Teaching Statement

My best experiences as a student were during animated class discussions. I actually became a philosophy major immediately after a class discussion about John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of language. It was the only day Dr. Welty took our class discussion outside to enjoy the unusually clear blue sky. We tried to figure out how the word “blue” worked. What did it refer to? What was blueness?What role social context play? This interplay between the social, the world, and language now characterizes both my research and my teaching. I facilitate for my students the experience of collectively grappling with problems because it allows them to develop the patience and sense of responsibility required to become better critical thinkers and community members.

In these discussions, students hear new ideas and try out new arguments. They deliberately consider their beliefs in ways that shape those beliefs and their interactions with the world. I want my students to use my courses to help shape themselves into better people: people who are more thoughtful, more careful, and better able to communicate with others. I design my courses to enable students to: identify issues they care about, carefully evaluate these issues by charitably critiquing unfamiliar views, and effectively communicate with deliberate diction and organization in their arguments.

To achieve these goals, I adapt my methods depending on the course and day. For in person courses, students prepare with a short online discussion post with a summary of the reading and at least one question. We start class with a brief 20-minute lecture on the core argument from the text. Then, we discuss student questions that have arisen while in class or that I select from the discussion board. Usually, I give students several minutes to write down their thoughts, then they share with a partner or group, and then we discuss as a class. This builds in several opportunities for students to engage with the material in different ways that work for them.

I emphasize that crafting useful questions is a skill they can develop. What questions are useful depends on their interests and projects. I reinforce this by tailoring exam questions to our class discussions. This demonstrates that student interests are valuable and worthy of critical engagement. Students can also see how their earlier work prepares them for later more demanding assignments.

My writing assignments also have this scaffolded structure from low stake brainstorm and reflection assignments to higher stake drafts of arguments. Currently, all my courses fulfill a campus writing requirement which involves explicit writing instruction, detailed instructor feedback, and revision. I focus on helping students develop their capacity to be deliberate about their writing. To do that, the papers I assign are short, just four pages at the longest, but dense. I ask students to cover a lot of material in a small amount of space. This makes the document more manageable and pushes students to make decisions about what information to include and how to convey it. Then in my feedback, their peer review, and revising process, I emphasize their writing choices and what effects those have for the reader.

Being deliberate about one’s writing complements a general theme in my courses being deliberate about what we believe and what we do. I present philosophy as a useful tool for critically examining ourselves and our relations to the world. This examination requires patience. When grappling with difficult material, we need to give enough time to the text, to each other, and to ourselves. This patience provides the setting needed for students to risk articulating new arguments in class and in their writing. The risk of expressing unfinished ideas is mitigated by assurances that your audience will give you time to explain.

I identified patience as central to my approach to teaching after many of my student evaluations included descriptions of me as especially “patient.” I am still trying to find more effective ways to get students to generate more of their own questions and for students to respond more directly to each other than direct their comments only to me. I am still seeking ways to make my classroom discussions as bubbling with possibility as they seemed when I was the student. When I design a course, I too must be deliberate about my choices and the effects they have for my audience. This is one way teaching is not just an opportunity for students to collectively shape themselves but is also an opportunity for me to practice the very skills I am imparting to them.