Twitter..

So - we now have an official twitter account for the course at @RPEatGlos  - we will no doubt tweet endlessly, it'll be a constant stream of wisdom..

The Trade Secret: Robert Newman on Fiction, Politics, and the Past

7.30pm, FCTC001, March 26^th 2014 - Book a place HERE

Robert Newman is an author, broadcaster, comedian, and political activist, who will be making a rare public speaking appearance at The University of Gloucestershire on March 26^th 2014. 

He read English at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before finding fame as a comedian on the BBC’s The Mary Whitehouse Experience. He was then half of Newman and Baddiel, described by The Guardian as ‘the most successful comedy duo of all time.’ But after a pioneering, record-breaking tour that famously sold out Wembley Arena, Newman turned his back on main-stream stadium comedy, pursuing a solo career as a novelist and political comedian. His first novel, Dependence Day, won the £10,000 Betty Trask Award, though he now claims ‘it wasn’t very good.’ In 1999, after his second novel, Manners, was published by Penguin, Newman briefly returned to television, reporting on the anti-WTO protests in Seattle for Channel 4. 

His return to comedy saw him produce a series of erudite politicised solo shows that have toured in Britain and America, and have seen him compared to Lenny Bruce and described as ‘the funniest comedian I’ve ever seen’ in The Sunday Times, and ‘breathtakingly, heartbreakingly, goosepimplingly brilliant’ in The Scotsman. In 2005, he finally returned to television comedy when his show A History of Oil screened on More4, and in 2006 the BBC commissioned a six-part series, A History of the World Backwards. However, Newman continues to make his name as one of the most exciting and unusual of contemporary British novelists. His third novel, A Fountain at the Centre of the World, was chosen as a book of the year by Dave Eggers and described in The New York Times as ‘the talismanic Catch-22 of the antiglobalization protest movement.’ The Guardian argued it was a ‘wonderful, big-hearted, textured, funny, moral and deeply unfashionable book’, while The Independent asked if it could ‘herald a resuscitation of the English "literary political novel", almost dead in the water since the best work of Malcolm Lowry and Graham Greene’. 

Newman will join us to discuss politics, fiction, history, and his new novel, The Trade Secret – an outrageous, continent-crossing epic that subtly blends fact and fiction, and is described by The Guardian as ‘a rollicking Elizabethan yarn that has much to say about the origins and nature of modern capitalism.’

Forgive me Ofqual I am about to Sin…

A Opinion Piece by Frances O'Hagan - an RPE Graduate who now teaches

“Life in education is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”[1]. If recent statistics are anything to go by, I can’t think of a more apt thing to start with.[2] This blog post is first and foremost about the changes that are happening to the AQA Philosophy syllabus; however I can’t help but start by putting things into some context. Firstly, this will not be an academic piece. As much as I love statistics, I realise that I am in the minority and therefore I will use them sparingly. This will be a post by me as a teacher of A Level Philosophy and the experiences I have had with it. However, I want to start with exams.

Exams. The educational assessment tool that love or loath is a fact of life. As a teacher you are judged by your exam results and because of this, I still fear results day. The knot of dread in my stomach that maybe I’ve messed up somehow or that the questions on the paper are not going to be like the practice ones that we do in class at all. I know it’s an irrational fear, but no amount of logic can be applied to the situation. However, I do know one thing. Exams (namely GCSEs) are getting easier. I know this because I work for an exam board writing GCSE papers. I also mark for an exam board and every year I am astonished at what passes for an answer. Every year I struggle with the ethics of what I’m doing and vow never to mark papers again[3]. Having said this, not marking papers would be stupid. It gives my students an advantage. A huge one. I know exactly how to answer the questions, what examiners look for and whilst I may not say it aloud to them, the techniques I learn year on year, feed into my teaching. There are bound to be some of you who are sat reading this outraged; “that’s not fair! Your students have a massive advantage!” Quite frankly, I don’t care if you think that; any teacher can become an examiner and do exactly what I’m doing. I am not, nor have I ever been an idealist. My love of Continental Philosophy put paid to that years ago.

