I was Dennis’ student when he was a TA for PHIL 1000. Thinking back on all the tutorials I have had over my three years at York, I enjoyed Dennis’ tutorials the most because he is a charismatic educator and clearly demonstrates the desire for his students to succeed. In many of my other tutorials, the TA in charge would pose questions, and the students would discuss the question in groups. Dennis on the other hand, goes above and beyond the typical norm for tutorials. Whenever possible, he creates an activity for the class so that we can better understand a theory. One activity he ran was to better delineate distributive justice. He gave each of us a coloured paper representing a kind of service, and each round we would have to acquire various services to survive. The activity greatly helped me understand how everyone in a community can start economically equal but end with a great difference in wealth. As an educator myself, I understand how difficult it can be to run an activity. It requires a coherent explanation, passion for the activity, and effective facilitation skills. Dennis demonstrated to me that he has all of the above. He was able to explain the complex activity to the whole class, so that everyone in it was able to participate without being lost or confused. He came into the tutorial full of energy and got everyone excited to participate – even those who rarely wish to participate in typical discussions. Dennis also actively facilitated the activity to ensure that the transactions abided by the rules, and that everyone was engaged. After the activity was completed, he made sure to debrief at the end before class was up. The debrief portion is where Dennis explicitly connected the concepts from lecture to the activity. His activities are memorable and applicable, which is why I can recall information from PHIL 1000 even if that happened a couple years ago.
Furthermore, Dennis was extremely helpful during his office hours. Being a first-year student at the time, I felt uncomfortable asking for one-on-one help from any TA. Dennis was the only TA at the time I would go to for extra guidance because he is very approachable, and I felt that he genuinely wanted his students to come for extra help. Even though I was not struggling, I had difficulty formulating a strong argument and structuring my paper in a well-organized manner. Dennis was very careful whenever he guided me through the paper, as he explicitly told me he did not want to give away any answers, nor tell me exactly how to format my argument. He walked that fine line between mentoring and over-helping very well.
Dennis had redefined essay writing for me, which allowed me to scrap the “high school essay” mentality that I was stuck in. I would go home after his tutorials and his office hours thinking about what I had learned and started to critically think about the implications surrounding a concept. In other words, I did not just wholly believe in a theorist, and take everything he/she said as right. Instead, I would think about its merits, and its argumentative faults, and come to a conclusion myself. Dennis taught me how to critically think, and also how to apply my thoughts onto a paper.
I recently went through my stack of graded assignments to throw away unnecessary papers. I looked at my essays that Dennis marked, and I reread his comments. I realized that after the course was over, I never made the same mistakes in future essays again. His feedback was extremely helpful, and constructive. My writing became more focused and explicit, which allowed me to avoid writing surface level papers. All in all, my grades started to increase at an even faster rate after having Dennis as my TA. Even though my major is in English – with a minor in Philosophy – I am able to apply what Dennis taught me and write essays that generally fall in the high 80’s to low 90’s range.
All in all, Dennis reshaped my ability to critically think and write. Without these two important skills, I may not be achieving the high grades I have today. I know I can confidently attribute part of my success to Dennis because when I write papers, I am consciously aware of his feedback, as I do not wish to repeat the mistakes I made in my first year.
Dennis Papadopoulos 