Arguments Get a Tutorial Going
Dr Chris Mortensen
Department of Philosophy
Introduction
The perennial question in philosophy might for some be the problem of induction or the mind/body problem, but for most philosophers teaching at university, as for most lecturers no matter what their subject matter, the really hard question is this:
How do I get all my students to prepare for and participate fully in the tutorials?
with the corollary:
How do I get the really talkative students to talk less?
Here is one effort, so far very successful, at answering these questions.
In Argument and Critical Thinking, a first year Philosophy subject that aims to help students to learn the general skills and strategies of the critical evaluation of arguments, we have developed a tutorial system that gets everybody talking.
Description
Tutorial attendance forms part of the grade and a roll is taken at the beginning of each tutorial. All the students are asked to prepare short answers on 8-12 questions contained on a tutorial sheet. The tutors ask two or more students consecutively to answer one of those questions. If the answers diverge, they are asked to explain or argue about the difference, with other students entering the fray if they feel inclined. This divergence is likely as the questions are designed such that several answers may be plausible. The tutorial proceeds in this way through all the questions and all the students.
About 15 minutes from the end the second part of the process is initiated. The large group is divided into 2 - 4 smaller groups of 3 - 4 students to tackle an argument leading to a conclusion on a controversial issue (for example "All the perceived differences in learning are due to nature not nurture") also set on the tutorial sheet. The student groups are given 8 minutes to come to a consensus answer. One student is nominated to as a representative of each group and reports the group finding. Differences in the answers provided by the 3 groups then becomes grist to the mill of a spirited debate over the last 5 minutes or so.
By the middle of the semester the quieter students (often the women) are more vocal, and the talkative students (often the men) are better at sharing the air time.
