I am excited to be editing the “Professor Reflection Series,” a new teaching-focused offering of The Blog of the APA. The series is based on the idea that, in thinking about the teaching we do, we are trying to solve some specific version of this general pedagogical problem: How can we best help our students learn what we are teaching them? We might be thinking about a particular day in our semester-long course, a particular unit, or the entire semester. We might confront this problem the very first time we are teaching some new topic, or reading, or course; we might confront it after a particularly rough experience when we become aware that our students are not learning what we want them to learn; we might confront it as we look to refresh a course we have been teaching more or less on autopilot for years; or we might become aware of the problem after we attend an amazing session at the next AAPT Workshop/Conference and are trying to figure out how to integrate a new idea into our next semester teaching. I imagine we will see all these situations, and more, from the authors in this series.
I have asked all the contributors to this series to do three major things in their posts: (a) articulate the particular pedagogical problem they are trying to solve, (b) outline their solution and then (c) reflect on that solution, offering their thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, what needs modifying, and what suggestions they might have for other philosophy teachers facing the same problem. Some of the contributors may have put their solution into practice, while others are using the blog post as an opportunity to get down on “paper” the ideas they plan to enact the next time they teach the course.
We will all read together the problems that our contributors address, but here are some examples of kinds of problems that I predict we will see discussed:
- How to diversify a syllabus
- How to help students meet a particular learning outcome that, up to now, they have been struggling to meet
- How to effectively use group work
- How to get more students engaged in class discussion
- How to include experiential learning in the syllabus
- How to integrate a new unit into an existing class
- How to move a course from online to in-person or from in-person to online
- How to generate excitement about philosophy from general education students and encourage them to take more philosophy courses.
I’m sure you see problems on this list that you have dealt with, and are dealing with, in your own teaching. And if you don’t, I hope you will contact me and submit a post of your own!
Before jumping into a discussion of their problem, solution, and assessment of the solution, however, I have asked each contributor to describe what L. Dee Fink calls the “situational factors” in which the teaching takes place. You can read more about these factors at the link above, but, in general these factors are the aspects of the course that are largely, if not entirely, out of an instructor’s control. Here are some examples:
- Where do we teach? What kind of institution? Who does it serve?
- Where does the class sit in the curriculum? (Is it required? An elective? Is it preparatory for some future class? Meeting specific university or departmental requirements?)
- What are the students like who take it? (Are they philosophy majors? What other majors are represented in the class? Are they graduate students? What year in school are they? What percentage of students are general education students? Are they part-time or full-time? Residential or commuter? Have the students had previous philosophy courses? How academically prepared are they? Are there relevant demographic features of the students that are important to bear in mind?)
- How often does it meet & for how many weeks?
- How free are we to adjust the curriculum? Are there other faculty or graduate students that we need to coordinate with as we are designing and teaching the class?
- Where are we in our career? What is our level of expertise with the material? How much time are we able to devote to this class?
It is worth pausing to note that it is important for all of us to reflect on these situational factors when we design a course. A course on the philosophy of race taught to general education students by a philosophical generalist teaching a 5-5 load at a community college will look very different from one taught to graduate students by an expert in the field with 3 Ph.D. advisees on the job market that semester and a book manuscript to finish. Not only will the courses look different, but the pedagogical problems that those two faculty face will be very different, and many of the solutions which are available to one will be unavailable to the other. Noting the situational factors will help those of us reading the posts understand the problem being addressed and, the more congruent our situations, the more likely we all will be able to learn from the authors.
And, in the end, that is the point of the series, in my view. To learn from each other and improve our teaching. Much (all of?) philosophy is just a series of problems, attempts at solving them, and the assessment of those attempts. Consequently, just as we read classic and contemporary philosophical essays in order to learn from, and engage with, the authors of those articles, so I hope we will learn from, and engage with, the professors whose reflections will soon grace the pages of this blog. And, as a result, that we will all become more reflective, engaged, effective, and student-centered teachers.
The Professor Reflection Series of the APA Blog is designed to center attention on how professors engage in teaching and learning. Professors are asked to reflect on how to improve teaching and learning in higher education. We would love for you to be a part of this project. Please contact Series Editor, Dr. Andrew Mills at andrewpmills@gmail.com or Editor of the Teaching Beat, Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall via sabrinamisirhiralall@
Andrew P. Mills
Andrew P. Mills is a Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Otterbein University, where he has taught since 1999. He has published work in the philosophy of language, on the pedagogy of philosophy, and on philosophical themes in Downton Abbey and Harry Potter. He is co-editor, with Alexandra Bradner and Steven M. Cahn, of Philosophers in the Classroom (Hackett). His essay, "What's So Good About a College Education?" has been used at colleges and universities across the country to introduce students to the value of a liberal arts education. He has served as president both of the Ohio Philosophical Association and of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers.
