The following appeared in Volume 96, Number 2 (Spring 1997) of the APA Newsletters.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

In this Issue:

This issue of the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, an open issue, contains the following five papers:

Our first paper, "An Aid to Venn Diagrams," by Robert Allen, develops a brief but useful mechanical procedure for making explicit just what Venn diagrams show about the interrelationship of categories and propositions in standard syllogisms. The device can be put to use easily on the blackboard, and students’ intuitive understanding of the validity or invalidity of a syllogism may be fostered.

The second paper, "A Note on Mr. DeMorgan," by Philip A. D. Schneider, contains a suggestion that a new logical equivalence be added to the usual set of two "theorems" that bear DeMorgan’s name, namely ~(peq)/(p@~q). The advantages of this addition, the author claims, are simplicity and usefulness. And Professor Schneider offers as an example a proof that can be simplified by several lines with the addition of this "third" equivalence. The paper also contains some reflections on the distinction between logical and material equivalence.

The third paper, "Grading Standards," by Eugene Kelly, contains an introduction to and a copy of a handout that he offers to his students in Problems of Philosophy. The handout contains five student essays on a thirty-point question on a final examination, each of which received a grade ranging from D to A. Critical comments that justify the grade are given in the margin of each essay. The essays are reprinted verbatim, as received from the student, with suggested corrections penciled in by the instructor. The purpose of the handout is to give to student an idea of what level of writing and thinking he or she must achieve in order to receive a particular grade.

The fourth paper, "Teaching Large Introduction to Philosophy Courses," by Stephen H. Daniel, discusses a variety of methods, some requiring the use of new technology, and others involving organization and methods of grading, that the author has found useful in dealing with what would otherwise be a burdensome and unrewarding task-teaching sections of introductory courses in philosophy to an enrollment of 350 students. Professor Daniel invites readers to visit the website for this course, where they will find examples of exam questions and notes, and be able to examine the means of intercommunication between himself, the students, and the teaching assitants that he has set up for the course.

The fifth and final paper, "Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Workshop," by Kevin Galvin, describes the workshop the author was invited to run at the APA/AAPT Workshops on Teaching Philosophy held at the 1996 Central Division meeting in Chicago. Professor Galvin describes the nature and rationale of Cooperative and Collaborative Learning, and describes how he conducted the workshop as an example of CCL itself, and how he applies the concept to his own classrooms.

The mailing addresses of this issue’s contributors are listed at the end of our Newsletter.

As usual, the article section is followed by our Book Review section, and in this issue we present six reviews. We encourage our readers to suggest themselves as reviewers of books and other material that they think may be especially good for classroom use. (The names of the books we have received for review is listed at the end of the Newsletter. Those not asterisked are still available for review.) Please remember, however, that our publication is devoted to pedagogy and not to theoretical discussions of philosophical issues. That should be borne in mind when reviewing material for our publication.

As always, we encourage our readers to write for our publication. We welcome papers that respond, comment on or take issue with any of the material that appears within our pages. Let us hear from you!

With this issue, we institute a News and Notes feature that we hope will become a permanent part of the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy. This feature will announce meetings of interest to philosophy teachers; will describe current activities of the APA’s Committee on Teaching; will announce recipients of awards for excellence in teaching. News and Notes will appear in the space immediately following the Letter from the Editors. Readers are invited to submit entries to this new column, and letters to the editors will also be featured there.

Contributions should be sent to: Tziporah Kasachkoff, Philosophy Department, Graduate Center, CUNY, 25 West 43nd Street, New York City, NY 10036, or to Eugene Kelly, Department of Social Science, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568. :

The following guidelines should be followed:

The author’s name, the title of the paper and full mailing address should appear on a separate sheet of paper. Nothing that identifies the author or his or her institution should appear within the body or within the footnotes/endnotes of the paper. The title of the paper should appear on the top of the paper itself.

Four complete copies of the paper should be sent.

Authors should adhere to the production guidelines that are available from the APA and that are published in the present edition of the APA Newsletters on the front inside cover.

All material submitted to the Newsletter should be available on dos-readable computer disk, but don’t send the disk with the submitted paper. The editors will request the disk when the paper is ready to be published. In writing your paper to disk, please do not use your wordprocessor’s footnote or endnote function; all notes should be added manually at the end of the paper..

All articles submitted to the Newsletter are blind-reviewed by the members of the editorial committee. They are:

Tziporah Kasachkoff, The Graduate Center, CUNY
tzkbm@cunyvm , co-editor
Eugene Kelly, New York Institute of Technology
ekelly@admin.nyit.edu , co-editor

David B. Martens, Mount Royal College
dmartens@mtroyal.ab.ca

Neil Rossman, La Guardia Community College, CUNY

Andrew Wengraf, (recently retired from Brooklyn College, CUNY)

NEWS AND NOTES

Rosalind Ladd, the Chairwoman of the Teaching Committee, submits the following items:

1. APA COMMITTEE ON TEACHING

Readers of the APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy should be aware of the current members of the APA Committee on Teaching. These are the persons to whom members of the APA may turn with questions and suggestions regarding the teaching of philosophy at American colleges and universities.

Appointed Members:

• Rosalind Ladd, Chair, Philosophy Department, Wheaton College, Norton, MA rladd@wheatonma.edu
• Victor Caston, Department of Philosophy, Box 1918, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912.
• Martin Benjamin, Philosophy Department-503 S. Kedzie Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824
• Jaquelyn Ann Kegley, 7312 Kroll Way, Bakersfield, CA 93309
• Richard Momeyer, Department of Philosophy, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056

ex Officio Members:

• Kenneth Cooley, Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin Center-Waukesha County, 1500 University Drive, Waukesha, WI 53188-2334 (Chair, APA Committee on Teaching in Two-Year Colleges)
• Tziporah Kasachkoff, Department of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center 25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 (Co-Editor, APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy). tkasachkoff@gc.cuny.edu
• Eugene Kelly, Department of Social Science, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568 (Co-Editor, APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy). ekelly@admin.nyit.edu
• David Martens, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON Canada N1G 2W1
• Corinne Bedecarre, Hamlin University 1536 Hewitt Av., St. Paul, MN 55104 (Chair, Central Conference on the Teaching of Philosophy)

2. TEACHING WORKSHOPS

The APA and the American Association of Philosophy Teachers will co-sponsor a series of teaching workshops at both the Central and Pacific division meetings this year. Watch the APA Bulletin for details and registration information.

3. TEACHING AWARDS

The APA would like to recognize its members who have received teaching awards at their home institutions. There will be a special reception at the Central Division meeting this year and names will be listed in the Bulletin. IF you or someone you know has been so honored, please send information to the National Office.

4. CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

The Committee on Teaching Philosophy solicits ideas for presentations or panels at the divisional meetings next year. Contact Rosalind Ladd rladd@wheatonma.edu Wheaton College, Norton, MA 02766.

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