Reflections on Teaching

Learning and teaching is an interactive process. I have taught different groups of students and students from different backgrounds and it does not take long to realize that there is not one single and simple guide to successful teaching. Individual students learn differently and I believe that awareness of this fact is an integral part for teaching success. Moreover, teaching is not solely done by the so-called “teacher” in the classroom: Students become their own teachers when they engage with the course material inside and outside the classroom and students learn much from each other as well as I as a teacher learn from my students. Teaching involves learning and learning involves teaching.

My role as a teacher

Although learning and teaching is an interactive process, learning often does not happen automatically. I want my students to fully realize their potential and I see my role as a teacher to design course material and tasks that challenge students intellectually, stimulate their own critical thinking, and enable them to practise the skills that help them to learn how to do philosophy well. I invite and encourage my students to engage with the course material and to participate in the class discussions and group activities. I believe that learning improves in a good learning environment and I aim to create an atmosphere in the classroom where all students feel comfortable to participate. I want my teaching to be informed by recent developments in pedagogy and I worked closely with with the Institute for Teaching, Learning and Academic Leadership at the University at Albany and redesigned my course on the History of Modern Philosophy as a Team-Based Learning course.

Classroom activities and effective task design

I have learned to appreciate that successful teaching depends on effective task design. I teach diverse groups of students and I want all my students to engage with the course material and to learn from each other’s different perspectives. I often use the 4S task design model. 4S tasks have the following features:

· All students think about the same problem.

· The problem has to be significant in the context of the course.

· All students have to make a specific choice, either individually or in teams.

· All students have simultaneously report their individual or team answers.

The tasks could be multiple choice questions, questions with yes/no answer options, matching tasks, ranking exercises, etc. In my experience 4S tasks are often more suitable than open ended questions, especially at introductory level, because they allow to focus the discussion on a set of important answer options. While students make their choice, they have to think critically about the reasons for preferring one option over others. I emphasise that it is important that they can support their choice by reasons and they thereby practise a very important philosophical skill. Several of my tasks are designed to get students to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a particular view or argument, and to think about objections and responses to a particular position.

My students regularly work in teams. During team activities my students become active learners and teachers: they have the opportunity to test out how well they have understood the material while they are explaining the views to their peers, and they start to rethink their own views when they recognize that their peers have reasons to argue for different positions than their own.

Depending on class size, topic, and level I have also included debates on topics such as the relation between mind and body or world poverty. In my history of modern philosophy class I asked my students to prepare role plays which help to bring historical debates to life. For instance, my students prepared a conversation between Descartes and Locke about skepticism near a fireplace (drawn on the blackboard) or a tonight show with Locke and Leibniz on innate ideas. In advanced classes I ask students to prepare presentations. In my experience such activities are valuable additions to the courses and they give students responsibility. In large classes I work with clickers, or other immediate response systems, and design quiz questions that help to clarify relevant concepts immediately and get the students to think about the relevant readings and arguments. I aim to be flexible and to offer students sufficient time to discuss their own questions, whilst guaranteeing that the students are familiar with the key concepts and the core arguments.

Teaching and learning philosophical skills

I emphasize that we can learn the skills that help us to do philosophy well and regularly reserve time in introductory courses to highlight and practice philosophical skills. I have started to change the background of my slides when I want to draw attention to philosophical skills such as counterexamples, validity and soundness of arguments, fallacious types of arguments, the role of objections and replies. My students are asked to apply the skills to several new examples before we move on and throughout the semester I create opportunities to practice the relevant philosophical skills.

Writing assignments and feedback

Learning how to write a good paper in philosophy can take a long time and my writing assignments are designed to help students to improve their written work step by step. For example, in introductory courses I assign a short paper that my students can extend for their next assignment. Moreover, I offer students the opportunity to submit revised versions of their papers after they have received my feedback. I believe that feedback plays a fundamental role in the learning process. Good feedback goes beyond merely negative feedback by involving a constructive part. I want my students not only to understand the weaknesses of their work, but also to offer them positive suggestions of how they can improve their work. I offer detailed feedback on written work and encourage my students to discuss their plans or drafts and revisions with me during my office hours. In my experience students best internalize the principles for writing a good paper when they assess their own work and the work of their peers with my grading rubric and with specifically designed checklists and feedback sheets. For this reason I include peer feedback sessions in my introductory courses.

As a teacher I am happy to see how my students develop as critical thinkers and grow intellectually and personally over the semester.