Problem Solving

Introduction

The problem of a parent providing more help than is necessary for a childs school work is one all parents face. The challenge in this particular scenario is that the parent wants the child to learn to be self-confident and capable on his own. However, he sees another parent at the store buying supplies and making plans to do the work his own child. Should the parent do the same? This paper analyzes the problem, suggests options, evaluates them, makes a decision about which option is best, how that option should be implemented and reflects upon the outcome.

Analysis

When engaging in critical thinking, it is important to identify the problem, gather information from various sources, decide which information is most relevant to the problem, and make a decision based on that data (Pithers & Soden, 2000). The first step is thus to identify the problem. In this scenario, the problem is that the father of the child does not know to what extent he should help his child. He sees another parent doing more than he himself planned to do and it gives him pause: should he be doing more? His initial plan had been to let the child do it on his own, but the child has missed some important aspects to the assignment. Thus, the parent is thinking about interveningbut to what extent he should do so is the question.

Options

Clearly there are three options available to the parent. Option 1 is do nothing and allow the child to learn on his own. Option 2 is intervene as a guide only and point out areas where the child needs to focus attention but beyond that do nothing. Option 3 is to intervene totally by not only guiding but also doing the project with the child so that the parent is certain it is done...

The best option is going to be the one that allows the person to achieve the goal most effectively (Larrick, Heath & Wu, 2009). The goal of the parent is to ensure that the child learns to do work on his own so that he can feel self-confident and grow in the ability to be a responsible student. The child is not going to learn responsibility or obtain self-confidence if he is not required to work on assignments by himself and be accountable for what he does and does not do on them. Awareness of this goal should necessarily exclude Option 3 from the discussion.

However, the parent is contemplating Option 3 because he sees another parent choosing it. But is this information relevant to the problem at hand? Not at all. The other parent may not have the same goal as the parent of the scenario; his actions have no bearing on this parents goal of raising a self-actualizing child. Even in the face of this additional information, the parent must reject Option 3the additional information is not relevant to the problem and has no bearing on the goal.

Thus, the two options that should be considered are Option 1 and Option 2. Option 1 is certainly in line with the goal of the parent, but it leaves something to be desired because it is completely hands-off and the parent can see that the child has not approached the assignment with sufficient attention to detail. Option 2 would allow the parent to point out these mistakes that the child has made. The question is which option would be better in helping the child to become self-actualizing, self-confident, accountable and responsible for his own work?

Option 1 would certainly put the ball in the childs court completely. But the child is not going to learn anything about…