VII. References

1. Introduction

This paper concerns the use, that is, querying, filling in, and designing a database as a Mindtool to assist students in developing critical thinking skills. Also discussed will be accessing the finished database to test its usefulness as a resource. Since exercising their critical thinking as well as research skills begins here, students involved in the construction of the database should consider the end product as they design it [Ramondetta, 1993]. Finally the functionality of the database will be extended to another possible use as a critical thinking application, in this case an expert system.

Whether querying the database, filling in the information, or designing the database structure, certain thinking skills are exercised. Students evaluate, analyze, and connect the information. They elaborate, synthesize, and use their imaginations. And, especially in the actual construction phase, they design, solve problems, and make decisions [Jonassen, 1996]. Critical thinking comprises mostly the first group, so evaluating, analyzing, and connecting will make up the major themes of this report, with specific examples and suggestions included to provide a practical approach.

2. Database Content

Before beginning the construction of the database, students determine the database’s content. The subject doesn’t much matter, but it should be something of interest to the students. As a group, they can brainstorm and decide what the database should be about and what information it should include [Anker, 1994]. Whatever the topic, it should be narrow enough to involve the students and keep them interested, not so broad and all-inclusive that the sheer weight of the task overwhelms and demoralizes them.

Databases can be created to cover general topics, but for the purpose of developing students’ critical thinking skills, I would have them be as specific as possible. It may be that the group is interested in the environment. They will then narrow the scope of their database, such as endangered species or toxic waste dumps. If the group is interested in the general and very broad topic of politics, they will narrow down the subject to something specific, such as electoral college votes and their influence on presidential elections [Ramondetta, 1993].

Also, since I am interested in teaching at the college level (besides not being certified to teach below that), I would ask my students to make sure the subject matter is sufficiently advanced to appeal to their peers. If doing a database on the fifty states, for example, they would be asked to go a little farther than just the name, year of admission, size, population, that kind of thing. Information as far ranging as bordering states, major sports teams, topography, region, average salary, etc., should be included, as in the figure below.

1. Querying the Database

Once the topic is decided, the students choose terms to describe each category of information. These are essentially the names of the fields in each record. One record contains the information for one state. My students will be asked to include at least a dozen fields in each record to describe the state. It’s quite possible that a good database can be created by just coming up with a list of terms. However, to facilitate this task, students first come up with some questions that they expect users will ask of their database. This is called querying.

1. Thinking Skills Used

Querying a database requires students to create questions that may be asked of their database. This exercises critical thinking skills such as assessing information, recognizing fallacies, recognizing assumptions, and inferring inductively and deductively [Jonassen, 1996]. By querying, students determine a way for their database to provide the answer to that question by searching or sorting. It’s helpful to imagine what these questions might be ahead of time rather than think of them after the database has been constructed. So students can brainstorm for a list of questions they’d like their database to answer.

2. Sample Questions

In a database dealing with states, for instance, some questions might be "In which states is agriculture the main industry?", "Which states have the largest population?" and "Which states border on an ocean?" So in constructing the database, students know they need this information: state population, types of agriculture, and bordering states or oceans [Ramondetta, 1993].

These queries should make sense, which is where the students need to put their evaluating, analyzing, and connecting thinking skills to use. They will need to recognize that "When did Rhode Island become a state?" and "What’s the state flower of Idaho?" are not good questions since they do not require sorting or searching beyond selecting the particular state mentioned. To introduce students to the concept of querying, I may direct them to query existing databases. They will then become more familiar with database structure and functions and can then extend this knowledge to approaching their own database [Jonassen, 1996].

As the students query to create their terms for the database, they may want to provide a list of these terms for their peers. Most students show no hesitation in trying out technology in the classroom and would probably enjoy a new database. However, it could be frustrating for someone accessing the database to be looking for relationships that simply are not there [Wakefield, 1994].

Once the questions are phrased and the information synthesized, the students can begin defining their fields and designing the database.

