Teaching Statement
Designed Around Students
In my courses I aim to help students strengthen their critical thinking skills and develop the ability to understand and articulate philosophical arguments. These skills benefit the students in their other classes, their daily lives, and their future careers. The majority of the students that I teach are not philosophy majors, and with that in mind, I seek to demonstrate the benefits of applying philosophical methods to other disciplines. Connecting the assigned material to the particular interests of my students encourages their engagement as well. For example, my Introduction to Ethics courses always include one week of material that is selected by the students. This strategy also keeps my courses from losing energy towards the end of the semester, as the students are invested in the topic they selected.
Engaged Discussion
I find that discussing the philosophical concepts with their peers increases the students' retention of information. Encouraging the students to grapple with the texts openly allows me to identify what material I may need to review or restate in order to make the concepts clearer. To this end, I aim to offer multiple outlets for students to discuss the readings. I have two core strategies that help facilitate the students' evaluation, appraisal, and extension of philosophical concepts. In smaller seminars, each student is expected to lead a 15-20 minute discussion on a single text during the semester. The student must facilitate discussion, answer questions about the text, and involve the other students in connecting the text to the larger themes and questions guiding our course module. I offer advice to the students on their questions in advance and make sure that my lecture fits well with their planned discussion. In larger classes, the students write weekly summaries of the assigned materials and ask questions which I can address in our next meeting.
Developing Skills
I design my assessments specifically to evaluate comprehension of the information covered, encourage the application of philosophical concepts to daily life and interdisciplinary questions, and to develop each student’s personal scholarship. For example, some of my Introduction to Ethics students have written papers applying ethical theories to problems presented in popular culture and media. Other class sections have written papers explaining the development of ethical theories and how they offer critiques against previous theories. Papers that I assign are typically broken into two stages of submission so that students can receive feedback on their writing and improve their organization and argumentation. No single class, even a writing composition or rhetoric class, is sufficient for teaching a student clear argumentation. However, if a student is encountering at least one class per semester that gives attention to improving those skills, I believe that students are better prepared for advanced work by the end of their college careers. I aim for my classes to help fulfill that role.
Inclusive Approach
I also see teaching as an opportunity to be a representative example for my students. At every stage of my education, I had professional role models to look up to. I saw intelligent women teaching classes, doing innovative and important research and advancing in their field. Though data from the last few years isn’t available, studies from 2003-2016 have reported that anywhere from 16% to 22% of philosophy faculty are women. In my courses I work to ensure that women from the field are being represented. The history of philosophy is more diverse than the canon often indicates. By teaching inclusive syllabi, I am implicitly teaching students that the field of philosophy is inclusive. I want my students to recognize that, regardless of their background, if they have something to add to philosophical discourse, their voice is welcome.