My Teaching Philosophy
I believe most people have, prior to any formal training, thought philosophically about some subject in their life. And so, rather than focusing on instilling the “right way” of philosophizing about something, the focus of my teaching is helping students explicitly recognize the philosophical methods that they already use in their daily lives. Regardless of the particular problem we are pondering, it is the set of conceptual resources and logical tools that we use to ponder it that remain constant across different areas of philosophical inquiry. I want my students to leave class with a solid understanding of how to use these tools.
I also want students in my classes to have two more concrete outcomes. First, I want them to leave being able to communicate with detail and precision why they think that something is the case. This involves:
a) stating clearly a particular idea or position,
b) explaining the reasons for believing said idea/position,
and c) evaluating the idea/position for themselves, presenting their point of view.
These are qualities we can observe in every great philosophical argument. And students get a chance to build these competencies in a philosophy course. Students need to leave college or university with the ability to explain themselves clearly to their peers, bosses, and subordinates. So I think that time in the classroom should be spent modeling this process of philosophical analysis. My teaching consistently aims to show students how they can develop and use these valuable communication skills.
Second, and just as important, I want students to leave my classes more aware of the different conceptual frameworks that inform people’s thinking. Good thinking requires resources. And it turns out that the resources people have available to use in their thinking are not at all equal. There are layers of privilege and discrimination in our society that shape the conceptual pathways a person can see. I like to draw student’s attention to the way that a particular author’s position in time, space, and society at large shapes the way that they think. I also like to make significant efforts in my classroom to create a space in which students understand how their own unique perspective gives them an opportunity to make a novel contribution.
Teaching Materials
I will upload teaching materials to this page such as course syllabi, assignments, and rubrics once they have been put to use in the classroom. Until such time anyone interested in viewing my teaching materials may contact me for access to my teaching portfolio.
You might be interested in my statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion in my teaching and research.
More to come in this section. Stay tuned!
Useful Links
Here are some links to different teaching resources that I find particularly useful.
- Jim Pryor, “Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper”
- Joel Feinberg, “Doing Philosophy: a Guide to the Writing of Philosophy Papers” (a more detailed resource on writing philosophy)
- James B. Freeman, “Argument Structure: Representation and Theory” (for those who want to get super nerdy about argument structure!)
- Routledge Student Survival Skills hub
- Purdue OWL (great resource for citation and bibliography help)
- UWO Weldon Library citation guides (more citation help)