COURSE 1: INFORMATION AND DIGITAL LITERACY

FOR UNIVERSITY SUCCESS

W1: Introduction to Information and Digital Literacy at University

Academic knowledge is shaped by our core mission (sứ mệnh cốt lỗi) through a shared
understanding in many years. Of the ways to advance the discovery and sharing of
knowledge.
- The contingent nature of knowledge (Bản chất tiềm tàng của tri thức)
- The importance of scholarly rigor and the need (Tầm quan trọng của tính nghiêm
minh trong học thuật và nhu cầu)
- The recognition of knowledge, discovery and sharing (Công nhận kiến thức, khám
phá và chia sẻ)
- The recognition of understanding (Sự công nhận của sự hiểu biết)

Academic culture
- The beliefs, core values, and expectations that sharing in an academic community.
+ Independent learning (Học tập độc lập)
+ Critical thinking (Tư duy phản biện)
+ Inquiry (Sự tìm tòi, dò xét)
+ Clarity of expression in communicating those facts (Cách diễn đạt rõ ràng
trong việc truyền đạt những sự việc đó)
+ A responsibility for ethical and positive contribution (Có trách nhiệm với đạo
đức và đóng góp tích cực
- Like an onion

Brick's definition of academic culture as the attitudes, values, and ways of behaving that
are shared by a group of people who work or study in universities.

What are academic culture values? (gồm 10 cái)

- Research & inquiry
- Research skills
- Lifelong Learning
- Intellectual autonomy (Quyền tự chủ về trí tuệ)
- Problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Creativity & Innovation (Sáng tạo & Đổi mới)
- Information and digital literacy
- Ethical, social & Professional Understanding
- Communication
Information: is your capacity to find, analyse, comprehend (hiểu rõ), evaluate the
information you come across, whether that's a quick and dirty search on Google or if you are
digging around in academic databases
Information literacy: is your capacity to take that information that you've found, work with
it in a meaningful way -> cái literacy thì nó sd có mục đích, ý nghĩa còn in4 thì bao hàm
chung chung tất cả
Digital literacy: is able to use digital tools to create information, communicate effectively, to
manage your digital identity (nhận dạng) online, and to use digital networks to enhance (nâng
cao) your own learning -> sử dụng công cụ KTS để tạo ra thông tin, quản lí nhận dạng
onl, giao tiếp hiệu quả, nâng cao học hỏi…)
- New language and ultimately we all need to be digital natives (NN mới… người bản
địa KTS)
- Using smartphones and computer, searching the Internet (sd đth thông minh, máy tính
tìm kiếm thông tin)
* literacy: trình độ học vấn, hiểu biết, văn hóa…
Information into academic culture: information is at the core of defending an argument or
making a proposition (bảo vệ lập luận hoặc đưa ra đề xuất) about how the world works,
whether that's in science or the humanities or whatever your field.
Information literacy into academic culture: (văn hóa thông tin thành văn hóa học thuật)
where are you going to find information to support your point of view? How are you going to
assess that information for reliability? How do you evaluate it to make sure it's an accurate
way of defending what you've got to say?

Evaluating information (gồm 5 cái: AATOC) for academic purposes involves taking care to
select information that is reliable.
- Authority test (Where does the information come from?) - Who is the author? Has
the author got expertise in the topic? Is the source of information peer reviewed?
- Audience test (Who is the audience?) – general / professional / academic audience
- Transparency test (Kiểm tra tính minh bạch) (How is the information verified?) -
What evidence is provided? Where does it come from? - Can data collection and data
analysis be checked?
- Objectivity test (Kiểm tra tính khách quan) (Is the source of information objective?) -
What is the purpose of writing? For scholarly purposes? For advertising?
- Currency test (Kiểm tra sự lưu hành, truyền bá) (Is the information up-to-date?)

Selecting and organising information

- Selecting information using 4 ‘S’ reading skills (Brick, 2012, p. 81-82)
+ Searching (What is it about?) - title, table of contents, description of book on
back cover, abstract, headings, sub-headings, tables, figures
+ Skimming (What are the main points?) - introduction, conclusion, topic
sentences
+ Selecting (Which information is relevant and useful?)
+ Studying
- Organising information: gồm 3 cái
+ Using matrix (for synthesising ideas) tổng hợp ý tưởng
+ Using mind mapping
 + Common organisational strategies in academic writing: Problem-solution,
Comparison Contrast, Cause-effect, Classification

Survival Skills for University

- Study skills
- Time management (Jessa Collings)
- Collaboration: Cộng tác (Lecturer Marcella Robertson)
- Keep an open mind (Professor Nick Enfield)
- Questioning: Đặt câu hỏi (Jessa Collings)
- Noticing: Ghi chú (Lecturer Marcella Robertson)

Five central values of academic integrity: gồm 5 cái (những đức tính quen thuộc)
- Honesty (Trung thực)
- Trust (Lòng tin)
- Fairness (Công bằng)
- Respect (Tôn trọng)
- Responsibility (Trách nhiệm)

Academic misconduct: hành vi sai trái trong học thuật – gồm 5 cái
- Plagiarism (Đạo văn)
- Self-plagiarism (resubmission) (Tự đạo văn = Gửi lại)
- Cheating (Gian lận)
- Fabrication or falsification of data or results (Bịa đặt, làm sai lệch)
- Facilitation of such actions of another student (Tạo đk cho các hành vi trên)
An honour code or student code.
The policy or set of rules that govern student behaviour.

