PHIL220 - Special Study in Philosophy

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

PHIL100 Philosophy: the Big Questions or PHIL102 Theories of Human Nature or PHIL104 Introduction to Ethics or PHIL107 Philosophy of World Religions or PHCC102 Being Human or PHCC104 Ethics and the Good Life

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

This second-year unit offers studies from time to time in an area of philosophy as determined by a member of staff or a visiting scholar in consultation with the Head of School, or as proposed by an advanced undergraduate student via the submission of a research proposal. The aim of the unit is to provide students with opportunities to study important areas of philosophy that might not otherwise be covered by the regular cycle of unit offerings. Like all philosophy units, this unit is designed to strengthen students' philosophical acumen and to provide them with knowledge and skills appropriate to the discipline. It also provides a platform for the development and enhancement of critical thinking skills important across a range of occupations or professions.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will be chosen by the member of staff or visiting scholar in consultation with the Head of School, or as approved following the submission of a student research project proposal. 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning, or the equivalent of 10 hours per week for 15 weeks. The total includes any formally structured learning activities such as lectures, tutorials, online learning, video-conferencing, or supervision. The remaining hours typically involve reading, research, and the preparation of tasks for assessment.

The learning and teaching strategy will vary depending on whether the unit is delivered to a cohort through the provision of lectures and tutorials, or alternatively as a directed research unit for an individual student/s. 

In the case of the former, the unit will proceed as a blend of project learning along with direct instruction within a collaborative context. The direct instruction ensures that students develop a grounding in understanding basic problems, concepts and arguments in the area of study (LO1). The project learning enables the students to apply those concepts and theories critically and reflectively to problems in the field, and this feeds into the achievement of the other aim of the unit concerning the development of philosophical skills of analysis, interpretation and argumentation (LO2-3). The collaborative context of the unit is focused especially on the weekly tutorial, during which the emphasis is on small group discussion of the weekly readings. Students engage in class discussions, provide written critiques of significant theories, and present their reasoned position on matters at issue, after being introduced to them through readings and lectures.  

In cases where the unit takes the form of a directed research project, the learning and teaching strategy is characterised more by the provision of supervisory support for the student/s. It is through the provision of this support that students are assisted to meet all three of the unit learning outcomes. Such support includes assistance in the refinement of the research project, direction in terms of reading lists of key texts in the field, clarification of key concepts and theories arising from this reading, provocations toward critical analysis of unit reading, and support during the research essay drafting process.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy for this unit has been designed to examine students’ understanding of the philosophical issues and theories under consideration, as well as their ability to critically analyse those issues and theories. When offered in semester attendance mode, this is done through a series of three graduated assessment tasks. The first two tasks prepare students for the third and principal task of writing an extended research essay. The two structured written tasks require students to demonstrate an understanding of the key concepts and theories, and increasingly to engage critically with some key texts in the field. The research essay requires students to research an area of the unit in further detail, and to develop and defend a coherent position of their own in a formally structured argumentative essay. When offered in directed study project mode, the learning outcomes are achieved through a two-stage process by which the student/s work with the supervising lecturer to develop a clear research proposal, argument, and bibliography, before then submitting the final essay at semester’s end.   

Overview of assessments

Semester attendance mode:

Directed Study Project mode:

Representative texts and references

In the case of semester attendance mode, a reading list will be provided by the lecturer on the basis of the area of study being offered. In the case of Directed Study Project mode, an appropriate reading list will be generated by the lecture and student/s in the early weeks of semester.