In the comments section of our "how can we help you?" thread, Anon writes:
I have a question about a specific course I am teaching this semester and would really like some feedback and advice. I have been assigned to teach Modern Philosophy, which is fine, but it got scheduled as a night class, which really throws me off. I REALLY prefer the MWF routine and this really takes me out of my comfort zone.
Second, I face a challenge in that a course like modern philosophy is a course I largely assume will be inhabited by philosophy majors, which it is to an extent, but because there are no prerequisites enforced, I have students who are taking a 300 level modern course as their first one. In some ways, I think this is unfair to me as the instructor and to the students.
So I guess I am asking two things:
1. How do you make a class like modern accessible that just due to the very nature of the content, will seem inaccessible to students have who never taken a class and then are being asked to dive into someone like Spinoza?
2. How do you make night classes work if you've never done one before and you feel like the students are dreading the time of the class?
I don't have experience running a course quite like this one–an upper-division course in the History of Philosophy–which I imagine has some unique challenges. However, I can offer a few quick suggestions based on my own experiences.
I've taught a number of upper-division courses quite a bit like the one Anon describes: upper-division evening classes that simultaneously enroll philosophy majors and students who have never taken a single philosophy course before. They are indeed a challenge for this reason: you need to find a way to make fairly advanced material accessible to first-time students, while not depriving more advanced students (i.e. majors) of the complexities of understanding the work at a higher-level. It is a real challenge.
One thing I try to do is to balance my lectures between introductory material (to get new students at least "in the game" in terms of understanding the advanced material), before moving into the more advanced stuff. I've found this approach works pretty well. I'll spend maybe 30-40% of a lecture on really basic stuff (for first-time students), and 60-70% on the more advanced stuff (for majors). My sense is that although the first-time students may still have trouble with the advanced stuff, this approach helps them not feel like they are totally drowning in the material.
A second thing I try to do–both because of the nature of the course itself, and especially if the course is at night–is to have a lot of creative, collaborative in-class group assignments. First, I think in-class group work (with groups of four or five students) is pretty much vital to good evening courses. My experience is that unless students are more or less constantly participating in night courses, they have a tendency to tune out: either because it's late and they are tired, or because it's late and there are other things they are thinking about (hanging out with friends, etc.). Group assignments keep things "fun" for students, keeping the class lively and passing the time far quicker than classes without those kinds of activities. Second, group assignments are really helpful because they enable more advanced students to mentor the less-experienced students. During these assignments, I'll often hear the advanced students explaining things to the less-experienced students, helping the latter get clearer both on the philosophical basics and the more advanced parts of the material. It's really cool to witness!
Anyway, these are just a couple of things I've found helpful. What about you all? Do any of you have any helpful tips for Anon, particularly those of you who do Modern or other courses in History of Philosophy?
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