████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██████
While this explains why light teaching loads might not be better than normal teaching loads, in order to support the conclusion that light teaching loads are bad we need a reason to believe they’re worse than normal teaching loads, not just the same.