PhilosoPedaWiki

Suggestions and advice on teaching Philosophy, compiled by members of the Philosophy department at the University of British Columbia.

History

During the 2009-2010 TA training program in Philosophy at UBC, a suggestion was made that we keep track of various tips, best practices, and resources in a place that any member of the Philosophy department (especially grad students) could edit. Christina Hendricks set up a Google Docs document, but this required that everyone keep track of the link so they could contribute to it when they had an idea. Christina set up this wiki page in May 2010. The problem with this approach is that contributors to the wiki page need to learn the basics of how to add content; or, they can add it without formatting and someone else can come in and format it. We will decide in 2010-2011 if either the Google Doc or the wiki page is the best approach (or whether something else would work better).

Suggestions for how to encourage students to engage in discussion

• "Talking Chips": give each student two chips (like poker chips) or cards, or other tokens, to be turned in to the discussion leader each time they talk. Each student must use both by the end of the class. (This one came out of our first T.A. training session in Fall 2009)

• Short writing assignments: Either at the beginning or at some point during the class meeting, write on the board a question for discussion, and ask each student to write something down to turn in. Then ask students to share what they've written (since everyone wrote something, no one has an excuse for having nothing to say). This can be used as a means of quizzing students to see if they've done the reading/kept up with the course, or just as a means of generating discussion. Having a chance to think/reflect on one's own before having to speak can help those who can't think of something to say right away. If you're using this as a kind of "quiz," pick up the papers after they've written them so no one writes theirs after the discussion has begun. Otherwise, you can just pick them up and read them through for the sake of learning more about what your students think, and for getting ideas for the next class (and for taking attendance!).

Suggestions for how to handle problematic situations

For times when some students dominate the discussion

• Discussion Cards: Give out cards with different colours or numbers on them. When a question is being discussed, you can at various times say something like: "Let's hear only from those with a yellow card," and then go onto the other group, etc. Then the over-talkative people have fewer chances to speak and others may be less likely to shy away than if they knew the talkative one would just take over.

Some helpful websites and blogs

Websites

• Teach Philosophy 101: A site that compiles various resources and suggestions for teaching philosophy. Started off a bit small, but growing.

Blogs

• In Socrates' Wake: A blog about teaching philosophy with numerous contributors.