By: Megan Prats 9/30/2015

Adam Smith begins his Wealth of Nations by citing the difference between the “savage societies” and “civilized societies”. He states because of the diversification of labor, even the poorest in “civilized societies” are economically better off than those in the “savage” ones. In short, because the diversification of labor allows one to benefit from the expertise and knowledge of another instead of dedicating herself to the same endeavor, the outcome is much more efficient which allows the individual much more economic growth than living without the collaborative ideas of society. Since the efficient benefits of diversification of labor are widely evidenced, it is safe to say that the student should use this same principle in her problem-solving.

If someone else has solved the problem, why should the student reinvent the wheel to do the same? Shouldn’t the student just utilize the knowledge that one labored to obtain and build upon that knowledge to solve her problem? The answer is . . . it depends. First, such basic questions as, “What is two plus two?”, have been solved in the past but the student should solve these problems for herself because if she doesn’t, she won’t develop her critical thinking skills to solve similar problems in the future. However, diversification of labor is a great asset when the student is solving more multi-step problems where one of the steps would involve a labor-intensive endeavor to reach the answer. That way the student can quickly find the answer to one of the steps so that she doesn’t lose focus of the entire problem, and move on.

Now the student should always proceed with caution when relying on the conclusion of another because there is always room for error. Thus, if the student is going to piggy-back off of another’s decision, the student should verify the source and the strength of the other’s argument before deciphering if it is strong enough to include in her problem-solving.

Diversification of labor is a good thing in critical thinking development because the student must rely on others’ conclusions in order to answer more recent and complex questions. However, if diversification of labor is used so that the student is not developing those rudimentary critical thinking skills that will allow her to solve similar problems in the future, then the student is abusing the purpose of diversification of labor in critical thinking development and thus shouldn’t be allowed to use it. So just like with almost all tools of critical thinking, there are pros and cons and you and the student must weigh those pros and cons to determine if it is in the student’s best interest to utilize one of the tools.

© Megan Prats 2015