Seminars & Workshops on Teaching and Learning in Philosophy
One of the AAPT’s initiatives is to foster excellence in the teaching of philosophy by offering faculty development workshops and seminars on focused on teaching and learning in philosophy.
One-Day Workshops
Modeled on our Summer Seminar described below, the AAPT is now running one-day workshops on teaching and learning. Past workshops have been held at the Pacific APA, Carnegie Mellon University, San Francisco State University, California State University at Long Beach, Loyola University in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Western Ontario.
Like the summer seminar, participants will read some of the best literature regarding how learning happens, how to design maximally effective courses, and how to improve classroom practice. The goal is not only to provide tips, although we will provide some along the way. Rather, the seminar is designed to enhance participants’ ability to make effective pedagogical choices. The interactive sessions provide opportunities for participants to reflect with colleagues on how to individualize evidence-based best teaching practices to one’s own idiosyncratic teaching contexts. Participants will learn how to identify and select challenging and transformative learning objectives and how to design and assess sequences of learning activities to make the achievement of those goals highly likely. The friendships and collegial relationships begun here can last a lifetime.
Comments from Past Participants:
“The seminar shifted and honed the way I think about and practice teaching in substantial ways”
“Inspiring, fascinating, and incredibly helpful”
“A must for anyone who cares about students”
“An intensive boot-camp for learner-centered education”
“Not at all like the typical (mostly useless) ‘teaching orientation’ that most graduate students get”
“A surreal experience in which one is surrounded by many philosophers who place teaching before research”
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If you are interested in hosting a workshop,
please contact Kimberly Van Orman,
chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee, at
teaching-learning@philosophyteachers.org
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Seminar on Teaching and Learning in Philosophy
An Overview
Every other summer (even years) the American Association of Philosophy Teachers [AAPT] partners with the American Philosophical Association to offer an intensive faculty development seminar focused on teaching and learning. The seminar runs concurrently with the AAPT national conference. Seminar participants receive a small travel stipend and conference registration is waived to allow participants to attend many conference events. Applications are accepted from current graduate students and new faculty whose PhD was conferred within two years of the seminar.
The seminar helps participants improve their skills as learning-centered teachers. Participants study how to identify and select challenging and transformative learning objectives. By understanding the principles of integrated course design, participants appreciate how to best guide students to the successful achievement of these goals. Further, participants develop educative assessment strategies that allow them to measure success, continue to innovate, and create even deeper learning.
Prior to arriving for the four-day (3 hours/day) face-to-face meetings of the seminar, each participant reads and blogs about numerous assigned readings.
What past participants have said:
“I wish I could do it again. I would describe the experience as empowering, enlightening, and valuable. “
“This was the best seminar/conference I have been to.”
“The topics covered and the discussion with others (inside and outside the seminar classroom) will really change your approach to teaching as well as to life. “
The seminar is …
“a must for anyone who cares about his students.”
“a transformative experience that changed the way that I think about teaching and made me much more confident as a teacher.”
“totally inspiring, fascinating, and incredibly helpful. It was AWESOME.”
A call for applications is typically distributed in January or February of even number years.
