| Melvin L. Rogers Assistant Professor of Politics University of Virginia |
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My teaching philosophy reflects my own undergraduate experiences at Bowdoin College and Amherst College where I first learned
to think critically, and my teaching experience at Yale University and Carleton College. I have discovered that the importance of a
liberal arts education consists not merely in an appreciation for the humanistic disciplines, but more profoundly a sense that learning to
think critically develops through the apprenticeship model. This applies to both small colleges that bear the name of liberal arts and
universities. British philosopher Michael Oakeshott captures the point nicely when he observes: “In an art, such as cookery, nobody
supposes that the knowledge that belongs to the good cook is confined to what … may be written down in the cookery book; technique
… and practical knowledge combine to make skill in cookery wherever it exists.”
Reasoning analogously, one does not learn to think critically by reading books, as much as watching the technique displayed by those
who do it well and often. Here, I mean the power to analyze arguments, understand their emotional content, and be sensitive to their
historical contexts. Each of these skill-sets requires an adjustment of the mind’s eye that comes from observation and conversation.
The liberal arts context—a setting replicated in the small sections I have taught as a graduate student and my teaching at Carleton—
brings the student and teacher in closer proximity to forge these skills, whose acquisition is a lasting source of gratification to both.
From the perspective of teaching, gratification implies challenge precisely because instruction requires agility of mind in response to
questions by students and attentiveness to and stimulation of class participation. The experience is potentially always democratic!
Students do not simply defer to the implicit authoritarianism of the apprenticeship model, but are encouraged to demand, through
discussion, that I redeem my claim to authority. There is an intensity and excitement to the classroom. Indeed, in my own experience,
discussion always trickles over after class has ended because students sense that something is profoundly at stake in the topic under
consideration.
This philosophy informs my pedagogical approach both at the level of classroom dynamics and writing assignments. In teaching
political theory, I make students active participants in their education. For example, I utilize electronic discussion boards. In my
courses, each student is required to post their presentation to the discussion board to which other students respond, and to also
formally present during class. This pedagogical strategy generates an outside conversation about the texts that then serves as a guide
for classroom discussion. Experience tells me that students see themselves as integral to the learning process of others, and for that
reason they work harder in explicating the conceptual and practical problems presented by a thinker’s theory. This creates intellectual
intimacy firstly among students, and secondly between them and myself, cultivating trust and modeling ways of thinking about the
texts.
This dimension of my teaching is combined with a traditional approach. Political theory involves trying to understand a text from the
inside. My writing assignments are often structured to assess students’ ability to advance arguments that reveal their understanding of
the texts. My approach to assessing their papers involves extended commentary on writing style, execution of argument, and
appropriate uses of textual evidence. This often takes the form of a short reader’s report, much akin to the practice of reviewing a
journal or manuscript submission. I give them a sense of what I understood them to be doing in the paper and where and how they
succeeded or failed. Here, too, I model a way of writing effectively about the texts in light of their own claims. When you take students
seriously both in the classroom and in the context of their writing you deepen their respect for the enterprise of learning while
simultaneously providing them with intellectual and practical habits for thinking critically and communicating successfully whenever it
becomes necessary.
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to think critically, and my teaching experience at Yale University and Carleton College. I have discovered that the importance of a
liberal arts education consists not merely in an appreciation for the humanistic disciplines, but more profoundly a sense that learning to
think critically develops through the apprenticeship model. This applies to both small colleges that bear the name of liberal arts and
universities. British philosopher Michael Oakeshott captures the point nicely when he observes: “In an art, such as cookery, nobody
supposes that the knowledge that belongs to the good cook is confined to what … may be written down in the cookery book; technique
… and practical knowledge combine to make skill in cookery wherever it exists.”
Reasoning analogously, one does not learn to think critically by reading books, as much as watching the technique displayed by those
who do it well and often. Here, I mean the power to analyze arguments, understand their emotional content, and be sensitive to their
historical contexts. Each of these skill-sets requires an adjustment of the mind’s eye that comes from observation and conversation.
The liberal arts context—a setting replicated in the small sections I have taught as a graduate student and my teaching at Carleton—
brings the student and teacher in closer proximity to forge these skills, whose acquisition is a lasting source of gratification to both.
From the perspective of teaching, gratification implies challenge precisely because instruction requires agility of mind in response to
questions by students and attentiveness to and stimulation of class participation. The experience is potentially always democratic!
Students do not simply defer to the implicit authoritarianism of the apprenticeship model, but are encouraged to demand, through
discussion, that I redeem my claim to authority. There is an intensity and excitement to the classroom. Indeed, in my own experience,
discussion always trickles over after class has ended because students sense that something is profoundly at stake in the topic under
consideration.
This philosophy informs my pedagogical approach both at the level of classroom dynamics and writing assignments. In teaching
political theory, I make students active participants in their education. For example, I utilize electronic discussion boards. In my
courses, each student is required to post their presentation to the discussion board to which other students respond, and to also
formally present during class. This pedagogical strategy generates an outside conversation about the texts that then serves as a guide
for classroom discussion. Experience tells me that students see themselves as integral to the learning process of others, and for that
reason they work harder in explicating the conceptual and practical problems presented by a thinker’s theory. This creates intellectual
intimacy firstly among students, and secondly between them and myself, cultivating trust and modeling ways of thinking about the
texts.
This dimension of my teaching is combined with a traditional approach. Political theory involves trying to understand a text from the
inside. My writing assignments are often structured to assess students’ ability to advance arguments that reveal their understanding of
the texts. My approach to assessing their papers involves extended commentary on writing style, execution of argument, and
appropriate uses of textual evidence. This often takes the form of a short reader’s report, much akin to the practice of reviewing a
journal or manuscript submission. I give them a sense of what I understood them to be doing in the paper and where and how they
succeeded or failed. Here, too, I model a way of writing effectively about the texts in light of their own claims. When you take students
seriously both in the classroom and in the context of their writing you deepen their respect for the enterprise of learning while
simultaneously providing them with intellectual and practical habits for thinking critically and communicating successfully whenever it
becomes necessary.
back to first page>>>