Self-study
Educator: Some experimental educational programs, based on the principle that children's first education should take place at home, instruct parents in how to be their child's "first teacher." Support The school performance of the children in these programs is better than average. ████ █████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████
Summarize Argument
The educator concludes that the educational programs teaching parents to be their child's "first teacher" are successful and should be expanded. He supports this by pointing out that children in these programs perform better than average in school.
Notable Assumptions
The educator assumes that the educational program directly causes the better school performance, without considering other possible reasons for it, like the natural abilities of the children or parents, or parental involvement outside the program.
He also assumes that better than average school performance is the primary marker of the program’s successfulness, without considering any other outcomes or effects among the children in the program.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████
a
Not all small ████████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████
The school performance of children in the program is better than average, whether they enjoy the program or not, and (A) doesn’t account for this difference. So (A) doesn’t weaken the conclusion that the program is successful and should therefore be expanded.
b
Most of the ███████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████████
This weakens the conclusion by showing that one of the educator’s assumptions is false. He assumes that the program itself causes the children’s good performance, but (B) explains that their performance could actually be due to most of the parents having experience as educators.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or suggest an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
c
Surveys show that ████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████████
The school performance of children in the program is better than average, whether parents approve of the program or not, and (C) doesn’t account for this difference. So (C) doesn’t weaken the conclusion that the program is successful and should therefore be expanded.
d
The cost of █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ███████████
First, we don’t know that this means that the program will be expensive. Perhaps the cost hasn’t been determined but it will be quite low. But either way, (D) doesn’t account for the children’s school performance and thus doesn’t weaken the conclusion.
e
Some children who ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ █████████████ ████ ██ ███████
Just because some children who didn’t participate in the program performed well in school doesn’t mean that the program is unsuccessful. The children in the program still performed better than average. So (E) doesn’t weaken the educator’s conclusion.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.