College courses, unlike most high school courses, require students to engage in a good deal of independent learning. What they do outside of class is essential to their learning, and it requires both motivation and time management, as well as an understanding of academic skills and resources available to them as students. In high school, students may have learned to copy notes from a textbook and to memorize definitions. They may understand that attending class is required; and they may even attempt to write down information presented in class so that they can recite it on exams and in written assignments.
While this may serve them well enough in some college classes, their philosophy classes present a new set of challenges. Students are expected to read difficult texts, not only for understanding, but also to be prepared to question and challenge the main lines of reasoning. They are faced with new terms, methods, and theories. They must make connections between the readings and material presented in class, and they are expected to participate in class discussions in a way that demonstrates they have read carefully and critically, not merely recite facts from memorization. Written assignments require that they demonstrate their understanding of the philosophical problems, arguments, and theories, but also that they critically engage with the material, providing novel objections, insights, and solutions.
Even the most academically prepared students can find that their academic practices—such as skimming texts, preparing flashcards, copying lecture slides verbatim, and merely showing up to class—are insufficient for succeeding in philosophy classes. As philosophy instructors, we want students to learn to do philosophy, but we can also help students become better learners.
Many of us are familiar with the benefits of engaging students in self-regulative practices (see Nilson and Zimmerman, 2013), such as planning and setting learning goals, monitoring their learning activities, and assessing both their learning outcomes and their strategies for learning throughout the semester. One practice I have been using for several years at a mid-sized, public, primarily undergraduate institution in the South is to “bookend” the course with reflective and self-assessment activities and discussions.
Too often, students engage in the same practices over and over without reflecting on how successful those practices have been. They also fail to recognize that their grades do not always correlate with how much they learned or how much effort they put into learning.
At the start of the semester, I ask students not only to review the student learning objectives on the syllabus, but also to think about what strategies have and have not worked in the past for meeting their learning goals. I ask students to complete an assignment in which they describe some of their most and least favorite courses, explain why they categorized these courses this way, what some of their most significant learning experiences have been over the last year, what learning strategies and practices worked and did not work for them, and what they wished they had done differently.
Students will report that they wish they had sought help from the instructor, participated more in class, or completed the readings before coming to class. Recalling this as they set new goals for the semester serves as a reminder that they can actively adapt in positive ways to promote learning. They can also take inventory of their past successes. Students might acknowledge that they made great strides in learning to write better by paying attention to and incorporating instructors’ feedback. Perhaps they were successful in meeting with study groups, outlining readings, or reviewing their notes from the previous class.
A class discussion near the beginning of the term lets students hear from each other about what works and what doesn’t. It can generate ideas for being successful that some students had not considered. Similar discussions at the middle and end of the term remind students to monitor and attend to their own learning strategies and activities throughout the semester and provides a model for adopting these self-regulative practices in future semesters.
A final reflective assignment and discussion includes asking students to share with future students how to be successful, something significant they learned in the course, and how they have improved as students, which can serve as inspiration for future students, but also enshrine these accomplishments in the students’ consciousness going forward in their education.
It has been my experience that students are excited to have these discussions and do these reflective activities. Moreover, students who do so become more cognizant of their own responsibilities in the learning process. They are willing to adopt new practices and to ask for help. They make connections between what they are learning in my class and the things they have learned in other classes. Best of all, they become comfortable with open-ended class discussions, they find community in the classroom, and they appreciate that their instructor cares about them and wants them to be successful. Students are drawn to take more philosophy courses not only because they are interested in the subject, but because they appreciate instructors who respect, listen to, and encourage them.
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