Critical Thinking vs Confident Thinking
David Birch, a longstanding TPF philosophy specialist offers his thoughts on why it may be the case that teaching critical thinking in schools can go sour. He suggests the most important thing is to replace the commonplace non-thinking happening in our classrooms with a positive form of thinking. He advocates an idea of 'confident thinking' rather than 'critical thinking' as he sees how it can have a negative impact on young learners.
Posted by on 12th December 2016 at 12:00am
Category: Philosophy, P4C, Education
Young Philosophers on City Hall and Baddies
We took our group of Young Philosophers on their first trip of 2016-17 to conduct some philosophical explorations around London Bridge. We went to City Hall and the nearby Unicorn Theatre to watch a play called 'Baddies: The Musical'. How do you know if you're a good person? Is it OK to be bad in some people's eyes? We continue to wonder...
Posted by on 1st December 2016 at 12:00am
Dialogues in philosophy with children
Pete offers some practical advice on how to use dialogues to do philosophy with children. Utilising plays written with philosophy in mind by Paul Bodin, Tim Sprod and others he provides some comments on how this medium can act as a catalyst for enquiry and philosophical discussions. You can find some examples of plays by following the links in the blog. You will need to become a member of our website to see them - which you can do for free by clicking the link here: https://www.philosophy-foundation.org/become-a-member
Posted by on 7th November 2016 at 12:00am
Category: Philosophy, P4C, Education
Observations and anecdotes on facilitation of philosophy with children
Recently, Peter Worley was interviewed by Laura Candiotto (PhD in Philosophy), a researcher at the University of Edinburgh for an Italian magazine. We have published the interview in full (and in English!) as she asks important questions about the methods of The Philosophy Foundation. Pete clarifies how TPF differs from other ways of doing philosophy with children and offers practical, straight-forward advice for teachers to use these methods in their classrooms.
Posted by on 18th October 2016 at 12:00am
Category: Philosophy, P4C, Education
Pieter Mostert | On the value of debate and disagreement
Pieter Mostert is a practical philosopher, educational consultant and conversation specialist.
He moved to South Africa in February 2013, where he facilitates different types of learning conversations, from home schooling to teacher training. He holds a PhD from Erasmus University, Rotterdam and is a specialist in making conversations pleasant, fruitful and lasting, under circumstances that may be difficult (in a conflict or dispute, for example) or unusual (in the kitchen or on the train, for example).
Here Pieter offers his views and experiences on what happens with children who are learning to argue and debate well at school.
Posted by on 10th October 2016 at 12:00am
Category: Philosophy, P4C, Guest Blogger
