’Didactics of Philosophical Writing – cultivating Thinking Skills with Writing Exercises

Description

The goal of the project was to improve thinking by means of writing exercises. Philosophy is ideal to practice expository, critical, analytic, evaluative, and creative writing skills in connection to thinking abilities because writing is essential for philosophical research. The objective was to design specific writing exercises for the courses that would embody the writing processes of research that cultivate excellence of thinking.

The more concrete focus was to improve the students’ ability to write essays, helping them to become more precise, clear and how to best present their ideas. The more ambitious aim was to empower students with an ongoing self-reflective attitude concerning their thinking. The exercises were created to help students recognize how writing transforms and improves thinking. Overall, the project fostered writing as a transferable self-corrective tool. This provides students new ways to create and maintain healthy habits of mind for better thinking.