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APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Fall 2014)

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APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Fall 2014) NEWSLETTER | The American Philosophical Association Teaching Philosophy FALL 2014 VOLUME 14 | NUMBER 1 FROM THE EDITORS Tziporah Kasachkoff and Eugene Kelly ARTICLES Renée Smith and Linda Palm Correlates of Exam Performance in an Introductory Logic Course Danielle Macbeth Logic Through Its History Felicia Nimue Ackerman Do You Believe in Magical Connections? Lee Braver How I Mark Up Philosophy Texts BOOKS RECEIVED ADDRESSES OF CONTRIBUTORS VOLUME 14 | NUMBER 1 FALL 2014 © 2014 BY THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION ISSN 2155-9708 APA NEWSLETTER ON Teaching Philosophy TZIPORAH KASACHKOFF AND EUGENE KELLY, CO-EDITORS VOLUME 14 | NUMBER 1 | FALL 2014 inquiry, knowledge, and understanding.” To that end, FROM THE EDITORS Macbeth offers her readers a sample outline of a course on logic that takes such a historical perspective, and she Tziporah Kasachkoff closes with some observations drawn from her experiences THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK of teaching logic in this manner. ([email protected]) Our third article is “Do You Believe in Magical Connections?” Eugene Kelly Felicia Nimue Ackerman of Brown University, a frequent NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ([email protected]) contributor of poems and brief anecdotes relating to the vocation of teaching philosophy and its tasks, takes on We welcome our readers to the fall 2014 edition of the APA here a myth about teaching that is too sacred, perhaps, to Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy. We offer this time four question: that behind every successful person there is a articles and a list of books for possible review. great teacher that put her or him on track for happiness and success. The author borrows a statement about this myth— The first article, “Correlates of Exam Performance in an if it is a myth—from the New York Times Magazine: “Go Introductory Logic Course,” is by Renée Smith and Linda up to any adult with a good life, no matter what his or her Palm of Coastal Carolina University. The paper offers us station, and ask if a teacher made a difference, and you’ll a description of research conducted by the authors into always see a face light up. The human element, a magical several factors that affect student learning. The authors connection, is at the heart of successful education.” We shall sought to find correlations among such measurable factors not here anticipate Professor Ackerman’s deconstruction of as academic performance (as measured in the outcome of this myth. Most of her readers will find her efforts quite a course in logic and critical thinking), academic activities delicious. (such as homework, attendance, and tutoring), and psychological factors (such as students’ assessments of “How I Mark Up Philosophy Texts,” our fourth article, is the frustrations they experience in the course and of their by Lee Braver of the University of South Florida. Braver own academic self-efficacy). Their research indicates places presents in part a survey of how he goes about marking up where improvements in student learning could be achieved texts in philosophy to facilitate his interpretation, overview, by requiring more homework, by enforcing attendance, by and understanding of what is significant in the text’s using additional rewards for the completion of homework arguments. But his paper presents a strategy for mastering assignment, and, as a hedge against student frustration, by difficult texts, and it thus has pedagogical value. The author attempting to gauge and adjust the difficulty of homework attempts to convey these strategies to his students and to and other assignments and ensuring that students are able make them effective in their own reading of philosophy. The to deal with instructional resources where required. author does not attempt to measure whether students who come to use these techniques in fact demonstrate greater The second article, “Logic Through Its History,” is by Danielle acumen in analyzing philosophical texts on exams and in Macbeth of Haverford University. Although Professor papers than those who do not use them. Perhaps we can Macbeth’s article appears to be an account of some salient encourage Braver to do so and to report on his outcomes in turning points in the history of logic rather than a lesson in a later paper. As it now stands, however, approaching texts teaching logic, the pedagogical horizons of the essay are in the manner suggested here should result in a classroom clear. The author notes, first, that logical analysis has not presentation of the texts in question that is more lucid fulfilled the expectations of Russell and others of resolving and more conducive to students’ understanding of texts philosophical problems. But the history of logic is rather that they may perceive, before analysis, as a collection fluid, and not a triumphant growth in a single direction that of unrelated insights rather than a tightly composed text promises to enter eventually into stagnant philosophical aiming at the justification of interrelated