APA Newsletters

Spring 2001
Volume 00, Number 2

Newsletter on Teaching in Philosophy

Letter from the Editors

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Tziporah Kasachkoff
The Graduate Center, CUNY

tkasachkoff@.gc.cuny.edu

Eugene Kelly
New York Institute of Technology

ekelly@iris.nyit.edu

In this Spring 2001 issue we offer three articles and six book reviews.

Our first article, by Don Fawkes, entitled "Analyzing the Scope of Critical Thinking Exams," offers readers a shorthand way of comparing various standard, machine scoreable, critical thinking assessment tests that are currently on the market and in fairly wide use. Each of these tests is supposed to measure various critical thinking skills. Don's paper indicates the range of competencies that is covered by each of the tests so that easy comparisons can be made of each of the tests relative to the others. The tests covered are: The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal; The California Critical Thinking Skills Test; The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level X; The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z; and The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Since many teachers of Critical Thinking courses administer one or another of these tests as pre- and post-course assessment exams so as to measure how students have progressed within their CT course, the information provided concerning the various tests should prove useful in helping faculty choose which tests are best used for their purposes. Reader response is invited by the author through his website or email address.

Our second article, "A Post-critical Approach to Conceiving and Teaching Introduction to Philosophy," by Dale W. Cannon, calls into question one standard way of introducing students to philosophy, namely, by having them assume a general Cartesian attitude of doubt towards all beliefs. According to this paradigm, doubt is the first appropriate response to candidates for belief, with only those beliefs that withstand one's doubts being worthy of being believed. Cannon argues that this paradigm is misguided, and furthermore, sabotages true philosophical inquiry. He devotes the rest of his paper to presenting an alternative method for introducing students to philosophical reflection.

Our third and final paper for this issue, "An Experimental High School Web Dialogue," by James R. Davis and Hugh Taft-Morales, describes two instructors' attempt to enliven their respective philosophy classes-at two different high schools--by having their students use the Internet-specifically, the APA website-to communicate with one another. After deciding on a topic (moral relativism), students from each class were presented with three questions concerning two articles that each had read. Responses to these questions, in essay form, were posted with students from each class responding to the postings of the students of the other. (The actual debate has been archived at the APA website and can be seen by any interested reader.) Davis and Taft-Morales detail the benefits of their use of the web, the problems they encountered, and some ways that such a project might be improved.

Our six book reviews in this issue cover a wide range of materials-an anthology of ancient philosophy material; two books on Asian philosophy; a current work on philosophical naturalism; a comprehensive guide to ethical theory; and a popular book that might be used to advantage in philosophy courses. We hope you find these helpful. Continue to let know which books you would like to see reviewed within our pages.

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

As always, we encourage our readers to suggest themselves as reviewers of books and other materials that they think may be especially good for classroom use. (The names of the books we have received for review are listed at the end of the Newsletter. Those not asterisked are still available for review. However, if you know of material not listed within our pages that you think would be suitable for review, please write and tell us.) Please remember 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. (Guidelines for writing reviews for our publication will be sent to all reviewers.)

Again, we encourage readers to write for our publication. Papers are welcome on any aspect of pedagogy including examination construction, classroom motivation techniques, strategies found useful in teaching large classes or difficult topics, innovative syllabi suggestions, novel courses or course arrangements, etc. We also welcome papers that respond, comment on or take issue with any of the material that appears within our pages.

The following guidelines for paper submissions 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 at its website.
All material submitted to the Newsletter should be available on a Windows-readable computer disk, but do not 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, co-editor
tkasachkoff@gc.cuny.edu

Eugene Kelly, New York Institute of Technology, co-editor
ekelly@iris.nyit.edu

David B. Martens
dmartens@istar.ca

Neil Rossman, La Guardia Community College, CUNY [retired]
dinkromax@aol.com

Andrew Wengraf, Brooklyn College, CUNY
andrew@welch-wengraf.fsnet.co.uk

Contributions should be sent to:

Tziporah Kasachkoff
PhD Program in Philosophy
The Graduate School and University Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York City, NY 10016

or

Eugene Kelly
Department of Social Science
New York Institute of Technology
Old Westbury, NY 11568.

The editors welcome correspondence concerning possible paper submissions or reviews as well as responses, both positive and negative, to anything that we publish.

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APA Newsletters

Spring 2001 Volume 00, Number 2

Spring 2001
Volume 00, Number 2