W2: Defining, Assessing & Searching for Information (Xác định, Đánh giá và Tìm kiếm
Thông tin)

1.1. THE SCHOLARLY AND CULTURAL RECORD

- The cultural record: hồ sơ văn hóa -> bao gồm tất cả văn bản cta tiếp xúc hằng ngày
bao gồm các ptien truyền thông
+ Includes all of the text that we come in contact with on a daily basis, including
social media.
+ The types of texts: Facebook status, Literature-novels, poetry, short stories,
films and television shows, Musical compositions and songs, News reports
and articles
- The scholarly record: hơ sơ học thuật/lịch sử -> Bản tường thuật được quản lý về nỗ
lực học tập trong quá khứ = SGK, luận án, bài nghiên cứu plapla
+ The curated account of past scholarly endeavor.
+ The types of texts: academic texts, include textbooks, edited non-fiction
books, journal articles, state of the art articles, research reports, theses, and
conference proceedings.
1.2. PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TERTIARY SOURCES
- Primary sources: chưa qua sàng lọc the source comes from someone who was
there, or at least very close to an event. Examples: journal articles, autobiographies,
correspondence like letters, emails, text messages, works of arts, photographs, and
musical compositions
=> nguồn đến từ một người đã ở đó, hoặc ít nhất là rất gần với một sự kiện. Ví dụ: các bài
báo, tự truyện, thư từ như thư, email, tin nhắn văn bản, tác phẩm nghệ thuật, ảnh và tác phẩm
âm nhạc
- Secondary sources: qua sàng lọc lần 1 (which give us a secondary account) are a
step removed compared to primary resources and are an interpretation, analysis, or
overview of a particular event. Examples: biographies, books, review articles and
commentaries -> tiểu sử, sách, bài viết đánh giá và bình luận
- Tertiary sources: qua sàng lọc lần 2 give us an account that is twice removed.
Tertiary sources draw upon and summarise primary and secondary sources.
- Examples: handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and textbooks -> sổ tay, từ điển,
bách khoa toàn thư và sách giáo khoa

1.3. DISCIPLINE SPECIFIC INFORMATION

- Different information sources are used in different ways in different disciplines
- Example: a law student, a medical student

2.1. COMMON INFORMATION SOURCES AT UNIVERSITY

- Three main types are common to all fields
+ Textbooks: provide the basis for lectures and tutorials.
+ Course notes (course readers) (ghi chú khóa học): They're prepared by
lecturers or subject coordinators when no textbook exists or when textbooks
are deemed inadequate. They cover subject knowledge.
+ Scholarly journal articles (các bài báo học thuật): more detailed and specific
information than what you might find in a textbook.

2.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF JOURNAL ARTICLES (báo khoa học)

- Characteristics of Journal Articles
+ Journal articles are expert authors, critique work, present new research, peer
review process, authoritative and credible (Các bài báo trên tạp chí là tác giả
chuyên gia, tác phẩm phê bình, trình bày nghiên cứu mới, quy trình bình duyệt
đồng nghiệp, có thẩm quyền và đáng tin cậy)
+ Scholarly journals are subject specific, academic, periodically published,
current research. (Các tạp chí học thuật là các chuyên đề cụ thể, học thuật,
xuất bản định kỳ, nghiên cứu hiện tại)
- Journal Article in the Humanities: (Tạp chí Nhân văn) Abstract, Introduction,
Body, Conclusion, Reference - 5 phần
- Journal Article in the Sciences: (Tạp chí Khoa học) Abstract, Introduction,
Methodology, Result, Discussion, Conclusion, Reference - 7 phần
Where to look for information from various sources (7 suột)
- Databases
- Search engines
- Social media applications
- Library
- Archives
- Field notes
- A variety of modes: written, video, podcast

Defining your information need – 5 bước

- Break down into subtopics
- What information do you have already?
- What information do you need?
- Develop a set of search terms by thinking of synonyms for key terms in the question
- Combine search terms to enter into databases and search engines

Developing a search strategy (Google Scholar) – 6 cách

- Quotation marks: results in exact words in exact order – narrow search info
- Synonyms
- Boolean search terms: combine terms to narrow/ widen the results (“”, AND, OR,
NOT)
- Date ranges
- Related articles
- Citation chaining (Chuỗi trích dẫn)
Documenting and evaluating your search strategy
- Save Time
- Efficiently complete your assignment or whatever task it is

W3: Critically Evaluating, Filtering & Managing Information

Critically Evaluating Information – gồm 6 cái

- Scholarly purpose: language used, length, reference list, evidence, authoritative
author & publisher, included in references in other
- Authority: who wrote, who produce information (credibility, reputation, publisher)
- Audience: academic audience?
- Objectivity: information presented objective? Any bias?
- Accuracy (tính chính xác): information presented accurately? Can it be verified by
other sources?
- Currency: information up to date? Is it important to your topic field - IT, history?

Critically Evaluating Web Resources – 4 cái

- Publisher: check URL: .us, .vn OR .edu, .gov, .mil, OR .org, .com, .net
- Purpose: goal of the web, who is it intended for? Any bias? Who sponsors?
 - Aesthetics & Style (Thẩm mỹ & Phong cách): bad graphic, confused format,
grammar, site map, index?
- Referencing (Tham khảo): are the sources cited? Link to other reputable sources
Critically Evaluating Wikipedia - 4 cái:
- Audience
- Objectivity
- Accuracy
- Currency

Is the information source written at an appropriate level?

Please assess for relevance are Anderson's Unhomely at Home: Dwelling with Domestic
Robots and Noda et al's Impact of robotic assistance on precision of vitreoretinal surgical
procedures.

Managing Information: Files (File name convention)

- Be Consistent. Decide on a naming style and stick to it.
- Include key information in folders and file names that will help you to recognize the
contents easily.
- Change file names of downloaded materials to be consistent with your own system.
- Save downloaded materials in the appropriate folder in your hierarchy.
- Abbreviate if necessary, keep track of what they mean (UoS = Unit of Study).
- Use date format: YYYYMMDD_CourseCode_MaterialType (YYYYMMDD: date of
the lecture). Example: 20210510_SSL101_LectureNotes.
- Use author surnames only.
- Use _underscores_ or use-dashes-to separate-words or Capitalise The 1st Letter

Managing Information: Folders (Folder hierarchies) in the computer, on your USB stick or
on the Cloud through Google Drive or Dropbox.

