Teaching

TEACHING OBJECTIVE

Providing students with philosophical skills for solving real-world problems

My overarching educational goal is to help students think more systematically and to question the foundations of their beliefs. Learning to read, analyze, interpret, and write philosophical texts will give them the skills they need to navigate practical problems in their work lives, as citizens in a diverse society, and as members of families and communities. I design courses that create a sense of communal exploration and discovery as students struggle to understand original texts and to develop their own ideas in response to the authors.

I am currently teaching two courses at Long Island University: Health Care Ethics and Philosophical Explorations.

1. HEALTH CARE ETHICS

Seminar for Students in the Health Care Professions

This is a new course that I have developed and taught over the past four years. Topics vary each semester in response to the interests of my students, who specialize in science or health-related fields such as Nursing, Respiratory Care, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Biology, and Psychology. Many of these students already have considerable experience with the health care system as parents (or grandparents), patients and practitioners or volunteers. Together we have explored cross-cultural definitions of health, mental illness, and disability, the threshold of moral personhood as it applies to people with dementia and other cognitive impairments, the ethics of with-holding information from patients, deprioritizing alcoholics for liver transplants, the ethics of single embryo selection, alternative treatments for children with ADHD, age-appropriate school programs for AIDS/HIV prevention, and the comparison between gender and mental retardation as disadvantaged categories, among other topics. Student presentations in class often provoke lively debate and discussion for up to 40 minutes. Students then expand and develop their presentations into written term papers using primary sources. Bibliographical research skills, peer review and small group discussions are key components of this advanced seminar.

2. PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLORATIONS

Two-Semester Introduction to Philosophy

This course is a core requirement for all sophomores at LIU, focusing on reading classic philosophical texts. By the end of this course, my students are competent in summarizing and paraphrasing complex arguments, identifying and challenging assumptions, generating their own objections and criticisms of the authors' views, and they are much more confident in their ability to express their views in writing and in front of a group.

TEACHING TECHNIQUES

Individual Interviews to Assess Needs

At the beginning of the semester I schedule individual interviews with students, in which we strategize how best to handle his or her academic courseload, work schedule, family responsibilities and any other factors affecting academic success. Whenever needed, I refer them to the excellent services provided by our campus Academic Reinforcement Center, Writing Center, Disability Services and Psychological Services. This initial personal contact enables me to learn students’ names within the first two weeks of class and lays the foundation for a relationship of trust and openness that flourishes as the semester progresses. I have found that spending just five minutes with each student one-on-one early in the semester is extremely effective in improving attendance, class participation, and students’ motivation to succeed in the demanding discipline of philosophical thinking.

Active Learning Strategies

My lectures provide guiding frameworks and clarify key concepts, chiefly relying on student participation so that students teach each other what they have learned from the material. My term papers are designed to allow students to develop their own topics if they have a particular interest arising from their experiences as patients or health care practitioners. Students review each other's rough drafts using my grading criteria, and receive points for revising their own drafts afterward.

Self-Identification as Listeners or Talkers

I ask students to identify themselves as primarily Listeners or Talkers, and divide them into small groups of three to five Listeners, or three to five Talkers. This allows the Listeners to contribute more to the group discussion while training the Talkers to listen more carefully to their peers. The small group discussions are essential to developing the students' confidence and competence in reading and analyzing the texts and case studies. After they have worked in these groups, I notice the Listeners becoming more active in participating and the Talkers taking more time to digest the ideas of others before responding.

Using Universal Design to Make Philosophy Accessible to All Students

The theory of multiple intelligences tells us that many students learn philosophical skills more effectively using visual or aural methods in addition to the more traditional written essays and exams. Drawing on my research in Disability Studies, I use the concept of Universal Design to structure all course requirements to accommodate a variety of learning approaches. For example, I assess students’ learning using oral quizzes as a complement to written exams. This allows students with learning disabilities to demonstrate their competence while other students continue to learn and reflect while listening. A second example is that many learners of English as a second language are more successful at asking questions during office hours than during fast-paced classroom discussions; allowing all students to earn credit for discussing the text during office hours has the added advantage of accommodating students with psychiatric disabilities such as depression or anxiety disorders. I continue to experiment with teaching methods that enhance all students’ potential for learning philosophy, regardless of their disability status or learning style. My goal is to maintain high academic standards while challenging all students to perform beyond their current level of achievement.