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Andrew Fisher
Lecturer / Director of Teaching for the Faculty of Arts/Senior Tutor, Faculty of Arts
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Biography
I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2000 with a first class honors degree in Philosophy and an MPhil. I then completed a PhD at St Andrews University and graduated in 2004. The title of my thesis is 'Naturalism, Normativity and the "Open Question" argument' and was supervised by Professor John Skorupski. In the thesis I argued that reductive accounts of morality will always fail, due to the normativity of morality; and that this is best illustrated via the 'Open Question' argument. I started work as a Teaching Fellow at The University of Nottingham in 2003, I was then promoted to Lecturer in 2006. In 2009 I completed my Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (full 60 credits). In 2010 I graduated from Nottingham with an MA in Higher Education.
Teaching Summary
I love all aspects of teaching and I am fascinated by the philosophy of education, and what a University should be. I am passionate about the transformative features of education and the way… read more
Research Summary
I am currently (2012) co-authoring a book with Kate Exley and Dragos Ciobanu on how technology can support teaching. I am contributing chapters on the use of video and podcast, virtual 3D… read more
Recent Publications
2012. The Word of Faith Movement: Are we little gods?. In: Philosophical Explorations of New and Alternative Religious Movements Ashgate.
2011. Metaethics: An Introduction Acumen.
BAKER, G, ed., 2011. Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
2011. Teaching Children to Think: Some Reflections on Teaching Philosophy in Primary Schools. In: Arts Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
I love all aspects of teaching and I am fascinated by the philosophy of education, and what a University should be. I am passionate about the transformative features of education and the way education can raise aspirations.
It is for this reason that I regularly engage with the community by teaching Philosophy in local primary schools and run a Youth Club in Bulwell. In 2009 I gained a qualification to teach the 'Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme' which was partly funded by the University of Nottingham's Knowledge Transfer Fund and in 2010, a grant from the Royal Institute of Philosophy enabled me to develop a philosophy in primary school programme.
I regularly use many e-learning innovations in my teaching, such as vodcasts, podcasts, student response units, Second Life. I am also very interested in the role and nature of assessment. I have varied my assessment methods for my modules using such things as assessed oral presentations and poster presentations.
Some Teaching related Videos I've been involved in:
- NUSA promotional video
- Video of my outreach work in local primary Schools (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAqeQYfrLNs)
- A series of videos for 'Think a Minute':- a new philosophy led U-tube channel
- Using Student Response Units to improve Interaction in Lectures
- Preparing for using Student Response in Lecture
- Making a Podcast of a lecture: recording and uploading to WebCt
- What is Knowledge Transfer?
- Altering Lectures in Response to Student Inputs
- Support for Writing Skills
- Advising Students on Reading: prioritizing reading lists
- Recording Lectures and Key Topics as Audio Podcasts for flexible Study
I participated in:
"Children should be seen and not heard" which was a 30 minute discussion programme "Late Night City with Pete Price" on City Talk radio which is the biggest night-time talk show in the UK (outside London).
Current Research
- I am currently (2012) co-authoring a book with Kate Exley and Dragos Ciobanu on how technology can support teaching. I am contributing chapters on the use of video and podcast, virtual 3D environments, and new developments in e-learning.
- I am jointly supervising (50/50 with Dr Neil Sinclair) two PhD students.
- Mark Dimmock - who is working on Error-Theory in Ethics
- Luke Taylor - who is working on a theistic defence of Moral Realism.
Past Research
- I successfully supervised (with Dr Neil Sinclair 50/50) PhD student Greg Scorzo whose thesis discussed the epistemological weight of evidence in favour of moral realism
Future Research
- I am interested, within metaethics, in further defending a theistic moral realism, in particular how a natural kind semantic can be employed to defend a divine command theory.
- In the area of philosophy of education I'm interested in how far we can get in understanding the process of lecturing as an authentic performance.
2012. The Word of Faith Movement: Are we little gods?. In: Philosophical Explorations of New and Alternative Religious Movements Ashgate.
2011. Metaethics: An Introduction Acumen.
BAKER, G, ed., 2011. Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
2011. Teaching Children to Think: Some Reflections on Teaching Philosophy in Primary Schools. In: Arts Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
2010. Cognivitivsm without Realism. In: The Routledge Companion to Ethics Routledge.
2010. Learning in Virtual Worlds. In: Teaching for Integrative Learning
2009. How effective are Reusable Learning Objects at supporting didactic lectures?. In: Teaching for Integrative Learning
2009. Review: Mark Kalderon's Moral Fictionalism Philosophical Quarterly.
2009. Review: Folke Tersman's Moral Disagreement Notre Dame Reivew of Philosophy.
2007. Why Shouldn't Philosophers Teach Medical Ethics? Discourse. 227-236
2007. Review: Philosophy for Teens Teaching Philosophy.
KIRCHIN, S, ed., 2006. Arguing About Metaethics London.
2005. Watching Sport but Who is Watching? Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 32(2),
Review: Alex Miller's An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics Ethics.