3. Functional Dependencies

When querying, students will begin to consider the relationships of the fields in the database. The fields must be functionally dependent on one another. There will be an intra-entity relationship—a relationship between one field and another in the same record, as well as to the parent [Ram, 1995]. Students should begin to understand this. While this concept is too advanced for this stage of the Mindtool, even if I don’t introduce my students to the term functional dependencies, I will still expect them to recognize that fields do not stand alone.

There are also inter-entity relationships. Each field is functionally dependent on its sister field in the other records in the database. For example, if creating a database about states, one field might be leaders. It is important that in the record for Virginia, the names of the leaders are similar in context to those in the leaders field for the state of Montana. If in one field you have the governmental leaders, in another the entertainment leaders, and in another the sports leaders, then these fields are not functionally dependent.

The possibility of inconsistent terms arose in an Interagency Taxonomy Information Systems (ITIS) project, which aims to put all the tens of thousands of known North American flora and fauna on the World Wide Web. Researchers discovered that to Southerners, a catfish is a freshwater fish, while in New England the term applies to a certain marine fish. ITIS decided to register a species under its various names, but when given a query the database will provide the most widely accepted scientific name [Holden, 1996].

One way to improve consistency is to base at least one query on each field. "Which state with a Republican governor has a Democrat legislature?" might be a useful question. This clues the students that the field must be governmental leaders, or at least has to be clearly labeled as such.

Identifying the information needed is one part of developing their thinking skills; the second part would be to locate and acquire that information [Anker, 1994].

2. Filling In the Database
1. Thinking Skills Used

These days it is probably easier than ever for students to find what they need, what with current technological developments such as CD-ROM indexes and online databases. These are available in many schools, given students a broader range of sources [Anker, 1994]. Whatever the source, be it old musty encyclopedias or slick new CDs, critical thinking skills will be needed, such as prioritizing, classifying, identifying main ideas, and comparing/contrasting [Jonassen, 1996].

2. Information Gathering

Gathering the information for the database will require that students divide up tasks. In our database of states, students can divide the states among each member of the group. Although no two students should have the same state, duplication might provide some insight into the sufficiency of the source material [Klemp, 1994].

Now that they know what to look for, where do they look? Interestingly, one of the best places to find information to put into their databases is other databases. Students have access to databases of periodicals, pamphlets, and government reports. These can help the students to sharpen their research skills and find source material from a variety of publications. A few of these databases are: 1) Primary Search and Middle Search, periodical databases from EBSCO Publishing, which includes full text and selected graphics from nearly 70 publications, as well as hundreds of pamphlets and abstracts, and 2) SIRS Discoverer, from SIRS, Inc., with a main database of 450 magazine and newspaper articles and government documents [Anonymous, Technology & Learning, 1996].

An electronic search may not always turn up answers. Students might find citations to articles and books that are not available in their own school or library. This could require a time-consuming interlibrary loan. It can also be frustrating with our "McDonald’s mentality of wanting material fast and immediately" [Anker, 1994]. As Anker points out, if the interlibrary loans are made simple, students can move on to the next level of thinking skills—processing the information.

Another source of information for their database is actual experimentation. In a project called GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment), students from kindergarten through 12th grade are being invited to measure local climatic factors, such as pH of rainfall, ozone levels, and surface water temperature, which will be submitted to a central database. The same kind of thing could be done on a local scale and used to create a small database.

Of course with any kind of empirical research, the issue of accuracy arises. One of the components of the database would thus need to be the source of the information and how it was gathered [Baker, 1994]. With the state database, students could also take the time to write to their assigned states’ tourism agencies for the most up-to-date information [Ramondetta, 1993].

Once the information is gathered, the students actually design and create the database.

3. Designing the Database Structure
1. Thinking Skills Used

Construction of the database may require the assistance of the instructor or a computer resource person. It also requires such critical thinking skills as determining criteria, recognizing patterns, identifying assumptions, logical thinking, and identifying causal relationships [Jonassen, 1996].

