Heidegger's Hermeneutic Method in Tertiary Education
In Fowler Pip, Strongman Luke & Kobeleva Polly (eds.),
Writing the Future. Tertiary Writing Network (
2011)
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Abstract
Heidegger’s hermeneutic method and his account of
pedagogy are useful in teaching students how to think
and write. This paper interprets the method of thinking
which Martin Heidegger taught to his students and
indicates strategies that have been used to introduce that
method to New Zealand students in an online course.
The method appears to philosophers as a technique of
conceptual analysis, although Heidegger may not have
agreed with that characterisation or its use in this way. To
tertiary teachers it is one framework that they may use to
teach a strategy and techniques under the rubric of critical
thinking. The use of the method of procedure proposed
is well within the capabilities of teachers in practical
subjects such as business, management, medicine and
law. Students in the author’s business analysis course say
that a hermeneutic strategy forces them to struggle, but
ultimately they report satisfaction at their increased abilities
and believe that they have gained something efficacious.