Summer 2014 Edition
Faculty Spotlight
Teaching Philosophy
By Eugenio Zaldivar
Professor of Philosophy
Over the last few semesters I've been
moving gradually toward
implementing a flipped classroom
structure in my courses. The only
problem was that I didn't really know
how to do it! I knew that it involved
fewer lectures by me and more
engagement by my students, but I
wasn't really clear on how to get there
from the traditional structure I picked
up in graduate school; news flash:
philosophy graduate programs are not
exactly a hot-bed of cutting-edge
pedagogy.
strategies. I picked up a lot of points,
too many to list here (and the first
cohort had a lot of fun in the process).
I'd like to share some with you.
Did you notice that I wrote
“cooperative learning,” not “group
work”? There's a big difference. Group
work is something that is too often unstructured and short term. As you can
imagine it has dubious benefits (just
ask your students). Cooperative
learning differs from group learning in
that it is long-term
and highly
After a few
Did you notice that I wrote structured. Longsemesters of
term teams promote
“cooperative learning,” not
halting progress I
student
“group work”?
signed up for the
interdependence
Certificate for
and accountability.
Teaching and
It's harder for
Learning (CCTL). This professional
students to blow off a meeting or task
development program focused on
when they know they'll be working
active learning, cooperative learning,
with their groups for months instead
and problem-based learning
of minutes. Cooperative learning also
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