Final answer:
Sharon is engaging in critical listening, not discriminative listening, as she evaluates her colleague's message for factuality. Critical listening helps to distinguish between fact and opinion and involves evaluating content with a critical eye.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that Sharon is engaging in discriminative listening is false. Discriminative listening involves distinguishing between different sounds and is often used to understand nuances in language such as tone or pitch, rather than evaluating content for factuality. What Sharon is actually engaging in is known as critical listening, which is a type of listening where the listener evaluates the message and decides whether it's fact, fiction, or opinion. This process is fundamental in developing critical thinking skills and is key for not only assessing what one hears but also for the groundwork in preparing a report or conducting research.
Being able to distinguish between fact and opinion is a crucial skill in critical listening. Facts are statements that can be verified and proven to be true or false. Opinions are expressions of personal beliefs or feelings and cannot be proven. Critical thinking questions are useful tools to probe further into a statement to see whether there is a factual basis or if it's coloured by personal bias or interpretation. Recognizing bias, whether in what we read or in ourselves, is fundamental to understanding the truthfulness of what is presented.