One of my main goals for the new Introduction to Philosophy class is to encourage students to explore big questions and concepts that they find interesting or relevant to life today.  I want students to move beyond passively learning about philosophers, ideas, and theories throughout our history of thought to actively evaluating and connecting these concepts to their own experiences and world views.  To this end, I have assigned my students a “Big Question” project.  Here is a link to the details of the first stage process.  The project is inquiry based and will be developed throughout the first semester.

Currently, students have chosen and refined a “Big Question” of interest.  They are researching what other philosophers and schools of thought have said about this concept.  As the semester progresses, students will continue to make connections between what we are learning in class with the question, find articles and media that develop it, and finally come to their own understanding.

I am impressed by the questions with which my students have decided to grapple.  Here are some examples.  Is an utopian society possible?  What is the nature of love? Why are human beings so often dissatisfied?  What is beauty?  I meet with students individually to discuss the question.  I also communicate with each student through Schoology as they research and struggle through difficult reading.  So far these discussions have shown students working with these ideas, clarifying what and why she is interested in the topic, and how she is seeing these ideas’ relevance today.

This exercise does highlight the need for a different way of organizing instructional time during the day.  These topics require sustained focus, questioning, and thought.  Our current school day and year don’t allow students this kind of time to deep dive.  With the time we have, students are beginning to scratch the surface of sustained philosophical inquiry.