All this being said, I do have one massive advantage. I work in the Independent Sector. Unlike my colleagues in the State Sector, whom I have a huge amount of respect for[4] I have more time. I have time to look at more interesting Philosophical arguments. For example, I have just spent 6 weeks looking at fallacies and propositional logic. No real use to my GCSE cohort but I know that I will get the syllabus finished. In fact, I could spend 1 year on content and a year just teaching the skills of the exam. That is however another argument and blog post. Back to AQA…

AQA[5] have decided in their wisdom that the A Level Philosophy needs to be changed.[6] Their argument for this is that the exam needs to be streamlined and that assessment needs to be improved. I will go from being able to choose from 7 topics at AS level (Reason and Experience is currently compulsory, and rightly so) to 2 compulsory topics. AQA are right to question the quality of assessment at A Level. In my own experiences, marking is patchy at best and grades vary massively. I had one student 2 years ago go from a D to a B after a remark! This is outrageous, especially as university places rely on these grades. This says something about the training (or lack of) that AQA give their examiners and the amount that you are paid to mark papers. A day is not long enough when marking A Levels. This does not mean however, that the need to throw the baby out with the bath water.

There are some excellent topics to choose from in the A Level. I get to teach wonderful topics such as Philosophy of Mind, Knowledge of the External World and Political Philosophy.  Not only that, a text! A real life book written by an ACTUAL philosopher! By the time my students get to university they have actually looked at some philosophy and to quote a recent email from an ex-student “I feel better equipped to deal with the course that I’m studying.” This is not to say that this A Level is easy, far from it. The Philosophy A Level is difficult and rightly so. It teaches you the necessary skills that you need and gives you an ability to discuss difficult concepts. This alone is hugely rewarding. A Levels, in my humble opinion are the hardest thing you ever have to do. My A Levels I found knackering (I did 5 of them). I don’t ever remember being told my Head of Sixth Form that they were easy.

So we have reached an impasse. AQA have acknowledged (finally) complaints from people like me about the consistency of marking and the need for something to be done about it. I applaud them. What they have done however is get rid of the choice of topics. I am able to teach things that interest not only me but also my students. AQA have now decided to give us no choice and we have to teach the Concept of God at AS. The God of Religion is not the same as the God of Philosophy. Religious God has a place. Just not at the detriment of a rigorous and challenging A Level and topics that are hugely important to look at.

AQA have consulted with the British Philosophical Association about the new A Level. The BPA have said that the new course is in line with undergraduate courses and topics that are already popular within schools. I am yet to receive a reply from the BPA about where they get their popularity figures from but I don’t think I would be too far off if I guessed that they looked at schools who teach the various Religious Studies A Levels that are on offer. Also, Philosophy requires a level of knowledge that an RE teacher may not have. I don’t wish this to sound condescending.

They are good A Level courses and I’m sure that most of you now doing your degree did that A Level but the point of the Philosophy A Level was that it is meant to be different. It’s difficult to teach in places because AQA are hopeless when it comes to supporting teachers, but with a little bit of reading between the lines, and countless emails to the head of examinations for Philosophy, it can be taught and taught well[7]. The new specification muddles the discipline of philosophy. It is not religion and I did a philosophy degree not a theology degree. The two cannot be mixed up and neither should they be. Secular Philosophy is important and worth studying.

The other issue with the AQA specification also reduces the marks that are given for a students’ ability to critique and construct arguments and more will be given for pure factual recall. An idiot can remember something and regurgitate it; what they can’t do is analyse and evaluate it. Undergraduate analysis will now be even more of a shock. The current A Level gives students the foundation that undergraduate study builds on; particularly when looking at Secular Philosophy and questioning assumptions that people make in life and about governments. It is essential that these skills are not lost.

