Philosophers’ Views on the Use of Non-Essay Assessment Methods: Discussion of an E-Mail Survey

This paper presents and discusses the results of an email survey which asked participants to share their views on the efficacy of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or matching questions as evaluation methods in philosophy courses. First, the structure of the survey and its contents are explained. Next, responses are broken down along the lines of student responses and teacher responses. In both cases, there was significant disagreement among respondents, though there were notable patterns emerged. Student arguments in favor of non-essay assessment emphasized the expedience; arguments against emphasized the inadequacy of such evaluation methods to the nuances of philosophical material. Teacher responses echoed student responses but included considerations of fairness, ambiguity in student answers, student motivation, and justifications for non-essay assessment in specific contexts. Finally, the author discusses respondents’ opinions on whether philosophy departments should ban non-essay questions. The author concludes by suggesting that the results of this survey merit attention as an indication of how widespread the difficulties of non-essay assessment are and as an indication of the diversity of views on the subject

The Kantian Grounding of Einstein’s Worldview: (I) The Early Influence of Kant’s System of Perspectives

Recent perspectival interpretations of Kant suggest a way of relating his epistemology to empirical science that makes it plausible to regard Einstein’stheory of relativity as having a Kantian grounding. This first of two articles exploring this topic focuses on how the foregoing hypothesis accounts for variousresonances between Kant’s philosophy and Einstein’s science. The great attention young Einstein paid to Kant in his early intellectual development demonstrates the plausibility of this hypothesis, while certain features of Einstein’s cultural-political context account for his reluctance to acknowledge Kant’s influence, even though contemporary philosophers who regarded themselves as Kantians urged him to do so. The sequel argues that this Kantian grounding probably had a formative influence not only on Einstein’s discovery of the theory of relativity and his view of the nature of science, but also on his quasi-mystical, religious disposition

Kant’s religious argument for the existence of God: The ultimate dependence of human destiny on divine assistance

After reviewing Kant’s well-known criticisms of the traditional proofs of God’s existence and his preferred moral argument, this paper presents a detailedanalysis of a densely-packed theistic argument in Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. Humanity’s ultimate moral destiny can be fulfilled only through organized religion, for only by participating in a religious community can we overcome the evil in human nature. Yet we cannot conceive how such a community can even be founded without presupposing God’s existence. Viewing God as the internal moral lawgiver, empowering a community of believers, is Kant’s ultimate rationale for theistic belief

To Tell the Truth on Kant and Christianity: Will the Real Affirmative Interpreter Please Stand Up!

After reviewing the history of the “affirmative” approach to interpreting Kant’s Religion, I offer four responses to the symposium papers in the previous issue of Faith and Philosophy. First, incorrectly identifying Kant’s two “experiments” leads to misunderstandings of his affirmation of Christianity. Second, Kant’s Critical Religion expounds a thoroughgoing interpretation of these experiments, and was not primarily an attempt to confirm the architectonic introduced in Kant’s System of Perspectives. Third, the surprise positions defended by most symposium contributors render the “affirmative” label virtually meaningless. Finally, if Kant is read as constructing perspectival philosophy, not theology, the compatibility of his positions with Christianity stands

Uniform: The Form Validation Language

Digital forms are becoming increasingly more prevalent but the ease of creation is not. Web Forms are difficult to produce and validate. This design project seeks to simplify this process. This project is comprised of two parts: a logical programming language (Uniform) and a web application. Uniform is a language that allows its users to define logical relationships between web elements and apply simple rules to individual inputs to both validate the form and manipulate its components depending on user input. Uniform provides an extra layer of abstraction to complex coding. The web app implements Uniform to provide business-level programmers with an interface to build and manage forms. Users will create form templates, manage form instances, and cooperatively complete forms through the web app. Uniform’s development is ongoing, it will receive continued support and is available as open-source. The web application is software owned and maintained by HP Inc. which will be developed further before going to market

Run For Your Life

The early morning sun spread its lazy rays across the room and an occasioned beam broke ranks to leap at my sleeping eyes. My mind fought to retain the comfortable cobwebs it had accumulated during the night and I jerked the covers up over my head..

FROM DINOSAURS TO DISCIPLINARY THINKING: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF CHILDREN’S KNOWLEDGE ON FAMILY LEARNING TALK IN A DESIGNED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This study explored the influence of young children’s dinosaur knowledge on parent-child learning talk in a dinosaur exhibition designed to support visitor engagement with disciplinary concepts. A knowledge assessment interview identified children between the age of 5 and 8 years old with expert and novice levels of dinosaur knowledge. Families completed a pre-test, a visit to a museum exhibition, and a post-test. Content and discourse analysis were used to examine the patterns of learning talk generated by 30 families—15 with experts and 15 with novices. Findings suggest the designed learning environment effectively supported parent engagement in a wide range of learning talk regardless of children’s level of dinosaur knowledge. However, findings also indicated that expert children initiated and engaged in disciplinary learning talk more than novice children. In addition, expert children and their parents were more equally engaged in disciplinary learning talk while in contrast novice parents initiated and managed significantly more of this kind of learning talk than their children. Taken together, these findings indicate that child knowledge can influence family opportunities to engage in learning talk about disciplinary concepts and suggest implications for the design of informal learning environments that can support increased family engagement with complex science concepts like ecology and evolution

Design elements of conflict : A design study of a gamified smartphone application for employee onboarding

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