week 8 - Evaluating Sources of Evidence

Week 8

Evaluating Sources of Evidence

This week I had learnt about how to evaluate the sources of evidence. I feel it is slightly about history where I learnt during high school time. There are two types of source, primary and secondary source. Primary source means materials originate from the time and place of the events being investigated. But secondary source means written or produced about the events like books, articles, interviews and much more.

In the process of searching for evidence, there are a lot of tips to be followed. I can search for evidence using the reference. I also can ask some questions in searching for evidence. Authenticity is evidence which I cannot dispute because it is proved by the person claimed. Valid evidence is agreed requirements and evidence is invalid if it is not authentic. Next we move to currency and reliability. Currency means it is still relevant in the present. Reliability means if evidence is reliable which it can be trusted.

In addition, relevant evidence gives a good understanding of the issues. Next we had studied about sampling. Before this, I had heard this word in probability subject. Sampling is individual members of a population are different from each other (heterogeneous) where in representative samples all members of a population are identical (homogenous).

Furthermore, I had learnt about certainty and probability. An argument cannot be proved fully based on certainty and probability means deciding whether the evidence is credible and authentic and if so the conclusion is follow from the line of reasoning and its supporting evidence. Generalization takes place when we conclude that a claim is true about a group based on what we find out about some part of the group.  I can say generalization is good when the sample size is big enough, the sample is representative, studied well, margin of error and confidence level, variation in population, risk and analogies and generalization.

As I say generalization is good when margin of error and confidence level. This is when the margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey’s result.so, the larger the margin of error, the less the confidence level. Variation in the population is when the variances are larger; a generalisation result will become less reliable. Besides, when we talk about risk, the higher the risk, the more sample size and frequency are needed before someone can start generalising. Lastly, analogies and generalization is beginning with a sample, identify the property of the members of that sample and conclude that the property is also shared by one or more items outside the sample.

In this chapter, I also learn about triangulation. Triangulation is two different sets of evidence against each other to see whether they support or complement each other or they contradict each other. Shortly, we use it to identify whether something is true.

The insights I gained from this week is very useful to me because it helps me to improve my knowledge on how to evaluate sources of evidence as a qualified critical thinker.  I give 3 rate for the question I find it easy to separate the key points from other material. Here, I noticed that my rating is improved from 2 to 3. My rating increase to 4 for this question; I find it easy to evaluate the evidence to support a point of view. For the question, I usually pay attention to small details, I give rate 4. Lastly, my rating is increase from 0 to 3 for I find it easy to weigh up different points of view fairly. So, here I will put more effort to increase my rating for each critical reflection.