Step 1:
- Assess credibility and relevance
- Understand main ideas by reading carefully: Abstract, Introduction, Headings/
Subheadings, Conclusion
- Decide read further or put aside
Step 2:
- Gain further understanding
- For relevant sections: Read carefully, examine visual information (graphs, tables, …)
- Skip irrelevant or less relevant sections
Step 3:
- Make detailed notes: organize information, organize your thinking, identify relevant
information
- 4 phase process: ‘Develop categories, Track, Categorize, Organize’ information

W4: Referencing, Incorporating Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using other people's work, things like other people's ideas, arguments and
opinions, and claiming them as your own without giving proper credit to the people who
thought of and created the information in the first place.
According to Windschuttle and Elliot:
- Plagiarism is a failure to acknowledge that the ideas or information being presented
derive from the work of others.
- It is a serious form of academic misconduct.
- Plagiarism is most commonly identified in written assignments, but may also occur in
exams and presentations. Plagiarism is an important part of academic integrity

Types of plagiarism – 3 loại

- Unintentional plagiarism – Đạo văn không cố ý
+ is accidental
+ plagiarize without intending to do so
+ often because of poor ability to reference or poor understanding of referencing
+ were unaware of plagiarism rules
- Intentional plagiarism – Đạo văn cố ý (or dishonest plagiarism)
+ is a form of academic dishonesty
+ one deliberately plagiarize others' work
- Self-plagiarism – Tự đạo văn
+ resubmitting the same text for two different assignments in different courses

Avoiding Plagiarism: Reference all – 6 cách

- Distinctive or unique ideas
- Distinctive structure or organize strategy (the format of a gameshow)
- Information or data from a particular source
- Verbatim phrase or passage
- It is not common knowledge
- Whenever in doubt, cite it

The important reasons to reference: avoid plagiarism & more powerful

Three types of referencing system:
- Endnote systems: Chicago.
- Footnote systems: Oxford.
- In-text citing systems: Harvard and APA.

Incorporating Sources
- Direct quotes
+ Direct quotes of less than two to three lines: quotation marks.
https://research.wou.edu/apa/apa-direct-quote
+ Longer direct quotes a new line, indented to separate it from your writing.
https://guides.highpoint.edu/c.php?g=19434&p=109626
+ Ellipses, shown as ..., remove some parts of the quote
 + A bracket to show the change from the original.
- Paraphrasing and Summarising
+ Summarising is a brief statement of the main points of an article, web page,
chapter, or book.
+ Paraphrasing is rewording the details of a sentence or phrase, where
summarising is putting the main points of a longer text into your own words
+ Strategies for paraphrasing: note the key information, identify the relationships
between the pieces of key information, brainstorm linking phrases and
expressions, key pieces of information and brainstorm synonyms, strengthen,
soften it or broaden this claim
- The benefits of referencing software
+ keep all of your references organized.
+ download a plugin for word processors like Microsoft Word.
+ automatically generates bibliographies and reference lists
- Referencing Software
+ Endnote. https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/endnote-x7/
+ Mendeley.
https://desktopdownload.mendeley.com/download/Getting_Started_Guide.pdf
+ Zotero. https://libguides-en.ub.uu.se/citationguide/zoteroint

W5: Disseminating & Communicating Information

Intellectual property – Sở hữu trí tuệ: copyright laws, patents and trademarks
Copyright is a moral right and an economic right
- Infringement action
- Accessing and sharing resources
- The creation of works.

Creative Commons Licensing – 4 ý is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making it

easier for creators and authors to share their work online. They provide creators of content,
which forms a copyright licensing that allows different types of the use and sharing.
- Attribution
- The non-commercial license
- The non-derivative work license
- The ShareAlike license

Networks and personal learning networks can keep you informed

- Find areas of interest
- Follow writers you like
- Follow people they follow
- Prune your network

3.1. Managing your Digital Identity

- Online security
 - Online reputation
- Online identity
+ Types: Transactional, Social, Professional
+ Characteristics: The Internet remembers everything and the boundaries
between our professional and social lives

3.2. Presenting your Digital Identity

- LinkedIn
- Facebook
- Twitter

4.1. Communicating online:

- Online communication, emails and discussion boards
- Guidelines
+ Remembering the human
+ Good spelling and grammar are important
+ Presenting well researched content and clear arguments
+ Showing respect for other people's time
+ Showing respect for others

4.2. Emailing Lecturers

- to be brief and to the point
- to be professional
- to really be accountable

4.3. Write an email

- Spell things properly
- Be obvious
- Include a subject
- Start your email with Dear, and then the recipient's title and name
- To introduce yourself
- Be specific and concise
- Attach any relevant documents
- Be formal
- Say thank you, or another appropriate sign-off
- Sign your name
- The Cc section

4.4. Discussion board netiquette

- Guidelines
+ use a semi-formal tone of language
+ the Netiquette guidelines
- Types
+ Question-answer forums
 + Relection/debate forums

COURSE 2: PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS FOR

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS

W1: Introduction to Problem-Solving Skill for University Success

Problem solving is the process of overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal.

Problem solving tasks in general are any tasks that require you to reach a goal or define a
solution.

The purpose of problem solving task at university is to help you both refine your thinking
skills in terms of critical analysis and also to demonstrate your thought process, and the
strategies you have used to tackle (giải quyết) the problems to your lectures.

