online teaching
The Online-First Model: On Hosting an Awesome Online Academic Conference (guest post by Catharine St. Croix)
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing disruptions to the professional life of academics in many ways—for instance, by making in-person conferences and workshops highly inadvisable, if not practically impossible. What to do? In this guest post*, Catharaine (Cat) St.Croix, a philosopher at the University of Minnesota, provides some helpful guidance. (more…)
Moving Your In-Person Course Online
In attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, some schools are requiring faculty to convert their in-person courses to online courses in the middle of the term. What issues come up in this transition, and what are good ways to handle them? (more…)
Sandra Dwyer & Claire Katz Recognized for Excellence in Teaching
Sandra Dwyer, principal senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Georgia State University, and Claire Katz, Associate Dean of Faculties, the Murray and Celeste Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching in the Liberal Arts, and a Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, are the winners of the 2019 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching. (more…)..
A Collection of Stories for Teaching Ethics
Luc Bovens, professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has created a website that gathers together and organizes various “short stories in world literature by both classical and contemporary writers” that may be useful in teaching a range of questions in ethics and social and political philosophy. (more…)
Teaching Students How To Ask Philosophical Questions
“Question asking… is a skill all-too-often undervalued in philosophy pedagogy and philosophy pedagogy research”
What You Wish You Knew When You Started Teaching Philosophy
The fall term is almost upon us, so let’s talk teaching.
An Online Trove of Ethics Case Studies
The Media Ethics Initiative at the University of Texas, Austin “exists to promote and publicize research on the ethical choices involved in media use.” One of the ways it has done this is by creating a large, varied and free online collection of ethics case studies. (more…)
Harrell Wins 2018 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching
The 2018 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching, sponsored jointly by the American Philosophical Association (APA), the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT), and the Teaching Philosophy Association*, has been awarded to Maralee Harrell, Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. (more…)..
Empirical Support for a Method of Teaching Critical Thinking
A few years ago, a meta-analysis of studies about whether colleges do a good job of teaching critical thinking revealed “no differences in the critical-thinking skills of students in different majors.” (more…)
Teaching Gen Ed Students the Value of Philosophy (guest post by Andrew P. Mills)
Earlier this year, Andrew P. Mills , professor of philosophy and director of the Integrative Studies Program at Otterbein University, and president of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, conducted a survey about teaching non-philosophy majors and getting them to see the value of philosophy. (more…)
Online Philosophy Resources Weekly Update
Here’s the weekly report of what’s new at some useful online philosophy resources. (more…)
APA Awards Inaugural Excellence in Teaching Prize
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced that the winner of its inaugural Prize for Excellence in Teaching has been awarded to Stephen Bloch-Schulman, associate professor of philosophy at Elon College. (more…)
Custom Student Evaluations Of Teaching
Maybe, just maybe, if more of the comments on our student evaluations looked like the following, they’d be worth it: (more…)
How Will You Try To Improve Your Teaching?
Hello, fellow academics, it’s August 1st, the date that indicates the summer is, sadly, soon over. Amidst the scramble to meet deadlines and knock items off of that to-do list, it’s also time to make sure you’re prepared for your teaching. (more…)
New Online Philosophical Resource: The Deviant Philosopher
There’s a new online teaching resource for those interested in incorporating into their philosophy courses material from outside the Anglo-American philosophical mainstream. The Deviant Philosopher is based on the view that
we and our students benefit from thinking about diverse philosophical traditions and perspectives, and there are many non-canonical philosoph..
New Philosophy Teaching Prize from the APA, AAPT, and TPA
The American Philosophical Association (APA), the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT), and the Teaching Philosophy Association (TPA) have announced the creation of the Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching. (more…)
Teaching and the Philosophical Canon
“Perhaps all professional philosophers have wrestled with the problem of how to cover all the important things in the limited time of a single course.” But what are the important things? And who are the important figures?
In a post at the Blog of the APA, Peter Adamson (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), who produces the podcast History of Philosophy without any Ga..
Help With Philosophy Teaching
The editors of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association have begun a new series to help members of the profession with questions, challenges, and problems, about teaching philosophy. Jennifer Morton (CUNY) writes:
The Teaching Workshop is a new, regular feature on the Blog of the APA, run by the APA’s committee on the teaching of philosophy. Every other..
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), writing at Vitae. He is no fan of online courses, worried about their quality and effectiveness but notes that their increased prevalence is probably unstoppable. Here’s the context for the above quote:
I recently m..
Brilliant Combination of Teaching and Outreach (updated)
Mount Holyoke philosophy professor Thomas Wartenberg and College President Lynn Pasquerella co-teach a course called “Philosophy for Children.” An article at masslive.com describes it:
As part of the course, college students are teaching second graders at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence in Springfield to question their own assumptions, lis..
Douglas Portmore’s Six Commandments for Getting the Most Out of Graduate School
How can you get the most out of graduate school? Douglas Portmore, professor of philosophy at Arizona State University, has some advice for you. (more…)
Teacher, Bureaucrat, Cop (guest post)
“We can free ourselves up to pursue a wider range of educational goals when we see that fairness is not an absolute demand for all classroom life, but only one goal among many. And sometimes, we can trade away some degree of fairness in the pursuit of other goals.” (more…)
Sounding the Alarm: 2021-2022 COVID Risks at Unprotected Colleges and Universities (guest post)
Some faculty will be teaching this fall at schools in areas with low vaccination rates, whose administrators cannot or will not require vaccinations, mask-wearing, or social distancing. What, if anything, should faculty at such places, and possibly elsewhere, do? (more…)
Counting Participation in the Philosophy Classroom
Do you grade your students on their in-class participation? How do you do it? (more…)
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Links recently added to the Heap… (more…)
BU Philosophers Object To University’s Fall 2020 Plans
Two philosophy professors at Boston University (BU), Russell Powell and Daniel Star, have authored a statement objecting to their administration’s plans for how teaching during the Fall 2020 term will proceed, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)
Now May Be The Time To Transition to Tutorial Instruction (guest post)
The pandemic and the various disruptions it is causing to the operation of academic institutions has prompted people to reflect on the value and qualities of those institutions. This guest post*, by Preston Stovall, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic, is one example of this. (more…)
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Latest links from the Heap… (more…)