Slow down, you move too fast...

This week, I paid attention to the speed of material and content of my class meetings, with the idea that I'd try to slow things down a bit to get students to think more actively and deeply.  Though we covered less of the material in the textbook than I might have liked, slowing down allowed us to transition between types of material (from parts of the argument to good vs. bad arguments to vagueness, ambiguity, and fallacies), and to allow students to spend more time in discussion and problem workshops.  I think it was useful.

An added benefit of slowing down was that I was able to introduce topics into our discussion that I hadn't anticipated.  An extra day, for example, on cognitive vs. emotive meaning, allowed me time to explore ideas in the news that I felt really should be discussed in classes.  I devoted part of Wednesday's class to a discussion of ISIS's use of video (of beheadings and burnings) to create emotive meaning.  It was a difficult discussion, but one that I hope caused students to think about both world events and Logic in new ways.

Covering less material in my 50 minute class periods this week also allowed for a little forecasting of coming topics, which I always think is a good idea and never seem to leave time for at the end of the class.  I might regret these decisions at the end of the semester when we've barely scratched the surface of propositional logic, but my hope is that giving students more time to discuss and apply what they're learning will lead to better use of their skills later on.  Though reading and exercises are essential to learning Logic, so are applying and discussing concepts.  Our teaching center just happens to have a newsletter coming out on Monday with an article on "Increasing class participation through inquiry" which has lots of tips on how to use questions to start, maintain, and ensure the quality of class discussion.

Tune in next week for a new theme:  speeding up while still using most of class for application and discussion!  To prepare for this, I've started putting more resources online (flipping the classroom, as they say) for use outside of class (such as practice quizzes that give immediate feedback--things I might usually do in class).