How do problem solving skills relate to the core values of academic culture?
- Get to know your university
- Self-directed study skills and be self-motivated
- Be confident
- Get out there and try as many things as possible
- Check your email
- Speak to as many students and teachers as possible

W2: Categorise Problems & The Problem-Solving Process

Defining Problems
- A problem can be defined as something with an initial state of solution path, and a
goal.
- Either the solution path or the goal is unknown

Categorizing Problems: 7 broad categories of problems

- Knowledge lean problems (Các vấn đề về tin gọn kiến thức): Need little prior
information to solve them.
- Knowledge-rich problems: Lots of prior knowledge is needed.
- Well-defined problems (Vđ đc xđ rõ): All the information needed to solve the
problem can be inferred, or it's explicitly stated
- Ill-defined problems: Some aspect of the problem, such as what you are supposed to
do, is only vaguely stated
- Semantically lean problems (Các vđ về tin gọn ngữ nghĩa): Problems where the
solver has had a lot of practice with the problem type.
- Semantically rich problems: Problems that the solver has not encountered before.
- Insight problems (Vđ hiểu biết sâu sắc): The most difficult to define, can be a
subset of any of the previous six types of problems that we have discussed
Descriptive questions use words such as define, outline, explain, state, summarize or
illustrate, that did not require critique, analyze or evaluate

Descriptive tasks used declarative knowledge. It is just that, questions that ask you to
describe specific information such as facts, figures, or knowledge.

Descriptive problems sometimes known as simple problems, are those that require you to
use facts, figures, or knowledge in a simple way

Analytical tasks are those were you need to do more than simply present information
Analytical tasks might require you to analyze all of the factors that led to a particular result.
Analytical tasks require in-depth exploration and evaluation of a topic often in relevance to
theory.

Analytical problems rely on how well you can determine and analyze the problem, apply a
theory, and justify your solution

- Brick’s approach for analytical problems

+ First, identify the problem.
+ Second, identify solutions.
+ Third, evaluate the solution

- Polya:
- Understand the problem
- Devise a plan
- Carry out the plan
- Look back at what you've done

- Dewey's Reflective Thinker Steps:

- What is the felt difficulty or concern,
- Finding its location and definition
- What are the possible solutions to the felt difficulty
- Using additional testing and observation to verify the solution

- Liedtka and Ogilvie:

- What is: involves to finding the initial state and the goal state and any blocks in
between in order to understand the problem.
- What if: where you generate as many possible solutions or alternatives to the problem
as you can to imagine all of the different possibilities.
- What wows: where you call the solutions down to the ones that wow, that solve the
problem in a nice, clean way.
- What works: where you use the reasoning you have done to create or implement the
solution.
W3: Understanding Problems, Generating Solutions & Solution Paths

Understanding Problems
- Define the terms of the problems
- Define what the problem is asking to do
- Identify the “real problem”
Strategies for Understanding and Beginning the Problem
- Using key words (content and function words)
- Assessment Criteria – tiêu chí đánh giá (assessment rubric)
- Using units – sd các đơn vị (originated in maths)
- Visualising – hình dung or drawing a presentation

Problem solving skills often depend on specialized knowledge

Lecturers rarely ask you to solve a problem using unaddressed information provided through
the course.
Justify your ideas
Be prepared to change your ideas
Evaluate the strategy

Humanities & Social Sciences

- Draw on specific theory or theories to solve a problem
- Adapt the theory for your specific circumstances
- Use the theory as evidence and justification for a new approach
Maths, Sciences & Engineering
- Apply formula, theory or experimental method
- Knowing what to use and how to use it
- Research & provide evidence
- Using certain tools correctly

Using examples
Anomalies – Dị thường
Comparisons
Special cases
There are three steps we need to follow
- Define the existing situation
- Find similar situations with or without the problem
- Identify which factors are different between situations with and without the problem

W4: Taking Creative & Critical Approaches to Solving Problems & Evaluating
Solutions

Collaborative perspectives
Learning from other people
Use deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning
 - Deductive reasoning (suy luận diễn dịch), which has also been called top-down
reasoning, premises about general truth lead to specific conclusions. The conclusion
in deductive reasoning will be true as long as the premises are true
-> đi từ trên xuống, từ tiền đề chân lý chung dẫn đến kết luận
+ Example: Premise 1, all university students can read. Premise 2, Angela is a
university student. Conclusion, therefore Angela can read.
- Inductive reasoning (suy luận quy nạp), which proceeds from specific observations
to a more general truth or in the bottom-up direction
-> từ cái cụ thể tới cái tổng quát, từ dưới lên
+ Example: Premise 1, large falls in the value of shares have led to economic
recessions in the past. Premise 2, there was a large fall in the values of shares
last week. Conclusion, there will therefore be an economic recession

3. Think in terms of levels and systems, not events

- Using Creative Strategies
+ Random juxtaposition (pick a random word from the dictionary and apply it)
+ The intermediate impossible (negative brainstorming)
+ Doing the opposite (working backwards)
- The importance of creativity

General methods: 5 phương pháp

- Create a decision statement
- Decide on “musts” and “wants”
- Create a list of objectives
- Weight the objectives according to importance
- Use the objectives as criteria (tiêu chuẩn) when evaluating solutions
Methods specific to academic culture
Strategies for evaluating solutions
- Does it violate anything that shouldn't be violated?
- Test your answer
- Put your answer down for a little while

W5: Communicate Solutions & Solving Problems in Academic life

Communicating Solutions in Academic Contexts

- Understand your audience
- Communicate the solution path
- Forms: spoken, numbers, visuals, writing
Communicating solutions in written & oral form

Communicating solutions in exams

- Before the day
+ Know the date, time and format of the exam (math problems, short answer
questions, multiple choice questions, or longer essay style writing pieces)
 + Create a revision timetable
+ Revise actively – tích cực sửa đổi
- On exam day
+ Manage your time carefully
+ Include brainstorming and planning time
+ Choose questions quickly and carefully
+ Follow question instructions accurately
- Deal with stress at exam time
+ Dedicate enough time to study
+ Use your time well

