{"id":14217,"date":"2014-01-13T09:52:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T14:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=14217"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:20:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:20:15","slug":"candy-for-your-thoughts-professor-challenges-students-to-a-sweet-debate-spotlight-on-vida-panitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2014\/candy-for-your-thoughts-professor-challenges-students-to-a-sweet-debate-spotlight-on-vida-panitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Candy for your thoughts: Professor challenges students to a sweet debate – Spotlight on Vida Panitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Samantha Wright Allen <\/em><\/p>\n

In Vida Panitch\u2019s class, discussions shape more about you than your letter grade.<\/p>\n

The philosophy professor uses in-class debates of day-to-day ethical issues to challenge how we reason in public forums.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we live in a world where controversy abounds,\u201d Panitch says. \u201cHow do we unpack them? How do we think through the moral problems?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her class has tackled questions like: When is it okay for a doctor to lie? Is it ethical to sex-select a fetus? It\u2019s a philosophy wrapped up in four simple words: practice of public reason. Students must learn how to make arguments and how to justify their claims in a way that people with other belief systems might understand and accept.<\/p>\n

So Panitch crafted an exercise to drill these ideas home. It garnered her a 2013 New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Halloween night, when Panitch admits her students were likely thinking of parties rather than philosophy, she brought in chocolates and lollipops. She placed the pile at the front of the room and asked one simple question: \u201cHow should we distribute it?\u201d<\/p>\n

But in Panitch\u2019s class, no question is simple.<\/p>\n

Students were soon asking \u2013 should chocolate allergies be taken into account, did it matter if a student worked harder on the paper or were destined for a better grade? By the end, students had applied the eight competing principles of inequality to a bowl of candy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were loving it and I was loving it,\u201d Panitch says. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe how beautifully it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question became what she intended: How do we accommodate different beliefs people have about the equal distribution of public goods?<\/p>\n

\u201cThese little experiments are just a way of waking the students up to some of these larger debates,\u201d Panitch says. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of introducing these principles to them in a way that resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s used the format in small seminars and large classrooms, and this semester one of her classes will be a guinea pig for a larger series.<\/p>\n

And whether students stay in philosophy, this style of public reasoning is a skill they can take with them.<\/p>\n

But Panitch, who time and again gets points for her enthusiasm, says it\u2019s also her goal to make them stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think whether or not you love philosophy has to do with the first person who teaches it to you, so you\u2019ve got to make it fun and make them realize why it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Samantha Wright Allen In Vida Panitch\u2019s class, discussions shape more about you than your letter grade. The philosophy professor uses in-class debates of day-to-day ethical issues to challenge how we reason in public forums. \u201cI think we live in a world where controversy abounds,\u201d Panitch says. \u201cHow do we unpack them? How do we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[214,377,439],"yoast_head":"\nCandy for your thoughts: Professor challenges students to a sweet debate - Spotlight on Vida Panitch - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By: Samantha Wright Allen In Vida Panitch\u2019s class, discussions shape more about you than your letter grade. 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