theses. problems and resolve them. Following Putnam, the author tells us that although fundamental logical principles appear We always encourage our readers to suggest themselves to be eternal truths, they have in fact been interpreted as reviewers of books and other material that they think in varying ways throughout history. Taking a historical may be especially good for classroom use. Though the perspective on logic enables us to “reclaim the discipline of names of books and other materials that we have recently logic” for pedagogical purposes by showing our students received from publishers for possible review are listed how logic, throughout its history, has been a study of our in our Books Received section in each edition of the powers of reason, such as are “critical to our capacity for newsletter, reviewers are welcome to suggest material APA NEWSLETTER | TEACHING PHILOSOPHY for review that they have used in the classroom and found useful. However, please remember that our publication is ARTICLES devoted to pedagogy and not to theoretical discussions of philosophical issues. This should be borne in mind not Correlates of Exam Performance in an only when writing articles for our publication but also when reviewing material for our publication. Introductory Logic Course As always, we encourage our readers to write of their Renée Smith experience as teachers for our publication. We also COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY welcome articles that respond, comment on, or take issue with any of the material that appears within our pages. Linda Palm COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY The following guidelines for submissions should be followed: Faced with the option of satisfying a university core requirement in quantitative reasoning by taking two math • All papers should be sent to the editors courses or a math course and a logic course, a number of electronically. The author’s name, the title of the students chose the latter option. Some of these students paper, and full mailing address should appear on reported being frustrated with their perceived inability to a separate page. Nothing that identifies the author learn math. The logic instructor feared that these same or his or her institution should appear within the students would not fare well in the logic course since it body or within the notes of the paper. The title of called for similar reasoning skills. This motivated the the paper should appear on the top of the paper researchers to examine a number of predictors of success itself. in an introduction to logic and critical thinking course. The goal of the study was to discover the degree to which • Authors should adhere to the production course performance was related to specific academic guidelines that are available from the APA. For and psychological variables. The academic variables were example, in writing your paper to disk, please do completing homework assignments and attending class; not use your word processor’s footnote or endnote the psychological variables were both students’ self- function; all notes must be added manually at the efficacy beliefs concerning their ability to be successful end of the paper. This rule is extremely important, completing difficult tasks and their reported frustration in for it makes formatting the papers for publication doing so. much easier. To say that the body of literature in social cognitive theory • All articles submitted to the newsletter are and educational psychology is vast is an understatement. blind-reviewed by the members of the editorial A review of the literature reveals three interrelated areas committee: that describe student learning relevant to the present study: (1) academic performance (e.g., grades, retention, Tziporah Kasachkoff, co-editor and academic standing), (2) academic activities (e.g., The Graduate Center, CUNY homework, attendance, studying, tutoring, reading, and ([email protected]) note-taking), and (3) psychological factors (e.g., students’ beliefs and affectations concerning their own academic Eugene Kelly, co-editor performance). New York Institute of Technology ([email protected]) A number of studies have examined the relationship between (1) academic performance and (2) academic Robert Talisse activities. For example, Thatcher, Fridjhon, and Cockcroft Vanderbilt University (2007) in a study of second year psychology students ([email protected]) reported significant positive correlations between frequency of lecture attendance and the following Andrew Wengraf performance measures: test scores, essay performance, ([email protected]) exam performance, and final course mark. Similarly, Wigley (2009) found that the frequency of lecture Contributions should be sent electronically to Tziporah attendance in a psychology class was positively correlated Kasachkoff [email protected] , and/or to Eugene with exam performance. Credé, Roch, and Kieszczynka Kelly at [email protected]. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis and concluded that attendance may be the single best predictor of college students’ grades. However, there are suggestions that the relationship between attendance and course performance may be influenced by other variables.
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