Philosophy in Practice by Adam Morton

Second Edition - Adam Morton

Teacher's Guide - The Absoulte Basics

The book is meant to be usable with a variety of course formats - three in particular: (a) one or two weekly meetings of the whole course plus a weekly meeting of smaller sections (of say 10-20 students); (b) two or three weekly meetings of a medium-sized group (20-30 students); (c) two or three weekly meetings of a large class (50 or more) which is not broken up into smaller sections. Formats (b) and (c) are similar in that the same teaching strategies can be adapted to both. Format (a) is in many ways more problematic. I return to it below. The book is also meant to be usable both in a relatively conventional course in which individual students study on their own and in a "team learning" course in which many activities are performed by teams of students and in which the team as a whole is often the object of assessment. For an exposition of the team learning mentality try the website of the University of Oklahoma team learning project. In any case, students will perform many activities from the book in groups (sometimes larger groups are divided into smaller groups). If your class has more than 15 or so students then you will have to form groups for many activities. I would recommend forming the groups yourself, rather than letting students form groups with their friends or with those sitting near them, and I would recommend having the groups remain constant throughout the course rather than getting formed every time. It helps if each group has roughly the same variety of abilities and temperaments in it. If there is some obvious source of variation in your class - educational level, or humanities versus science background, for example - then you can try to make sure that each group has roughly the same number of students in each relevant category. To get a variety of philosophical temperaments in each group, you might wait until you have done the questionnaire in "the contract" (see the notes on it in the "class-planning guide"). Then you can make sure that each group has roughly the same number of people with above and below average "ridiculous/true" scores. (Get the score for an individual by giving her 1 point for each claim labeled "ridiculous," 2 for each "impossible," 3 for each "on the way to truth," and 4 for each "true.")

Most sections in each chapter are either primarily expositions of some philosophical point or material for activities which explain and rehearse that point. (There are a few with an even mixture of the two.) Sections which are expositions of an essential point are nearly always immediately followed by one or two activity sections directed at that point. In the "planning information" lists in the "class-planning guide" these are listed as e.g. "1.1 essential - read for class; 1.2 essential - work through - rehearses 1.1." Students should read the exposition section before the relevant class, and usually should look at the activity section you have chosen. They should bring the book to class. The class will then usually be shaped by the activity. You must plan how it will proceed in advance. You cannot just go into the class with the instructions for the activity in that section and expect it to take care of itself. You have to think what points you want to see made during the class and how you can make them emerge if the activity and the discussion it leads to do not do so immediately. Thinking in terms of the ideas you would like to see mentioned helps free you from the danger of pushing the class mechanically through the activity even though a discussion has begun which is proceeding in a profitable direction. If things are going well let them go on. So you have to have thought: what kinds of discussion on this topic can this activity prompt, and how they can be nudged along those directions. The comments on particular sections give ideas about this, but of course you have to think out what kinds of discussion you and your class can best have. So for each class have three or four target points or ideas, which you want to emerge during the class. Also have a plan for making them emerge. A good plan usually involves waiting to see if things go well without any prompting, plus a few prompts in case they are needed.

Another thing you must think out in advance is how the class is to be broken down into groups and subgroups. The detailed instructions for most activity sections are written with a larger class in mind, which is broken down into smaller groups (see above), which then re-form as a single class at some point. For a smaller class this is often not necessary, though some activities suggest dividing into groups of two or three at particular moments. Use the detailed description as a rough guide to what you will do with your class. Make a plan in advance, but then be prepared to throw it away as the class proceeds. Don't ruin a good class by insisting on sticking to the script. You may find that it takes longer to get through an activity than you expect. Don't rush: it will always take much longer to do it than to read the description of it. And it may require the students to read passages and examples, which, even if they have read the section in advance, may take them longer than you expect.

