tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post4963114947066368408..comments2024-03-14T04:16:20.472-07:00Comments on In Socrates' Wake: In favor of prospective examsMichael Cholbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-20502312304978957162011-04-26T11:37:09.305-07:002011-04-26T11:37:09.305-07:00William, I don't see this sort of exam as cont...William, I don't see this sort of exam as contrary to the aim of "thoughtful consideration" of an ethical issue. The students are directed to the relevant articles about a week before the exam, so this is not an exam that tests 'cold,' so to speak. They have plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the articles, and I encourage students to do precisely what you have to do in Ethics Bowl: study the material and be able to anticipate what questions you might be asked about. So I don't think it tests cleverness. It tests depth and richness of understanding, as well as the ability to anticipate issues and questions.Michael Cholbihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-18319065936560490052011-04-25T19:22:01.931-07:002011-04-25T19:22:01.931-07:00Just a thought on the nature of in-class testing a...Just a thought on the nature of in-class testing and ethics:<br /> Do we really want to train our philosophy students to be able to create quick arguments for or against some topic? This seems counter to philosophy. One could study law for this type of education. While it is easy to create an argument for or against in a given ethical framework, it seems this is almost more lawyerly than philosophical. I participated in ethics bowl myself and our team was in the top 10 at nationals. I know that my team members and I, not only used our knowledge and experience of ethical systems to create arguments, but thought and discussed in great detail every aspect of the cases. We were not only trying to win the argument, but come to grips with the philosophical issues deeply embedded in the cases as well as our own approaches. The sort of "on the fly" timed essays, talked about here, seem to negate philosophical thinking rather than encourage it. <br />Anyone who can come up with an decent argument in three hours with unfamiliar material is either a genius, overly confident, or only dealing with the issue superficially (most falling into the last case).<br /><br /> I would hope that in an ethics class, the focus should be on the importance of ethics and promoting the thoughtful consideration of an issue before coming to a decision. <br /><br />I do think that this could be a great way of testing a student's ability to apply ethical systems, or timed critical thinking skills. Perhaps this should be used as only part of the final in conjunction with a paper in which the student has time to properly digest all the implications of the issue at hand.<br /><br />Any thoughts?William Parkhursthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07441198744386150525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-78313344798207659692011-04-23T21:23:20.928-07:002011-04-23T21:23:20.928-07:00David, no, nothing special. They knew what was com...David, no, nothing special. They knew what was coming, but I didn't reveal the format until the final week of the term.Michael Cholbihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-67838166932316342652011-04-22T15:22:28.171-07:002011-04-22T15:22:28.171-07:00I'd been planning to introduce something like ...I'd been planning to introduce something like this in my contemporary moral issues course in the fall: the exams will involve "ethics bowl" type questions on issues that we haven't discussed in class. I'm glad to hear that you've had a positive experience with such exams. With that encouragement, I might try something similar in an upper-level ethics course, too.<br /><br />My thinking is that this sort of exam requires a course that is specifically designed to prepare students for that sort of task. In the contemporary moral issues case, this strikes me as fairly straightforward. We can focus on argumentation and ways of arguing in ethics, and we can do plenty of practice activities. I don't feel much pressure to cover the "classics" of applied ethics.<br /><br />In a different course, like Intro to Philosophy (to answer Matthew's question), I think I'd want to focus the course on building specific skills, such as argument analysis or the framing of objections, and have students apply those skills to articles or excerpts that were new to them. You might say, "We've covered twelve topics. 48 hours before the exam, you'll be given articles on eight of those topics. You'll have to answer questions about any five of them on exam day." If you choose articles cleverly, knowing the course material well could be of help in understanding the articles. If you convince the students of that, they might study all twelve topics prior to the announcement of the eight articles.<br /><br />Michael, did you do anything different in this course to prepare students for this type of exam?david morrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17628941227584383772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-80381615284500492682011-04-21T06:44:21.951-07:002011-04-21T06:44:21.951-07:00I like the idea, but I'll have to think about ...I like the idea, but I'll have to think about how to apply it in, say, my intro to philosophy courses, where the range of topics covered is rather diverse.Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-79382427960437449432011-04-20T10:09:52.053-07:002011-04-20T10:09:52.053-07:00Nathan, I don't have exact numbers, but eying ...Nathan, I don't have exact numbers, but eying it, I'd say the average grade was about the same but the distribution was wider than it's typically been for final exams in this course in the past. Again, my suspicion is that since recall of past material plays little role in these exams, the student performances will be more divergent.Michael Cholbihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-36400699627409639352011-04-20T05:11:26.889-07:002011-04-20T05:11:26.889-07:00Maybe I'm missing this in my quick reading, bu...Maybe I'm missing this in my quick reading, but how did the students do, overall?<br />NathanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com