Group Problem Solving

- Interaction
+ Happen early and happen often
+ Get to know each other on both a personal and academic level
+ Know and agree upon the goal
+ Appreciate the importance of individual contributions and sharing ideas
- Structure: balanced participation in all discussions by all group members
+ The whole project
+ Meeting
Solving Group problems
- Controlling members: Assign roles and responsibilities
- Members that not doing enough work: Make every member accountable
- Members with clashing personalities – tích cách xung đột: Active listening
Group work at university
- Work collaboratively with their peers
- Learning how to manage those people who don't like to work collaboratively
Organisation & Time management
- A visual plan/ a diary
- Prioritizing tasks
Learn to de-stress and let things go
- Physically active
- Preparing for assessments, examinations
- Socialize
- Fun distractions
- Talk to someone else
Know where to find help: librarians, learning center courses, supporters
Make the most of your time at university

COURSE 3: CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS FOR

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS
W1: Introduction to Critical thinking in Academic Culture

Academic culture:
 - Is a shared set of ideas?
- It's about generating new knowledge and new discoveries.
- It's about respecting ideas and respecting knowledge.

What is critical thinking?

- Is Questioning & Transformative.
- Reflects Its Own Basis, Background and Reasons, And Those of Others.
- Seeks to Make Original Connections, But Always Supported by Evidence.
- Aims to be objective and free of bias.
Argument & argumentation – lý lẽ & luận chứng, tranh luận
- Argument is the product, Argumentation is the process
- Argument is a set of reasons that shows a conclusion is valid
- Argumentation: taking a stance or position

Better people skills

- Leadership opportunities
- Societies
- Understand people from a variety of backgrounds
 Better problem solving skills
 More confidence
 Go forth and analyse and evaluate the source, the theory, or what's being said or the
decision
 To create and sustain arguments

W2: Critical Thinking in Academic Contexts

Critical thinking is more than just a form of thought but habits of

thoughts and personality dispositions, as it is about special ways of
thinking.
Key habit of thinking:
- Metacognition – siêu nhận thức which means thinking about thinking and means
maintaining an awareness of your thought and any possible biases. Metacognition
includes such things as formulating questions for inquiry, self-assessing your own
thinking for biases, justifying opinions, as well as reflecting on that process.
- Dispositions: Inquisitiveness = Curious, Being systematic, Truth-seeking, Self-
confidence, Being analytic, Open-mindedness, Maturity (Facione et al.,)

Facione et al., list critical thinking dispositions: khuynh hướng, tính tình
- Inquisitiveness = Curious: Tò mò
- Being systematic: Có hệ thống
- Truth-seeking: Tìm kiếm sự thật
- Self-confidence
- Being analytic: Có tính phân tích
 - Open-mindedness
- Maturity: Trưởng thành, chín chắn

Dispositions & habits of mind for critical thinking expert

- Mindset of curiosity: Tư duy tò mò
+ Curious approach: why does this happen, why are things the way they are?
+ Negative or criticising approach: why is this the way it is?
- Attitude

Argument Spheres – phạm vi lý luận

- Argument spheres: the differences in acceptable forms of critical thinking and
argument in different contexts.
- Three main argumentation spheres:

Personal Sphere

• Private
• No fix rules for reasoning

Technical Sphere

• Arguments follow strict rules

• Aims at specific audience

Public Sphere

• Aim at the general public

• Using a basic set of rules less rigorous than technical sphere, but more rigorous than personal sphere.
• Often tries to sway opinion or value

Argument Fields: often correspond with university fields of study such as Law, Literature…
Argument fields share:
- Common purpose (or object) of study
- Shared content of enquiry
- Agreement on what constitutes (cấu thành) knowledge
- A specialised language
- Processes of thought and inquiry

There are a number of things that characterise these argument fields

- There's a common purpose of study or object of study.
- This common purpose or object of study also frequently has shared content of inquiry.
 - There is an agreement in an argument field about what exactly knowledge is
- A specialised language is developed in order to study this common purpose and
content of inquiry
- Certain processes of thought and inquiry specific to the area of study are also
developed

A questioning stance is
- A way of approaching any kind of text
- A general approach to life & owing your own opinions
- Means that we question new information and existing knowledge that relates it
Two categories of questioning:
- Content questions
- Context questions

W3: Logic & Reasoning

Formal logic structures

- Formal logic according to Inch and Warnick is the distillation (chắt lọc) of arguments
into standardised forms for the purpose of building, comparing and analyzing them.
- Three broad structures for arguments
+ Categorical logic – logic phân loại
+ Hypothetical structure – cấu trúc giả thuyết
+ Disjunctive structure – cấu trúc rời rạc
- The kinds of fallacies or mistakes
+ Structural fallacies – ngụy biện cấu trúc
+ Premise fallacies – ngụy biện tiền đề
2. COMMON FALLACIES – mặt bằng thông thường
- Jumping from correlation to cause – Chuyển từ tương quan sang nguyên nhân
- Hasty generalisation – Tổng quát hóa vội vàng
- Straw man fallacy (the counter-argument misrepresents the original argument) – Ngụy
biện người rơm (lập luận phản bác làm sai lập luận ban đầu)

3. FORMS OF REASONING
- Deductive – diễn dịch
- Inductive – quy nạp
- Abductive (the best explanation for series of events, with the least amount of
assumptions)
4. APPLYING SYSTEM THINKING
- Every system has multiple components, and the connections between each component
form a web.
- To understand complex concepts or issues, we need to analyze the entire web and not
just the individual components.
W4: Argumentation

1. CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE

- Claim – tuyên bố is an expressed opinion or a conclusion that the arguer wants
accepted.
- Evidence are facts or conditions objectively observable, beliefs or premises generally
accepted as true by the audience, or conclusions previously established.
- Evaluating evidence:
+ Origin: where the evidence comes from
+ Mode: print media, electronic media, or verbal communication
+ Purpose: academic or non-academic
+ Source: primary, secondary or tertiary

2. IDENTIFYING BIASES AND ASSUMPTIONS

- An assumption – giả định is any statement or idea that an author doesn't support with
evidence.
- A bias – thành kiến is a prejudice towards or against something or someone.
- The way reality is represented: Not representing all sides, The use of passive voice,
False clarification schemes.
- The way the relationship between the writer and reader is established: Manipulate the
reader with emotive language or ad hominem; position the reader within the same in-
group; the use of “common sense”, “ideologies”)
- Assumptions and biases can be hidden in the broader features of a text, and the
context in which it appears
- The difference between everyday and academic argumentation

3. USING CRITICAL THINKING TO EVALUATE ARGUMENTS

- To evaluate an argument, we need a set of criteria to assess evidence:
+ Its suitability: origin, mode, purpose, and source.
+ Its relevance – liên quan: validity, currency, reliability, and relevance.
- Also, you need to understand what makes a quality argument.
+ Judge the quality of the premises & conclusions
- Sleeping on the street exposes people to many health risks. Therefore, providing
housing will improve the health of people experiencing homelessness. Please evaluate
the argument.
- There are homeless people in our city. There is not enough housing for homeless
people in our city. Therefore, more adequate housing would solve the issue of
homelessness. Please evaluate the argument.

4. TYPES OF ARGUMENT
- Types of Argument
+ Arguments from analogy – lập luận từ phép loại suy
+ Causal arguments – lập luận nhân quả
+ Argument from generalisation (or reasoning from example) – từ kquat
 + Quasi-logical arguments – LL bán logic
+ Co-existential arguments – LL đồng tồn tại
+ Dissociative arguments – LL phân ly
- Three tests
+ Tests of quantity – số lượng
+ Tests of quality – chất lượng
+ Test of opposition – sự đối lập

W5: Demonstrating Critical Thinking

1.1. Argument Structures

- Understand different argument types
+ Convergent arguments – lập luận đồng nhất: two or more reasons lead to the
same conclusion
+ Divergent arguments – lập luận khác nhau, bất đồng: one reason supports
several conclusion
+ Serial/ Chain arguments – lập luận nối tiếp: claim and evidence are linked in
cause and effect chains
+ Compound arguments – lập luận tổng hợp: more than one reason can be used
to support more than one conclusions
+ Complex arguments – lập luận phức tạp: in authentic context ex: a paragraph
or entire essay, argument structures are combined to suit the arguer’s purpose
- Understanding argument types
+ Argument structures in academic arguments can be quite complex
+ Each claim needs to be supported by sufficient evidence
+ Careful, considered argumentation is a hallmark of academic writing
strengthen the writer’s arguments

1.2. Argument Chains – Chuỗi đối số

- A series of connected implication (premises – tiền đề) that form a conclusion
- Precedent is the first part of the premise
- Antecedent is the second part of the premise
- Antecedent of a premise becomes the precedent of the next premise
- Thus, premise overlap and link to each other to form a chain

1.3. Argument Chains - Slippery Slope = độ dốc trơn

- Analyse chain arguments for weaknesses
- Example
- Analysing weak link
- Analysing chain arguments:
+ Must always ask whether the conclusion offer the most logical
+ An argument is only as strong as its weakness premise
+ Argument chains must be carefully and analyse for link between precedents
and antecedents
 + Generalisations, assumptions and unspoken variables can all weaken an
argument

2. MODELS FOR ACADEMIC ARGUMENTATION

- Toulmin Model
+ The claim which is the basic assertion of the argument.
+ The evidence, which is the data that supports the claim.
+ The warrant – sự đảm bảo, which shows how the evidence leads to the claim.
+ The backing, which shows why the warrant is a good one.
+ The qualifier, which shows strength/ weakness of a presented claim.
+ The rebuttal – bác bỏ, which is any exceptional circumstance which
invalidates the claim.

3. CRITICAL THINKING AND CRITIQUE

- Critique question ideological assumptions – phê phán những giả định về ý thức hệ
- Focus is on unjust ideologies
- Unjust ideologies pervade everyday - Những ý thức hệ bất chính lan tràn hàng ngày
- Knowledge is not neutral – không trung lập
- Critique is not just a way of thinking but an agent of changes

4. CRITICAL THINKING AND REFLECTIVE WRITING

- Reflective Writing involves four steps
+ Identification – Nhận dạng
+ Description – Mô tả
+ Significance – Ý nghĩa
+ Implications – Hàm ý
- It is difficult as it is both subjective and objective

COURSE 4: COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS

W1: Introduction to Communication in Academic Culture

1. INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION

- Communicative situations at university
+ Face-to-face interactions: Lectures, tutorials & group work
+ Online: Emails & Discussion forums
+ Writing: Essays & reports
+ Speaking: Formal presentations
- Three things you could consider
+ How to synthesise information
+ Make your own contribution
+ Visual literacy/ digital literacy
- Three important considerations
 + The ability to communicate effectively
+ The ability to read academic texts
+ Many different types of texts

2. SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR UNIVERSITY

- Challenges of university are:
+ Communication
+ Staying motivated
+ The transition
+ Online platform
- Resilience (khả năng phục hồi) and Motivation for University
+ Develop resilience:
● Aligning your personal values with your course of study.
● Identifying your key strengths and thinking about how you can use
these to help you get through university stress.
● Keeping things in balance.
+ Maintaining your motivation
● Have a really clear goal & reflect back as you progress
● Make your study as fun and social as possible
● To create a regular study habit for yourself.

3. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
- Written forms
- Oral forms
- Mike is a first year undergraduate studying Philosophy at university
- His housemate, Jon, is a first year Nutrition student.
- Jon has asked Mike and nine of his other friends to keep a record of what they eat,
and when, for a week.
- However, when Mike is typing up his eating habits for the week, he realises that he
hasn’t eaten any vegetables at all. Not wanting to seem unhealthy, he pretends that he
made a pumpkin soup and adds that to his list.
- Which type of academic misconduct?

W2: Participating in University Discussion Contexts

1. CONTEXTS OF COMMUNICATION AT UNIVERSITY

- Contexts of communication at university
+ Rhetoric is “the art, practice, and study of human communication” (Lunsford,
2008)
+ A text is a term used in rhetoric to refer to any piece of communication:
spoken conversations, emails, advertisements, essays, lectures.
+ Rhetorical situations: the full set of circumstances surrounding any
communication.
 + Six features of a rhetorical situation: The author, The audience, The place, The
purpose, The Social and political influences and The media

- Rhetorical situations at university

+ Syllabus or unit of study outline is a helpful guide of rhetorical situations at
university, with these components
+ Learning outcomes
+ Readings
+ People involved
- Common rhetorical situations in university courses:
+ Lectures – bải giảng
+ Tutorials – hướng dẫn
+ Seminars – hội thảo
+ Assessments – đánh giá
- University course outlines & contexts of communication
+ Rhetorical situations (các tình huống tu từ): lectures and tutorials
+ Texts: essays and reports
+ The expectations
- Look at an example of a course outline, and examine it to find out about the kinds of
rhetorical situations and text contained within a course.
- Making the most of participation
+ Lectures
● Sit up front
● Don’t be afraid to ask questions
● Look at the study notes, discuss with your peers, and visit the professor
during office hours
+ Tutorials
● Be engaged with a topic
● Have some detailed knowledge
+ Group work
● Being respectful and being willing to take and give feedback
● Participating actively, don’t be shy
- Participating & communicating
+ Be short, succinct – cô đọng, and respectful (Jack)
+ Use the preparation (Mateus)
+ Academic context piece (attend orientation week, be open mind) (Anna)
+ Get involved (Georgia)

2. PARTICIPATING IN LECTURES, TUTORIALS, AND ONLINE FORUMS

- Participating in Lectures, Tutorials & Online forums
+ Lectures
● Reading for lectures
● Note-taking in lectures
+ Seminars
 ● Reading for seminars
● Participation in seminars
+ Tutorials
● Be aware of your area of difficulty
● Ask tutor and other students about your difficulties
● Bring notes on questions from the lecture or seminar
+ Online Forum
● Purpose: Q&A, Reflective & debate
● Effective use of online forums: Develop academic/pro identity,
Practice writing & Critical thinking, Collaborate, Discuss

- Participating in Group Work

+ Proposals – đề xuất
● We could start by looking at the literature on this topic.
● Why don’t we split the tasks into X, Y and Z?
+ Assertion – khẳng định
● We'll start by looking at the literature on this topic
+ In group work with peers at university, claiming authority through your
communication could be problematic
- Discussion
+ “You are in a Political Science tutorial examining non-traditional security
threats. There are four people in your group – Steve, Gwen, Myriam, and
Ajay. You each have to play a role as the head of a government department.
You must work together to coordinate your department after the security
incident. Myriam, who is playing Minister for Immigration, is the first to
speak, saying, We'll call the army to secure the airport.”
- Questions
+ Is this an assertion, or a proposal?
+ Is this a good idea when working in groups at university?

W3: Interpreting, Researching & Planning Written Assignments

1. INTRODUCTION TO WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

- Introduction to understanding researching, and planning written assignment
+ Read the assignment instructions very carefully
+ Ask the lecturer questions
+ Understanding the assignment question

2. UNDERSTANDING & INTERPRETING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

- Understanding & interpreting written assignments
+ Essay Assignments
● Purpose?
● Audience?
+ Interpreting essay questions – phiên dịch câu hỏi tiểu luận
 ● the structure of an essay question
● the key concept: well-defined concepts within your field and linked
with the structure of your essay statement and instruction questions
+ Analysing essay questions is arguably the most important part of the essay
writing process. Before you begin planning, before you begin researching,
before you begin writing, you need to understand what you are expected to do.

- DISCUSSION
+ Consider the following assignment question from an introductory course on
ecology.
+ Analyse the ecological threat of the common European rabbit on Australia’s
diverse ecosystems. What are the benefits of using conventional methods of
control, such as baiting and trapping, over biological controls? Consider both
environmental and economic issues in your response. Outline a plan to deal
with the issue of European rabbits in one of Australia’s national parks.
+ 1. What kind of text is this question asking you to write? Can you tell? Explain
your choice. If you aren’t sure what kind of text it is asking for, explain what
your next step would be if you were given this assignment question.
+ 2. Write a list of “spoken language” questions (who, what, where, why, how)
that you could ask when analysing this question.