So, what am I going to conclude? I am going to conclude that the demise of Philosophy A Level is devastating and the consequences will be far reaching. A levels as a whole will be poorer with the loss of the topics that are being sidelined and the pupils will be given even less choice. In an era of  unprecedented change in education and the pressure on teachers greater than it ever has been, perhaps this is the inevitable consequence of having an Education Secretary that is intent on making learning about factual recourse and less about skills. As a nation we are 26^th on the PISA Education Rankings[8], Asian countries are on top. Their attitude to learning is more like a factory farm rather than learning for the love of it. If this is the way that education is going. I don’t want to be a part of it.

---

[1] Please forgive the bastardisation on Hobbes. He is an excellent philosopher, his quote however serves a purpose

[2] A recent study by Ofsted showed that 40% of new teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years. I am on my 5^th year…

[3] I mark 600 a year at £2.90 per script. Not a lot of money (tax, national insurance and pension has to come out of the total) but this will become important later on in this post.

[4] I couldn’t do their job. The pressure is huge and the paperwork is monstrous.

[5] Assessment and Qualifications Alliance for the uninitiated. If Gove gets his way, it will also be the only exam board that exists after 2015.

[6] http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/philosophy

[7] Every one of my cohort last year when on to read philosophy as a single or joint honors at university. 3 of those students got As at A Level. 1 of them got 100% at A2. They were exceptionally bright.

[8] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25187997

Friday frivolity..

As it's nearly the weekend - I thought I'd post something less serious.

I've been having some text chats (using ifaketext.com in case you're interested) with dead philosophers...

You can see these entirely fictional exchanges at: my tumblr : http://dispirited-dave.tumblr.com/ 

Spirit, Soul, Body, Mind: A Day Conference on Biblical Spirituality

Saturday 1 March 2014, 10.00am-4.00pm in Room TC103, The Park Campus, Cheltenham.

For details take a look here: http://philosvids.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/5312_bibspiritbooklet_jan14.pdf 

Humanities Public Lecture - Tim Ingold

The next speaker in our series of Humanities Public Lecture is Tim Ingold, who will be speaking on 'Lines and Weather' on 31 January, Francis Close Hall TC001 (Main lecture theatre) at 7:30pm.

Professor Ingold is Chair in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. His work combines

anthropology, ecology, writing, space, art, human movement, and philosophy. He is the author of many books, includingMaking: Anthropology, Archaelogy, Art and Architecture (Routledge, 2013),Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (Routledge, 2011), The Perception of the Environment (Routledge, reissued 2000), andLines: A Brief History (Routledge, 2007).

 

Student, staff and the public are warmly invited to this very special event. Tickets are £5 to the public. University of Gloucestershire staff and students are admitted free of charge, but must obtain tickets through the Online Shop.

Updates?

These days - most of the RPE student activity seems to be on the Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPEglos/ - I would recommend a look at this for anyone who wants to get a real sense of what our students discuss..

The Francis Close Hall campus here in Cheltenham at the University of Gloucestershire

As Christmas approaches, we can look back at the recent RPE activity we've been engaging in. We went to Leicester for Diwali, have planned for Spain in March, again, and had a run of recent Open Days.

All this has been alongside our teaching - you can see our course maps : HERE.  Some modules ended the year with a Christmas Philosophy Quiz - where one third year student seemed to defeat all comers..

RPE Essay Competition Results:

Well - that was tough! We had over 30 essays for our competition - and there wasn't a bad one among them. We were hugely impressed by the quality - and choosing a winner was very challenging. But we like a challenge, and eventually came to a decision.

The overall winner was Sophia Cahatha from King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham.

An iPad will be on its way to you this week! 

Four Runners-Up will receive £20 Amazon vouchers.

These were:

• Georgina Sage (Cheltenham Ladies College)
• Liu He (Concord College, Shropshire)
• Aabynn Cha (Eton College)
• Beth Richards (Wellsway Sixth Form, Keynsham)

Well done to the winners - but also to all those who took part. The winning essay is here: https://philosvids.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/sophia-chatha-rpe-winning-2013-essay.docx

More little videos

Is Reason better than (blind) Faith? http://wp.me/p2xWwL-66
 Another of our short Philosophy of Religion videos..

There also some new videos about Buddhism on here -including one where Dr William Large asks me a bunch of difficult questions
: http://philosvids.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/buddhism-ethics-suffering-and-more/ 

Essay Competition..