One frame that can work well is as follows. Prepare in advance several questions that you think they should be able to answer if they have understood the material. This is besides the plan you will have made for doing the activity with the class. At the beginning of the class write these on the board. Ask students, who should have read the relevant expositional section, to add any questions that they have. Then begin the activity, and let the discussion take its course, whether or not the activity is officially completed. Then go back to the list of questions. Some of them will not have been dealt with during the activity and discussion. So address them explicitly. (But you are doing this only after they have taken the initiative in framing the issues.)

This frame helps with a type (a) class structure, in which a larger class, normally used for a lecture, breaks down into smaller sections once a week. Avoid the temptation to try to frame the issues in the lecture and then to use the sections to discuss the lecture. The problem with this is that the students think of their role in the sections as discussing your lecture, rather than engaging with the philosophical issues themselves. This is especially likely if you are giving one or more sections yourself. It is better to reverse the order: use an activity to start a discussion in the class section and then to follow it up in the "lecture." You might write down in advance a number of points you wanted the students to be clear about, and a number of issues that you wanted raised, and ask them to read the relevant expositional and activity sections. Then the sections, the smaller groups, meet to rehearse the material, and then you meet with the section leaders to find out which points were not clear, which issues need more attention, and what problems and questions arose. These are then the material for your lecture. Since your lecture is a reaction to what the students have been doing in their groups, they should be able to react to it with more questions and comments.

Another advantage to this frame is that it addresses one of the biggest hesitations students will have about a course given in this manner. They want the instructor to instruct, and don't want to hear the opinions of fellow-students no better informed than themselves. To combat this you have to make it clear that you are in charge and that you have things to communicate to them, even though your way of doing this is to make them do some of the work. This is only one way of making sure this impression gets across - you must find your own way, but it is vital that you do so.

You may have two "lecture" meetings a week and one smaller section. Then the pattern can vary. But I'd suggest that the normal pattern be that a topic begins with work in the section followed by an interactive follow-up with the whole larger class followed by a class in which you answer questions, correct misapprehensions, and cover neglected points. You will have to set up the sections so that they feed into the follow-up. This will require coordination with the TA or colleague giving the sections. I strongly suggest that you have regular scheduled meetings at which you can find out exactly what went on in the smaller groups so that you can tune the larger meetings to them.

Evaluation. Students are used to getting marks for producing the right answers, so a subject where the concept of the right answer is problematic can be unsettling to them. They will want to know in advance how they are going to be evaluated, and they will appreciate feedback along the way as to how they are doing. My solution is to make the grade for the course depend on three components. The first component is obtained just by attending and doing any regular assignments. For example, each student might write out one page each week in reaction to a small part of a section covered that week. (Suggestion: have the pages handed in at the beginning of a class, so that students have to attend class to get that component of the grade, and have the grade not depend on any evaluation of the assignment but just on having done it. An attractive system is to have this mark be 10% of the final grade, which is automatically gained as long as 90% of the weekly assignments are submitted, but which drops to zero if more than 10% are missed without a really solid excuse.) The second component comes from tests given in class periods throughout the semester. These are easy, usually of a true/false format and easily graded, and gauge the student's basic grasp of concepts and terminology. In the class-planning guide I give tests for chapters 1 to 11. You may have to adapt these tests, depending on the material you actually cover and the rate at which you cover it, but once you see the tests you'll see how to expand or shorten them. The third component comes from an essay or term paper, which is described to the students as an opportunity for creative thinking and for formulating and defending their own positions. It would be reasonable to make the term paper count for 50% of the final mark. (You could also have a final exam and have a mix of something like: 10% weekly work, 30% for each of the tests, term paper, and final exam.) There are some suggestions about essay assignments elsewhere in this instructor's guide.

There is more material in the book than any course will cover, and indeed more in most chapters than most courses will cover. But you should encourage your students to read through the book beyond the required assignments. They may make some interesting connections.

When I talk to people who have had difficulty using this book, the reason usually seems to be one of three. They thought they didn't have to prepare their classes. Or they worked mechanically through the book, without planning what to cover in their particular course. Or they mixed lecturing and group-work in a way that stifled group activity. This teacher's guide should help you avoid all three.

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