This database will consist of 50 records, one for each state, and as many fields per record as the students determined they would need (but at least twelve). In addition, Ramondetta [1993] has suggested including a field with the name of the student who provided the information for that state, mostly for the student’s sense of recognition. This also gives a contact should there be a question about the accuracy of the data.

In creating this database structure, students can either adapt an existing structure, such as the one from which they learned to query, or they can start from scratch [Jonassen, 1996]. The advantage of adapting an existing structure is that most of the design work has been done; however, it will be limited and may need to be modified before the applicable information can be input. I would ask my students to start from scratch, or at least heavily modify, for a couple of reasons. One, when users need to perform complex data retrieval tasks, the program operations need to be available for what they have in mind. Two, this requires students to exercise problem-solving skills [Mirel, 1994], which goes to the core purpose of this database.

Once the database is designed, my students will pore over all the information they’ve gathered, sort through it, reorganize it, and start inputting the data into the appropriate fields. This is the most tedious aspect of a database. However, this project may not necessarily be performed in linearly. It may be that while some students are gathering the information, others are designing the database, and then a few fast inputters sit to start typing in the data gathered so far.

3. Accessing the Database
1. Thinking Skills Used

Once the database is complete, students have the opportunity to use it, an analytic process that makes extensive use of logical thinking [Jonassen, 1996]. Now they can try out the queries that got them started and see if the end product achieved any or all of the expected goals. With many databases this is as simple as going to Find or Sort Records and typing in the search criteria. Even PC-File+, a very inexpensive database I use, has the ability to search for data in any or all fields.

To answer the question of which states border an ocean, the students would sort or search in the field termed BordersOn and enter the word "ocean." Presuming the data was input correctly, and some states have the words Pacific Ocean or Atlantic Ocean in this field, PC-File+ would find these states. Any good database will allow for a string search such as this.

2. Interpreting Data

Students can also examine and interpret the data returned to them from their database. This would entail creating more complex questions, which combine data, such as "Which states with populations over five million border an ocean?" or "What states in the Northwest have a baseball team?" [Ramondetta, 1993]. Critical thinking skills such as fallacy checking come into play here. A question such as "Which warmest midwestern state has the oldest average citizens?" might suggest that senior citizens move their for the climate. But this is not necessarily true.

3. Accuracy

Students can also address some of the concerns which will arise with any database, such as accuracy. But this is an issue in any teaching environment, regardless of form of instruction. If measurements are carefully designed and the teachers well trained, then the data will be useful [Baker, 1994].

4. The Database As An Expert System

Finally, if set up correctly our database can function as a modest expert system. An expert system is a computer-based system designed to facilitate decision making [Jonassen, 1996]. Although not an artificial intelligence system on the level of a knowledge base, and definitely limited in its parsing abilities, the database can still be used to help with decisions.

Say you wanted to relocate to a state where the average salary was $25,000 or more, where there was a professional football team, and where you could surf in the morning and mountain climb that afternoon. In our database (see figure), enter ">=25000" in the AvgSalary field. In the ProSports field, enter "football." In the Mountain and Ocean fields, both logical fields, enter a Y. The search will then return only those states that match.

However, we still might not find what we want. If, for instance, the ProSports field includes only names of professional teams, how is the database to determine if the team is a football, baseball, hockey, or basketball team? To simplify matters we could set up four logical fields called Baseball, Football, Hockey, and Basketball. The data in these fields would be simply Y or N. For a quicker search we could have a character field reading "Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey," but this doesn’t give much information. Or we could input the data as Football: Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, San Diego Chargers, Baseball: Los Angeles Dodgers, California Angels, etc. This requires a rather lengthy character field, and not a little amount of inputting.

All these possibilities point out, though, why querying is so crucial. How is a user to access and query the database if we haven’t set it up correctly?

5. Conclusion

In creating their database, my students have exercised many critical thinking skills. This should prepare them for more difficult Mindtools, such as spreadsheets, semantic networks, and expert systems. Beyond that, they have gathered thousands of bits of information which, by the nature of their synthesis, should be easier to remember than if learned by simple drill and practice, tutorials, and other computer-aided instruction methods.

References