SJE1472H
This new offering introduces students to key issues regarding teaching philosophy to a range of ages and in a variety of contexts. One course aim is to allow students to tie philosophical thought more directly to teaching and learning in schools in a way that allows them to improve both student learning and their own teaching. Open to graduate students and teacher candidates in all disciplines, attention will be devoted to pedagogical practices such as differentiated instruction and teaching learners of diverse abilities and ages as it relates to philosophical thought. Literature from the Philosophy for Children (P4C) will be engaged and compared with strategies for teaching the adolescent learner. Candidates working in the publicly funded school system will also have an opportunity to explore topics and issues of particular relevance to their own educational aims and interests. Graduate students will be provided with opportunities to advance their own research through independent studies while benefitting from direct contact with teach candidates; teacher candidates will benefit from the expertise and research of graduate students. Course methods will include lectures, discussions, debates, small group activities, a library session, presentations on specific thinkers and foundational/reoccurring philosophical concepts and debates, and guest speakers from key areas of philosophical specialization. Important critiques of the philosophical canon from postmodernism, feminism, and postcolonialism will be raised throughout. A secondary aim of the course will be to allow teacher candidates to connect philosophy with their own approach to educational and cultivate a philosophy of education that will increase student engagement and learning.