Nathaniel

Tutoring Experience

Over the last two semesters, I have served as a teaching assistant for three courses, and through this experience, I’ve fostered a keen interest in pedagogy and teaching. Most recently I have been a teaching assistant for an environmental ethics WIT course. WIT stands for ‘writing-intensive teaching’ -- basically; the course is designed to give students feedback that will help them become better philosophical writers and essay writers generally. From my end, this required that I received additional training in providing students with feedback that is clear and actionable. Of course, it is very difficult to teach a student to write philosophically, without teaching them to reason philosophically. As such, this semester I’ve paid close attention to explaining logical concepts in ways that students (some of whom have no philosophical background) can understand and employ in their work.

Tutoring Approach

LSAT: my approach to the LSAT will vary depending on the student’s familiarity with the test and the relevant concepts. However, my general approach is to tackle the test from a foundational perspective, providing students first and foremost with the reasoning expertise they will need to succeed. As such, I expect to spend my first few sessions with a student reviewing or introducing basic logical concepts such as conditional reasoning, contrapositive reasoning, disjunctive reasoning etc. The goal of this is to help students become proficient in translating natural language sentences into symbolic logic. After this, my approach will depend on student specific needs.

Essay Writing: My approach to essay writing will typically involve a close reading of an outline or draft – sometimes multiple drafts. While I examine specific aspects of the paper (structure, argumentation, clarity). I’ll typically provide essay-specific feedback and then generalize this feedback so that the student can apply it to later work. Of course, I will point out mechanical issues (grammar, word choice) along the way.

Philosophy: For philosophical essay writing my approach will be similar to my essay writing approach, but will involve more dialectical teaching. I’ll ask probing questions about the argument and present the student with potential objections. I am also happy to discuss specific philosophical topics at length or provide students with a mini-lecture or hand out on the relevant topic or philosopher. I am especially qualified to discuss contemporary ethics, early analytic philosophy, contemporary philosophy of mind, and symbolic logic.