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Department of Philosophy -- Arts & Sciences

The Department of Philosophy's Committee on Teaching has discussed the variety of ways in which its Department has been engaged in achieving and maintaining the highest pedagogical standards. In addition to those topics falling under the rubrics set out by the University's Self-Study Recommendations, it may also be pointed out that all faculty, including senior faculty, teach courses at all levels, including the 100-level. Courses at the 300-level are capped at a small enrollment. The Seminar for Majors permits advanced students intensive study in their areas of interest. Graduate students are invited to submit proposals for "160-level" courses which, if approved by the faculty after rigorous scrutiny, are taught independently to a group of no more than twenty students. Such courses are consistently sought out by undergraduate students and serve as an important credential when those who teach them look for academic jobs. Finally, the Department is only one of two in Arts and Sciences that maintain an Honors Program, in which outstanding undergraduate students study Philosophy under a tutorial system on the pattern of Oxbridge in preparation for oral and written examinations set by philosophers from other universities. Faculty at all levels conduct one-on-one tutorials with Honors students on a regular basis.

  1. EVALUATION OF TEACHING

    1. Student course evaluations

      2. The Departmental Teaching Committee has designed course evaluations specifically for Philosophy courses, with different forms for lectures and for recitation sections. Instructors also make use of the mid-term Teaching Analysis Poll offered by the Teaching Resource Center. At the end of each term numerical scores from course evaluations are calculated to give an overview of the instructor's performance in each course. In light of both sources of information instructors refine and improve their courses from year to year. This information is also used in the determination of raises, of future teaching assignments, and of graduate financial aid.

    2. Peer review and teaching portfolios

      3. n/a

  2. DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING

    3. With intensive consultation with senior faculty, Junior members of the Department have been actively engaged in the development of new courses related to their research: A 300-level course in the Philosophy of Language, a highly revamped 300-level course in Aesthetics, a 100-level course on Human Nature, as well as new graduate courses. The Introduction to Philosophy course has been revitalized and its enrollment has steadily increased since this has been done. Junior members have also spearheaded a new "core course" program for entering graduate students involving intensive writing and feedback on that written work.

  3. INCENTIVES FOR SUPERIOR TEACHING

    4. Members of the Philosophy Department were active in the creation of the Teaching Resource Center, have held University Teaching Fellowships, have taught University Seminars, have developed a new minor (in Bioethics) and have won the All University Teaching Award.

    Raises and teaching assignments are determined in part by instructors' performance in previous semesters, both in terms of information as gleaned in evaluation forms and on the basis of patterns of enrollment in their course.