The scholarship of teaching and learning: A scoping review protocol

The diversity of scholars, teachers, and practitioners in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a strength but also makes it a complex field to understand and navigate, and perhaps even more complex to contribute to, despite its youth. Beyond the ongoing efforts to define and theorize the field, SoTL needs a rigorous inventory taking and analysis that documents its highly traveled questions, topics, methods, and areas where more work needs to be done, as well as who is doing the work. We describe here our protocol for conducting a scoping review to map the range and nature of published SoTL projects. A scoping review is a first step in gathering information on areas that warrant deeper exploration. It will also allow SoTL to more fully and accurately be represented as a practice, an act of inquiry, and a type of research into teaching and learning

Metaphysical Compatibilism and the Ontology of Trans-World Personhood: A Neo-Lewisian Argument for the Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge (Determinism) and Metaphysical Free Will

David Lewis’ contemplations regarding divine foreknowledge and free will, along with some of his other more substantial work on modal realism and his counterpart theory can serve as a springboard to a novel solution to the foreknowledge and metaphysical freedom puzzle, namely a proposal that genuine metaphysical freedom is compatible with determinism, which is quite different from the usual compatibilist focus on the compatibility between determinism and moral responsibility. This paper argues that while Lewis opens the doors to such a possibility, in order to fully elucidate a genuinely metaphysical compatibilist account, Lewis’ own counterpart theory must be abandoned in favour of an account of trans-world identity that is theoretically framed by a modified version of Robert Nozick’s closest continuer theory

Shaking up story time

While the Philosophy for Children (P4C) method has been adopted within classrooms by individual teachers and into some school systems by schoolboards, public and school libraries, the ideal users of this sort of programming, have been slow to recognise the benefits of this didactic methodology. This is particularly surprising given that the P4C method integrates perfectly with traditional story-time orientated programming. Not only is the integration of P4C into story-time sessions virtually seamless (as it does not aim to replace, but rather strives to enhance story-telling), but it might also help reinvigorate a well-established feature of library programming with an aim to develop 21st-century information literacy competencies. This paper examines the case for the P4C method, explains the process of integration of the P4C method with traditional story-time, and highlights the potential benefits of incorporating Philosophy for Children in public and school library programming

Text-matching software in post-secondary contexts: A systematic review protocol

This protocol outlines the methods for our systematic review on commercial text-matching software (TMS). We propose to use Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) Methodology for Mixed Methods Systematic Reviews. This systematic review will provide insights into how TMS is used in post-secondary contexts, highlighting evidence relating to how well such software reduces incidences of plagiarism, and also how it can be used for educational purposes to support student learning at the undergraduate and graduate levels

Review of Humanist geography: An individual’s search for meaning. Staunton, by Yi-Fu Tuan

Review of Yi-Fu Tuan. (2012). Humanist Geography – An Individual’s Search for Meaning. George F. Thompson Publishing. 181 pages

Enlightened Self-Interest: In Search of the Ecological Self (A Synthesis of Stoicism and Ecosophy)

Neass’ Ecosophy and the Stoic attitude towards environmental ethics are often believed to be incompatible primarily because the first is often understood as championing an ecocentric standpoint while the latter espouses an egocentric (as well as an anthropocentric) view. This essay, however, argues that such incompatibility is rooted in a misunderstanding of both Ecosophy and Stoicism. Moreover, the essay argues that a synthesis of both the Ecosophical and Stoic approaches to environmental concerns results in a robust and satisfying attitude toward the environment, namely an enlightened self-interest, which not only guards our fragile environment from abuse, but also provides self-interested reasons and motivations for the protection of our natural surroundings

Why We Shouldn’t Pity Schrödinger’s Kitty: Revisiting David Lewis’ Worry About Quantum Immortality in a Branching Multiverse

David Lewis cautions that although a no-collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics entails immortality for trans-world selves, the nature of the branching leaves us crippled, lonely, deathly ill (although never dead), and mentally infirm, meaning that immortal life, on such terms, amounts to an existence in eternal torment. This paper argues that the problem Lewis points to is in fact one of individuation and that a synthesis of Lewis’ own notion of perdurance and Robert Nozick’s closest continuer theory, when cast in the mould of a deterministic multiverse (as conceived by the Oxford quantum physicist David Deutsch), individuates trans-world selves in such a way as to allow to prune the infinitesimal expectation of a miserable eternal existence from the histories of most trans-world agents. Thus, contrary to Lewis’ warning that if personal identity is a trans-world notion, then we should all shake in our shoes, this paper argues that even if we are trans-world selves, we almost certainly have nothing to worry about