PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH METHODS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO TEACHING

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PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH METHODS AND THEIR
RELEVANCE TO TEACHING

• George MacDonald Ross
• Director, PRS Subject Centre
• Joint Session, Manchester
• Sunday 10 July 2005

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The relation between research and teaching

• Two aspects
• Teaching informed by research
• Philosophical research into teaching

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Teaching informed by research

• A political issue
• No evidence that research-informed teaching is
  better
• Need to make it better

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Factors in favour

• HE is higher because it is cutting-edge
• The next generation of researchers must be
  educated by researchers
• Good teaching requires at least up-to-date
  scholarship

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Factors against

• Researchers may neglect teaching
• Research-informed teaching may be too difficult
  for UGs
• Few UGs proceed to research
• Non-experts can be good teachers
• The RAE forces a split between research and
  teaching

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The solution

• Articulate the research methods characteristic of
  philosophy
• Embed these methods in programme and module
  specifications
• Articulate how they benefit all graduates

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Philosophical research into teaching

• Surprisingly little published. Surprising
  because
• Philosophers are reflective
• Long teaching tradition (Socrates)
• Other disciplines produce much more
• Few applications for funding
• Few successful applications

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Diagnosis

• Self-confidence in tried and tested methods
• Scepticism about educational research and
  training
• Lack of skills in grant applications and
  educational research methods

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Fight back

• Teaching philosophy not the same as other
  disciplines different considerations may apply
• Much educational research is rubbish
  (philosophers can show this)
• Need to produce criteria for valid philosophical
  research into teaching

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What philosophers dont do

• Empirical experiments
• Surveys
• Statistics
• Searches of educational literature
• Education jargon
• Teamwork

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Scientists also against

• Lack of controlled experiments
• Qualitative research dressed up as quantitative
• Educational research a branch of sociology,
  largely ignored by both scientists and humanists

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Where philosophers excel

• Reasoning and arguing
• Detecting fallacies/nonsense
• Distinguishing the apriori from the aposteriori
• Conceptual analysis
• Clear exposition
• Models of teaching practice not found elsewhere
  (e.g. dialogue)

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What philosophers can do

• Action research/reflective practice
• Simple statistics
• Analysis of questionnaires
• Pre-/post-testing of skills
• Research relevant literature (e.g. HEA sites)

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Where next?

• Consult the philosophical community
• Identify pre-existing literature
• Articulate the research skills distinctive of
  philosophy
• Apply these to research into the teaching of
  philosophy
• Publicise the outcomes to funders of research
  into teaching

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References

• Alan Jenkins, A Guide to the Research Evidence on
  Teaching-Research Relations, HEA, 2004
  http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources.asp?processf
  ull_recordsectiongenericid383
• Michael Scriven, Philosophical Inquiry Methods
  in Education, in Jaeger, Richard M. (ed),
  Complementary Methods for Research in Education
  (Washington, DC American Educational Research
  Association, 1988), pp.131149. The text and a
  review to be made available on the PRS website
  soon.

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Thank you for listening

• George MacDonald Ross
• Director
• Subject Centre for
• Philosophical and Religious Studies
• of the Higher Education Academy