Until last year, the Swiss Philosophy Olympiad did not organise any preparation for the final. Participants were encouraged to study the evaluation criteria and documents containing tips, or to ask their philosophy teachers for feedback on previous essays. In the spring of 2026, the idea of offering essay coaching arose spontaneously. Thanks to the growing voluntary involvement of former participants and students in the Swiss Philosophy Olympiad, there was sufficient capacity to assign a coach to every finalist.<\/p>\r\n
But is essay writing actually something that can be learned? If so \u2013 how? In the survey conducted after the essay coaching sessions, participants were encouraged to reflect on these questions. In their responses, they distinguished between individual components of essay writing, such as formulating sound arguments or structuring a text. Essay writing thus emerged as a mosaic of various skills that could be specifically improved through modular exercises, depending on the learners\u2019 individual strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\r\n
The Swiss Philosophy Olympiad is organised by students in their spare time, and our resources are limited. This is why the English version of this list is currently only available as an AI-generated translation. You can support us: if you spot an error or awkward wording, simply request editing access and help us improve the document \u2013 and if you have a method to share with your colleagues, please feel free to add it:<\/p>\r\n
To the method collection<\/a><\/p>\r\n About the author: <\/strong>Lara Gafner is the president of the Swiss Philosophy Olympiad, is currently training to become a philosophy teacher, and will be teaching at Gymnasium Thun in the coming school year. This version of the collection of teaching methods was produced for an assignment as part of the subject didactics course at the P\u00e4dagogische Hochschule Bern.<\/p>","datetime":1784292900,"datetimeend":0,"newstype":1,"newstypetext":null,"links":"","subjects":["Tips"],"image":["https:\/\/science.olympiad.ch\/fileadmin\/_processed_\/9\/d\/csm_55135366874_3367730335_b_218218f5cd.jpg"],"link":"https:\/\/philosophy.olympiad.ch\/en\/news\/news\/learning-essay-writing-a-collection-of-methods-by-the-philosophy-olympiad","category":[{"uid":1,"title":"Philosophy"},{"uid":5,"title":"Startseite"}]},{"uid":5158,"title":"The agenda of the Science Olympiad","teasertext":"The dates of the first rounds in 2026\/2027 are now available!","short":"","body":"","datetime":1782898920,"datetimeend":0,"newstype":1,"newstypetext":null,"links":"https:\/\/science.olympiad.ch\/en\/agenda","subjects":["Tips"],"image":["https:\/\/science.olympiad.ch\/fileadmin\/_processed_\/5\/4\/csm_Screenshot_2026-06-25_161724_d74c340d03.webp"],"link":"https:\/\/science.olympiad.ch\/en\/news\/news\/agenda-2026\/2027","category":[{"uid":4,"title":"Association"},{"uid":5,"title":"Startseite"}]},{"uid":5117,"title":"Building Satellites Inside a Soda Can","teasertext":"The Swiss Astronomy Olympiad is launching the Swiss CanSat competition for high school students in collaboration with ESA. Working in teams, participants will design and build a fully functional mini-satellite that fits inside a standard soft drink can.","short":"The Swiss Astronomy Olympiad is launching the Swiss CanSat competition for high school students in collaboration with ESA. Working in teams, participants will design and build a fully functional mini-satellite that fits inside a standard soft drink can. The winning team will go on to represent Switzerland at the European ESA CanSat final event at ESTEC, Netherlands.","body":" We are pleased to announce the launch of the national Swiss CanSat competition, an initiative of the Swiss Astronomy Olympiad and ESA. The competition invites students aged 14 to 19 who are enrolled in a Swiss secondary school or vocational training to build real mini-satellites in teams of 3 members. The mandatory primary mission involves measuring air temperature and pressure. However, teams can develop their own creative secondary mission, such as atmospheric research or an innovative sensor system. The CanSat is later launched to an altitude of about 1-2 km, after which it free-falls with a parachute back to Earth while collecting and transmitting data.<\/p>\r\n The competition will take place during the 2026\u20132027 school year:<\/p>\r\n End of August 2026: Registration deadline<\/strong><\/p> The registration period for student teams runs until the end of August 2026<\/strong> under the following link: <\/p>