Teaching Philosophy

Volume 26, Issue 4, December 2003

Learning at a Deeper Level

This paper contends that the focus on “conceptual learning” at the expense of “deeper learning” is an important and pervasive problem in educational institutions. Whereas students are able to articulate philosophical concepts and offer strong arguments for their preferred philosophical positions, these views often are not instantiated in their daily lives, e.g. they are able to articulate the importance of analyzing an argument before casting judgment on an argument, but when actually faced with an argument, they ignorance analysis for judgment. This paper provides an account of what “deeper learning” is and offers several suggestions for how to produce deeper learning in students.