Category: Teaching
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Intellectually Safe Space
What is an “intellectually safe space”? In “What Does Intellectual Safety Really Mean?” Katelyn Hallman (North Florida) notes: An intellectually safe environment, as typically construed,…
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The Lecture Strikes Back
Lecturing as a teaching style is not particularly trendy these days, but perhaps it is particularly well-suited for the humanities. Writing in the New York…
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When Non-Philosophers Teach “Critical Thinking”
“Critical thinking” means a very particular sort of thing to philosophers (mostly identifying, reconstructing, and evaluating arguments), but in the desperate struggle to stay relevant,…
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Why You Should Teach Online Courses
“The more you hate the idea of teaching online, the more that online education needs you.” That’s historian Joseph Rees (Colorado State – Pueblo),…
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Warning: This Post Is About Trigger Warnings
Kate Manne (Cornell) has an opinion piece in today’s New York Times about professors’ use of “trigger warnings,” by which she means “notice in their syllabuses, or before…
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The Unsung Hero of Your Undergraduate Philosophy Education
There are some philosophers we hear a lot about—not just those in the canon, but also the “superstars” of today. These philosophers can often…
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A Case for Philosophy in High Schools (updated)
Back in 1982, Frank Breslin, a New Jersey high school teacher, wrote an article arguing that philosophy should be taught in high school. Huffington Post…
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Substantive Philosophical Mistakes In Public Discourse
Public debate is rife with poor reasoning, with certain confused or erroneous claims popping up again and again to affect opinions and policies. Some…
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Last Minute Course Prep Exchange
The fall term has begun at several schools and is about to begin at others, and for at least some professors that means putting the finishing touches on…
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Philosophy of Sex and Gender Course Suggestions
Jessica Wolfendale (West Virginia) writes in: I am putting together a course proposal for an introductory Philosophy of Sex & Gender course, and I…
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Philosophical Education and Constructive Imagination
As we’ve discussed before, most of our students are not heading off to become philosophers. Increasingly, students already have jobs and are saddled with time-consuming…
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Student Plagiarism in Philosophy Classes
Do you use Turnitin or SafeAssign in your courses to help deter and catch plagiarism? It turns out such software is not very good,…
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The Research about Student Evaluations of Teachers
We’ve discussed student evaluations of teachers here before, focusing on the various problems associated with them. Yet the picture may be more complicated. Elizabeth…
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Philosophy Syllabi Study Needs Volunteers
Jennifer Saul (Sheffield) says: “Procrastinate and help women in philosophy!” She elaborates: Have you been meaning to get around to making your undergraduate syllabus…
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Israel Proposes Philosophy for Elementary Students
The Education Ministry of Israel has proposed to add philosophy to the country’s elementary school curriculum. The proposal would have students “be taught the…
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Survey on the Value of Philosophy
Andrew Mills (Otterbein) is conducting a survey about what philosophers think is distinctively valuable about philosophy. I’ve reproduced his note about it, below, and I encourage…
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Audio of Rawls Lectures Released
The audio of lectures given by John Rawls to students in his course “Philosophy 171: Modern Political Philosophy” are being made available on YouTube by…
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“Learning to Think” — A Virtue Approach
“If earnings are not a good measure of educational value, then what is? Colleges can’t get away with smug silence on that question any…
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Diversity Reading List for Philosophy
A new website sponsored by the School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at the University of Leeds offers philosophers a way to…
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Training Graduate Students in Academic Writing
The kind of research and writing experience received up until the moment of [PhD] candidacy does not train students to a writing practice where…