A Personal Approach To Teaching Philosophy


In a discipline such as philosophy, which already "enjoys" a reputation of otioseness among many undergraduates, a bad experience with an unprepared instructor can be all that is needed to extinguish any flicker of interest in a student, who may be “forced” to take a philosophy course to meet the curriculum requirement. Unlike graduate students, undergraduates do not come already motivated to study philosophy. The successful teacher at the liberal arts college must interest non-majors as well as majors and must also have the ability to turn students around who did not explore a particular subject, such as philosophy, in high school. To be a good philosophy teacher, every teacher should develop his or her own unique style along the way. The way I take can be called a personal approach to teaching philosophy.

I assume a sound teaching philosophy to be one that is human-centered in that it supports an instructional approach fostering the intellectual, emotional and social development of students and teachers. This philosophy is embodied in my personal approach to teaching. Briefly, I would like to focus here on a few components of this approach.


Student Autonomy: A personal approach is consistent with an educational view that holds human development to be self-determined, inspired internally by an ability to reason. I have found the best way to encourage student learning inspired by internal, not external, motivators is to combine complex philosophical problems with students' personal experience. I believe that a student's educational experience ought to often include subjective introspection, so that the individual becomes a natural resource for self-critical examination and reasoned inquiry.

No place in the Academy seems more suitable for such an inquiry than the philosophy classroom. For example, a question that a student studying philosophy for the first time may have is, “Why should I spend the time and money to study philosophy since philosophy ‘bakes no bread’,” or “What is the value of philosophy?” Of course, I could tell them that humans have higher-level needs as well as maintenance needs. Those needs, which can be called actualizing needs, appear to be associated with self-fulfillment, creativity, self-expression, and realization of their potential. Philosophy can help satisfy these needs by helping them develop their own opinions and beliefs, increasing their self-awareness, equipping them to deal with uncertainty, eliciting creativity, and aiding them in clearly conceptualizing their value systems. This is a good answer, but too general. Instead, I used “My Philosophy of Life” assignment (courtesy of R. Sautter, Teaching Philosophy, 1992, pp. 239-250) as a tool for students to explore and define their individual beliefs and values, and what philosophy means to them as individuals.

I asked students at the beginning of the course to focus on some personal questions about which they were mostly concerned in their lives, and to prepare a notebook to write down weekly any reflection on their topics throughout the semester. Clearly many of the topics or questions had little to do with “philosophy” at very beginning, but that would come later. Others began with a great deal of connection to standard philosophy topics. I asked students to devote all their energies to reading, continuous writing their personal reflections on their topics. Towards the end of the semester, I asked students to review and formalize their “free or informal reflections,” and then turned them into term papers. In the end of this one-semester-long assignment, students began to see critical philosophy as a critical strategy available to them throughout their lives. One student said, “I realize that many of my beliefs, including my belief in God, are inherited from my family and social environment. Now I feel more comfortable with my beliefs and values. At the same time, I am more tolerant of other ideas and beliefs including other religions and even atheism, less threatened by them.”


Student Individuality: An advantage of a personal approach is that it tends to yield greater awareness of individual difference in student ability, learning styles and characters. I found that students learn better when they sense that you know them personally and really care about their progress. Along with my efforts to know my students personally, I work to accommodate their different interests, abilities, and learning styles. One way that I have endeavored to respect differences in ability is by providing extra support to those less gifted. I realize that the duty of a teacher is to bolster rather than damage students' self-esteem. I try at the same time to encourage my more gifted students by doing things like including challenging bonus questions on exams, and providing them with additional readings on topics that seem to interest them.


Teacher Personality: A personal approach does not just allow a teacher to be sensitive to the individuality of his or her students, but it also allows a teacher to be sensitive to his or her own individuality. There is the whole issue of personality. I find that I must necessarily “be myself ” with my students. Always be honest. If I do not have an answer to the questions raised by students, I will tell them “I don't know yet,” and try to answer it next time. I found that students who sense their teacher's love for his or her subject and his or her willingness to be himself or herself in teaching the subject work harder and with more enthusiasm.


It is my conviction that the above personal approach to teaching is one especially suitable for teaching philosophy at a teaching oriented college or university. There student-centered teaching has always come first. Faculty are viewed as “teacher scholars”. I enjoy teaching. Meeting the challenge of communicating my love and enthusiasm for philosophy to my students has been one of the most rewarding, enjoyable life experiences for me.

Before ending this essay, let me mention another reason that motivates me to become part of an educational environment which values teaching and fosters creative faculty-student relationship, both inside and outside of classrooms. I can enrich my teaching life by closeness to colleagues in other departments and to my students. I wish to achieve a visible and significant involvement in social, civic affairs of the community. I take it as the best way to gain a thorough understanding of American culture and social institutions--remember I am a foreigner from a different culture. One of my professors told me that teaching is much more than a job; it is a way of life. The pleasures and rewards of teaching can be enormous. After I taste it myself, I cannot agree more.