teaching

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“Am I the unethical one?” A Philosophy Professor & His Cheating Students

“All I did was go to a website that is designed to facilitate cheating and set up a kind of camera to see who visited it.” (more…)

Study Abroad Courses in Philosophy

Have you taught a “study abroad” or “destination” course in philosophy? Do you have any ideas for a good one? (more…)

The AI-Immune Assignment Challenge

AutomatED, a guide for professors about AI and related technology run by philosophy PhD Graham Clay (mentioned in the Heap of Links last month), is running a challenge to professors to submit assignments that they believe are immune to effective cheating by use of large language models. (more…)

Katz Among Finalists for Cherry Award

Claire Katz, professor of philosophy at Texas A & M University, is one of three finalists for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching from Baylor University, which includes generous prizes for the finalists, winner, and their home departments. (more…)

A Little Logic Each Day (Semantics, too)

“Learn formal logic in lessons of 200 words per day.” (more…)

What Do Experiments in Philosophy Teaching Look Like? (guest post)

“There is room to think creatively about how to improve learning and love of philosophy via innovation in pedagogy.” (more…)

Teaching Philosophy in a World with ChatGPT

“It will be difficult to make an entire class completely ChatGPT cheatproof. But we can at least make it harder for students to use it to cheat.” (I’m reposting this to encourage those teaching philosophy courses to share what they are doing differently this semester so as to teach effectively in a world in which their students have access to ChatGPT. It was origina..

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Social Philosophy Course

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a visiting professor at Morehouse College in the early 1960’s.* While there, he taught a senior seminar in social and political philosophy. What was on the syllabus? (more…)

AI, Teaching, and “Our Willingness to Give Bullshit a Pass”

There has been a fair amount of concern over the threats that ChatGPT and AI in general pose to teaching. But perhaps there’s an upside? (more…)

Oral Exams in Undergrad Courses?

Between the developments in large language models (like GPT-3) and their possible use by students, and being in the thick of end-of-term grading of papers, the idea of making use of oral exams, as suggested in a recent New York Times column, seems tempting. (more…)

Models of Philosophical Thought Experiments

A philosophy professor has launched a project to create 3D-printed models of philosophical thought experiments, along with other open-access materials “designed to teach learners of all ages about the problems of philosophy.” (more…)

Teaching Hume and His Racism

“Whenever someone claims that we should not mention Hume’s racism because he was a product of his time we should commit that argument ‘to the flames: for it contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.'” (more…)

Philosophical Dialogues: Beyond The Usual Suspects

About five years ago I posted about philosophical dialogues, but I recently received a question about them that wasn’t taken up in that post, or by those responding to it. (more…)

Agenda-Setting, Area-Defining, Influential Philosophy Textbooks

Philosophy textbooks—anthologies or introductory-level commentaries—can take on roles beyond the pedagogical purposes for which they’re put together. Through editorial and authorial choices of inclusion and exclusion such works can define or clarify fields of study, canonize specific works, identify a subdiscipline’s central problems, and, depending on uptake, s..

Conversation Starter: Teaching Philosophy in an Age of Large Language Models (guest post)

Over the past few years we have seen some startling progress from Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-3, and some of those paying attention to these developments, such as philosopher John Symons (University of Kansas), believe that they pose an imminent threat to teaching and learning (for those who missed its inclusion in the Heap of Links earlier this summer, yo..

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…)

The Philosophy Special (guest post)

“I suspect I’m not alone among philosophers in finding colloquia almost universally frustrating: the speakers are more interesting than the conventional talk allows them to be…” (more…)

Intergroup Dialogue in the Philosophy Classroom (guest post)

“Over 70% of our students… reported being more likely than before to listen to someone who held an opposing viewpoint…” (more…)

Seeking Feedback on “Good Practices Guide” – Part 2

This is the second of several posts soliciting comments on a draft “Good Practices Guide” for advancing diversity in philosophy. (more…)

Philosopher Wins State-Wide Teaching Award in Texas

Manuela Alejandra Gomez, professor of philosophy at El Paso Community College (EPCC), was named a 2022 Piper Professor, an honor bestowed by the government of Texas to recognize excellence in teaching. (more…)

Encouraging Participation in the Classroom

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” an advertising slogan for Las Vegas tourism, has been adopted by a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College as a motto for one of his courses, as a way of creating a “safe space” for students who might be worried about their comments in class getting taken out of context, or showing up on social media. (more…)..

Comparatively Lower Grades in Philosophy Courses: Facts, Explanation, Effects, Fixes?

Informal conversations with students and professors suggest that it is harder to get a higher grade in philosophy courses than in courses offered by many other departments. (more…)

SDSU Reassigns Philosophy Professor for Mentioning Racial Epithets in Courses on Racism, Critical Thinking

The administration of San Diego State University has stripped J. Angelo Corlett, professor of philosophy, of his critical thinking course and his course on race and racism this semester, following lessons in those courses in which he provided examples of racial epithets. (more…)

Philosophy Reading Group “Blueprints” & What’s Not Taught at University

Students and others may be interested in a philosophical topic, yet not have access to a course on it. One option is for them to form a reading group, but it’s not always easy to figure out what to read, in what order, what to pay attention to in the readings, what questions to discuss, and so on. Now there’s a new resource that provides “blueprints” for readings gr..