Just a quick update: We are currently judging the entries, and will publish the results (on this blog) on Friday 6th December..

Open Day 12th October

A student learning space at FCH

We have an Open Day on 12th October. Our bit will be at the Francis Close Hall campus of the University of Gloucestershire (there is a virtual tour HERE, but it doesn't have all the refurbishments done over the summer).

As well as our usual admissions, accommodation, and finance advisers, some RPE academic staff  will not only give a talk - but be on hand to chat to throughout the event. You'll also spot (in lovely blue sweatshirts) Student Ambassadors, who help with campus and accommodation tours- and answer all kinds of questions.


A lot of the questions we are asked are about course content - and this 'course map' HERE may help. As may our leaflet that you can download HERE.

FCH Campus

This blog dates back to 2006 (blogs really are that old!) - and you can look back through the archives to get a real sense of all the stuff we do that is in addition to the lectures, seminars and tutorials that make up the formal sessions. We have an RPE course Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPEglos/ and this is open to all. It's often very lively - and is a chance for potential students to get a real feel for the experience here. A lot of our ex-students remain members (some are now teachers, or work in a whole range of careers - but are still in the group and active with current and potential students): feel free to take a look.

 Those who know the campus may be interested to see the refurb of the FCH refectory - so here is a picture:

New to Philosophy?

I have recently been asked by some of our new student intake which books I would recommend for someone coming to philosophy for the first time, and it is also a question that often crops up at Open Days. To some extent it is a subjective matter (and I'm sure other staff and students have their own views here), but based on some student feedback, there are a couple of gems that are consistently praised. 

Adopting a thematic approach, Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: The Basics does exactly what 'it says on the tin': it's concise, accessible, walks you through the basics, and encourages you to 'do' philosophy. 



Another favourite of many is Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy which adopts an historical approach and gives the reader a sense of how philosophy has developed over the years, although I should point out it was published in 1911, so you won't get anything after that!

To keep up with current developments you might like to take out a subscription to The Philosopher's Magazine. Although it is a 'magazine' and not a journal, it provides a good balance between not being too dense, but also not too simplistic in its approach to topics and issues.

Journal of Buddhist Ethics turns 20..

Journal of Buddhist Ethics

The Journal of Buddhist Ethics is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Which is great. What is better is that it is free.

Really high quality articles - for the relevant module here - but also for any student. The entire back-catalogue is searchable - and the comment and discussion after many pieces is of a very high quality indeed: see HERE for a recent example of this.

I hope our students continue to make use of it.

Just as an aside.. In the 20th Anniversary Edition there is an article by Abraham Vélez - some of the third years may remember he came to the Buddhism lecture last year with Justin Whitaker (who did some meditation with us), and too part in the discussion. His article is on 'The Dalai Lama and the Nature of Buddhist Ethics' - you can download the pdf (free, of course) HERE. Se more on this at : http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2013/09/journal-of-buddhist-ethics-turns-20.html

Cheers,
Dave.

Lots of events for students..

As lectures begin, there are also various other events for RPE students to attend locally.  Cheltenham Skeptics in the Pub meets regularly (oddly enough, in a pub) - and there is a talk about Scientology this week that  should interest those doing RPE. The website has details: http://cheltenham.skepticsinthepub.org 

We also have, locally, Gloucestershire Philosophical Society, who meet at out FCH campus  (where RPE is based). Students are very welcome at their talks - see http://www.glosphilsoc.co.uk/whatson.html for the current list of upcoming talks. Note the Dr William Large, one of the RPE staff, will be doing one of the GPS talks this term.

FCH Campus..

As well as these events, well shortly be announcing some details of RPE seminars and trips this academic year. We hope to repeat the Diwali trip (to glamorous Leicester), as well as the 2nd year trip to Spain of course..

Cheers, Dave.

The Story of the Jews...

Over at our sister blog (TRS at Gloucestershire) - Professor Melissa Raphael  offers a review of  Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews: Click HERE to see the review.

The first episode is visible here - but may be only for a limited period.