While syllabuses for undergraduate survey courses of the early Modern era have long been exclusively composed of European men, important strides have been taken to broaden these courses to include voices of historically underrepresented philosophers. In this essay, we assess reclamation strategies that aim to include voices of historically marginalized philosophers and present an alternative, which we call the Contemporary Connections Approach. Our connections approach can achieve the goals of more inclusive representation in early Modern syllabuses by putting the traditional and dominant voices of the era into conversation with philosophers continuing to build on the themes of that earlier time. We offer suggestions for implementing the approach, presenting some thematic units for an early Modern course along with a few contemporary sources that might be useful connections to the historical content by authors who are members of historically underrepresented identity groups.
Artmaking exercises can be a valuable addition to philosophy courses. They constitute particularly engaging active learning exercises able to motivate students to think about philosophy both inside and outside the classroom and affording students the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the philosophical issues at hand. In this essay, we introduce a distinction between two forms of artmaking exercises, provide examples for both types including tips and tricks for their implementation, and provide justification for using artmaking exercises in philosophy education.
In this paper I describe a series of activities—based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s On Certainty—that each teacher can adapt to his or her students’ age, characteristics and interests in order to facilitate that they familiarize themselves with philosophy in a recreational and practical way. First, I will show how students might end up regarding error not only as necessary, but also as desirable. Second, I will suggest how students could determine which certainties they harbour with regard to diverse issues. Third, I will show how students can realize that we cannot doubt at will about whatever we want to put into question. Fourth, I will explain how students can assimilate that certainties can be neither acquired nor lost at will. Last, I will clarify how advertising spots can be of great help for students to learn to detect and confront the attempts to modify their certainties.
This paper examines the restructuring of a political theory course using Bloom’s Taxonomy and knowledge surveys to balance Socratic dialogue with a clearer, more intentional course structure. To address student feedback for increased organization, the course was redesigned to incorporate structured learning objectives, scaffolded assessments, and metacognitive practices. Through reverse engineering, each lesson was aligned with Bloom’s cognitive levels, supporting students’ progression from foundational knowledge to complex analysis and synthesis. Knowledge surveys and low-stakes quizzes offered students a framework for self-assessment, while essays increased in complexity, challenging students to apply theoretical concepts to contemporary issues. This redesign appeared to support students’ development of critical thinking, self-awareness, and engagement, based on course observations and student reflections. This approach offers a practical model for other educators seeking to combine structured learning outcomes with the flexibility of the Socratic method, promoting both academic growth and autonomous learning.
This study explores pedagogical practices in higher education philosophy classrooms, focusing on the diverse strategies employed by an experienced philosophy lecturer in Argentina to make abstract philosophical concepts accessible and memorable. Situated within the framework of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, the study reveals how methods such as metaphors, analogies, embodiment, and sensory engagement were used to foster students’ understanding and retention of complex ideas. By examining the lecturer’s holistic approach—one that integrates cognitive, sensorial, linguistic, emotional, and physical dimensions—this research addresses gaps in the literature, particularly the underexplored role of teacher embodiment and presence in philosophy education. Conducted in a context of limited resources and social challenges, this study provides insights into adaptive, multimodal strategies that could enhance teaching efficacy in other disciplines grappling with abstract content. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of philosophy education, showing how dynamic, multimodal, and engaging techniques can make complex ideas relatable and deeply meaningful for students.
The development of “critical thinking” is often cited by faculty, students, employers, and administrators as one of the most valuable outcomes of courses in the humanities. However, teaching and assessing these skills is challenging, particularly in large courses, due to the complexity of traditional systems of formal and informal reasoning and the extensive practice required, which is time-intensive to assess. In spring 2021, the instructional faculty of a large lecture course at the University of Notre Dame adopted ThinkerAnalytix, a web-based platform that teaches critical thinking through a mastery-based “argument mapping” course. This intervention aimed to increase the course’s intellectual rigor and improve students’ critical thinking skills. The platform resulted in significant improvements, with average critical thinking pre- and post-test growth of 16% and 12% across two sections. However, its introduction initially caused a notable drop in student satisfaction and did not affect their self-perceived growth. Over the next three semesters, instructors implemented strategies to integrate ThinkerAnalytix more effectively into the course. These efforts successfully maintained gains in critical thinking while mitigating negative perceptions, offering a replicable model for improving critical thinking instruction in large philosophy courses, with potential applications across disciplines.
In this paper, I address a tension that arises from two distinct learner-centered teaching strategies. To provide learner-centered instruction, we are told to invest students in the learning process through providing choices that allow them to exercise their autonomy, and, at the same time, to provide supportive and concrete transparency through narrow, scaffolded assessments. Unfortunately, the very assessment principles that allow us to give clear and transparent standards make it more difficult to allow students freedom over how they meet those standards. I argue here that while there are some strategies to mitigate the practical concerns, the clash between values that this tension reveals can only be addressed by identifying what choices are autonomy-supporting, rather than autonomy-undermining. With a framework in place, I provide examples of strategies that give students both the freedom and the supportive structure they need to learn with appropriate autonomy.
Although the podcast has become a major content medium in popular culture, few philosophers have incorporated it as an assignment in the classroom and even fewer have discussed it in the pedagogical literature. We aim to address this lacuna. Drawing on our own experience, we describe the basic design of the podcast assignment, discuss some of its advantages compared to other assignments (especially the traditional essay), and consider how the basic design of the assignment can be adapted to fit the specific needs of your course.
Despite recent research on the benefits of using games in the university classroom, few undergraduate philosophy of science courses use them. In this paper, I discuss my use of the game Mastermind in undergraduate philosophy of science courses to encourage other philosophy instructors to embrace games as an educational tool. I show how Mastermind 1) helps my students develop skills in scientific reasoning, 2) serves as an accessible reference point for material we cover later in the semester, and 3) provokes deeper thinking about topics my class later engages. I end by briefly suggesting ways that this work might be extended to other games in other philosophy classes as well as some potential costs of using games in philosophy classes that instructors should consider before deploying them.
In this paper, we propose incorporating virtual reality-presented thought experiments (VRTEs) to enhance the quality of undergraduate courses on classic works in applied ethics. Thought experiments are a key method in applied ethics for eliciting intuitions as evidence for or against theories. However, our interviews and surveys show that undergraduates often struggle with imagination deficiencies, add undescribed details, apply pre-endorsed theories, lack seriousness, and show disinterest when reading written thought experiments, hindering their engagement and critical thinking. We argue that VRTEs may mitigate these challenges by providing concrete visualisations, immersive experiences, embodiment, interactivity, and controlled reaction times. Feedback from our pilot practice indicates that VRTEs have the potential to mitigate these challenges. To enhance the benefits, we recommend allowing sufficient time for the development of VRTEs and alternating between traditional paper-based teaching and VRTE sessions. We also address potential objections to our teaching approach.
