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Effect of Adult Education on Adults’ Ability to Recognize Logical Fallacies

Abstract

Adult education plays an important role in developing adults’ ability to examine information, arguments, and reasoning encountered in everyday life. Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that can make an argument appear convincing even when its reasoning is weak or inappropriate. Adults encounter potentially flawed arguments in conversations, advertisements, workplace communication, public discussions, news reports, and digital platforms. This study therefore seeks to examine the effect of adult education on adults’ ability to recognize logical fallacies. Adult education can provide learners with knowledge of common forms of faulty reasoning and the characteristics that distinguish them from logically sound arguments. Learning activities may involve examining examples of arguments, identifying unsupported reasoning, comparing different forms of argumentation, and discussing how misleading reasoning can influence judgments. Practical exercises, guided discussions, and everyday examples can help adults develop greater familiarity with logical fallacies and improve their analytical skills. Adults’ ability to recognize logical fallacies refers to their capacity to identify errors or weaknesses in the reasoning used to support an argument or conclusion. This requires adults to examine the relationship between claims, evidence, and conclusions rather than accepting an argument simply because it appears persuasive. Adult education is expected to strengthen this ability by developing learners’ critical thinking, logical reasoning, analytical reading, and argument-evaluation skills. The study will adopt a suitable quantitative research design. The population will comprise selected adult learners, from whom a representative sample will be drawn. Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire and a logical-fallacy recognition assessment containing realistic arguments for participants to examine. The data obtained will be analysed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to determine the effect of adult education on adults’ ability to recognize logical fallacies. The study is expected to establish that adults exposed to relevant adult education demonstrate improved ability to recognize logical fallacies compared with those with limited exposure to such education. Participants are also expected to demonstrate greater ability to identify weaknesses in reasoning, distinguish sound arguments from flawed ones, and examine claims more critically before accepting their conclusions. The findings are expected to have implications for adult education by emphasizing the importance of practical reasoning and argument-evaluation activities in adult learning programmes. Educators can use everyday conversations, advertisements, public statements, workplace situations, and media examples to help learners identify different forms of faulty reasoning. The study will be beneficial to adult learners, educators, community facilitators, workplace learners, and individuals who need to evaluate arguments and information carefully. The study recommends that adult education programmes should incorporate practical activities that expose learners to common logical fallacies and enable them to identify weaknesses in everyday arguments. Educators should use realistic examples, guided analysis, discussions, and classification exercises to strengthen learners’ reasoning skills. It is concluded that adult education can improve adults’ ability to recognize logical fallacies and contribute to more careful evaluation of arguments and information.

Keywords: Adult education, logical fallacies, fallacy recognition, adult learners, critical thinking, logical reasoning, argument evaluation, analytical skills, reasoning skills, critical reading, argument analysis, information evaluation, faulty reasoning, critical judgment, analytical thinking