Teaching Philosophy

Posted by Robert Sharp Oct 10, 2006

I have a dilemma. I have to teach a LOT of students sometimes, as in over 100 taking the same class. If I give them essays to test their philosophical knowledge, it would take me forever to grade them. On top of that, my mind would be so frazzled by the effort that I'm not sure I would be doing them justice. I mean how does one read the same argument 100 times, with slightly different wording, without going insane? On the other hand, I can give tests. Tests are faster to grade, but they are not as deep. In other words the student doesn't get as much out of them.

Welcome to modern education. The truth is that philosophy is best done as a dialog of sorts, where two people can exchange ideas. That notion can be extended to a group, as long as there is some way to maintain a give and take, a claim/response type of debate. Debate may be too strong, actually, since there is no need for a competition. Ideally, two philosophers are both seeking truth, not trying to prove their own points. But in any case, the give and take is the key. Without good response, the philosophical moment is lost, or at least diminished.

So, how to do that with a test? Some teachers use short answer, to limit the amount of grading while maintaining some semblance of free thought in the student. This helps, but is still a version of the essay, albeit a much shorter version--much tighter too. Another option is to use multiple choice, which is incredibly easy to grade; just run it through a computer. The trick here is to make the questions philosophically engaging. I think a useful tool here is to let students use their books. This forces the teacher to ask questions that can't be simply looked up. The student will have to think. Of course, this puts pressure on the teacher BEFORE the test, as such questions are harder to formulate. Still, students must be forced to think, even on a test, or philosophy classes devolve into the worst type of history classes, where one simply recites the claims made by past philosophers. It's worth noting that even history classes don't test simply on facts, at least not in college.

I wonder how they test their students....