- Understanding and interpreting reports & proposals

+ Check the question
+ Group vs individual
+ Imagine audience
+ Find key concepts, key terms and function words

3. CONDUCTING (kết cấu) RESEARCH FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

- We research for three main reasons
+ Find credible sources
+ More detail for specific ideas
+ Aspects of the topic or concepts
- Conducting research for essays
+ Beginning to research a topic
+ Understanding the question
+ Analyzing the key concepts and terms
+ Generating your own ideas
- Conducting research for reports & proposals
+ The purpose of the reports
+ The forms and styles of writing
+ Research data
+ Subject area and related areas

4. PLANNING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

 - Planning essays
+ Create a working thesis statement
+ The planning process
● Criteria and order
● Discuss how we integrate references
● Evidence into our overall argument
+ The basic structure
● An introduction
● A body
● A conclusion.
- Planning reports & proposals
+ The purpose of professional reports
+ The structure of reports
● Introduction
● The methodology and results sections
● The discussion and conclusion section

W4: Writing Effective & Concise Written Assignments

1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction to drafting, refining, and incorporating visual aids in written assignments
- Get started
- Flexible plan
- Focus on the ideas, the content, the message
- Plan your time management for submitting an assignment

2. DRAFTING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

- Drafting essay – soạn thảo luận văn
+ Introduction
● No more than about 10% of your overall essay
● A map
● A microcosm
● A marketing tool.
+ Body
● Paragraph: Topic sentences, Body, Linking Sentence. Types of
paragraph: Causal Analysis, Comparison/Contrast, Descriptive,
Generalisation, Narrative/Procedure
● Headings or subheadings
● Quotes
● Paraphrases and summaries
+ Conclusion
- Drafting reports & proposals – soạn thảo báo cáo và đề xuất
+ Create a tentative outline
+ Define your main points and find evidence and examples
 + Leave the introduction and conclusion to the end
- Coherence & cohesion for essays & reports – tính mạch lạc và gắn kết
+ Coherence is about whether or not your writing makes sense
● Answered all parts of the question and properly understood the
question
● How easy your writing is to understand at a sentence level
● Argument needs to develop logically
+ Cohesion refers to how the different parts of your writing, the words,
paragraphs, and sections that make up your writing work together to form a
unified text
- Look at the following list of sentences. Can you reorganize them into a proper
paragraph?
- Use as many of the ideas we discussed in the lectures to help as you need!
- Check out at least one other person’s re-write and comment on it. What is one thing
they did well?
- One thing could they improve?
- Rabbits have a major impact on plant biodiversity
- A single female rabbit with a single male rabbit can, in theory, give birth to between
twelve and one hundred and twenty babies every year.
- Rabbit burrows create erosion.
- Rabbits have been linked to the decline in hairy-nosed wombat populations
- Introduced rabbits have had a major destructive impact on many of the ecosystems in
New South Wales, Australia.
- Rabbits compete with native species for food.
- In many Australian ecosystems it takes less than one rabbit per hectare to prevent
plant regeneration (Cooke, McPhee & Hart, 2008).
- Female rabbits can begin reproducing at six months of age.
- Rabbits reduce the growth of native flora

3. POLISHING AND REFINING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS AND

INCORPORATING VISUAL AIDS
- Polishing & Refining Essays - Đánh bóng & Tinh chỉnh các bài tiểu luận
+ Essay argument structure
+ Paragraph argument structure
+ Essay titles
- Polishing & Refining Reports & Proposals
+ Check to improve your report
+ Reverse outline to check for structure
+ Check coherence & cohesion
+ Section titles: Short phrases, use keywords
+ Abstracts and executive summaries
- Incorporating visual aids in written assignments - Kết hợp các giáo cụ trực quan trong
các bài tập viết
+ Graphs
 + Tables
+ Diagrams
+ Illustrations
+ Bar chart
- Editing for Language
+ Informal language
+ Grammar, long and confusing sentences, irrelevant words or content, overly
complex language, and strong words
+ Each paragraph and sentence individually

4. FORMATTING & PROOFREADING WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS FOR

SUBMISSION
- Consistent formatting – định dạng nhất quán
- Accurate referencing – tham khảo chính xác
- Proofreading – hiệu đính

W5: Giving Persuasive & Engaging Presentations - Đưa ra những bài thuyết trình
thuyết phục và lôi cuốn

1. UNDERSTANDING & RESEARCHING PRESENTATIONS

- Introduction to academic presentations
+ The use of your voice: speak clearly and distinct, don't speak too fast, making eye
contact with the audience
+ PowerPoint slides
+ Don't just read out

2. PLANNING THE STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATIONS

- Understanding and Researching Presentations
+ Rhetorical situation
+ How to understand your context
+ Research your presentation
- Planning Presentations
+ Different structure
+ Introduction
+ Body: chronological order, narrative approach, comparing viewpoint, general
to specific
+ Conclusion
+ Story boards
+ Structure in presentation software

3. PREPARING VISUAL AIDS & SCRIPT WRITING

- Preparing visual aids
+ Common purposes
 ● Make complex ideas clearer and easier to understand
● Provide evidence for arguments
● Maintain audience interest
+ Form your visual aids
● The use of information graphics such as graphs, charts and tables
● Presentation software such as powerpoint, keynote, or prezi
● Handouts
+ Incorporate (kết hợp) written text in presentation slides
● Readability
● An absolute minimum
● Use of contrast
● Layout on the page
● The background
● Use of information and graphics
+ Writing your script
● Write a full script
● Work from notes
● Combine the two
- Practicing your script
+ Use proper intonation: emphasizing important content words and using a step
up, step-down intonation pattern to highlight structure
+ Ask your family or your friends and ask them to be your audience.
+ A piece of paper

4. PRESENTATIONS AS PERFORMANCE – DELIVERING YOUR MESSAGE

- Finding your presentation style
+ Polishing your presentation
● Before the presentation:
– Double-check the space where you'll be presenting and the
technology
● During the presentation:
– Tell your audience when they can ask questions
– Make sure you pause and breathe
– Check your audience understanding and engagement
– Make eye contact
– To be confident
● Finish the presentation
– You can relax and enjoy the other student talks
+ Facilitating audience interaction and fielding questions
● Engaging your audience: smiling, moving around the space, and using
your body gestures
● Get your audience engaged: begin your talk with a short quiz on your
topic
+ Question time
 ● Try not to be defensive or negative if the question contains some kind
of critique.
● Ask your audience to repeat questions or to pause before answering
● Throw the question back to your audience and ask for someone else’s
opinion
- Relaxation & Focusing Techniques