P
H I L O S O P H Y P A T H W A Y S
http://www.philosophypathways.com/newsletter/
Issue
number 135
2nd
May 2008
I.
'THINKING ALLOWED: PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN AT GALLIONS SCHOOL' REVIEW BY MATTHEW
DEL NEVO
Thinking
Allowed: Philosophy for children at Gallions Primary
School
(DVD,
Gallions School, London 2007)
Philosophy
or 'thinking skills' as it is otherwise known is becoming more important to
schools. The movement of doing philosophy -- or practicing thinking skills --
with children was started by Matthew Lipman in the 1970s in the United States
and became known as P4C, philosophy for children. Lipman has written extensively
in the area over the space of a lifetime. One key theoretical text is
Thinking in Education (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991; 2nd
edition, 2003). Lipman, based at Montclair State College in New Jersey developed
the 'community of inquiry' idea as the way of doing philosophy, or practicing
thinking skills.
Lipman
followed the American tradition, particularly John Dewey (1859-1952) which has a
strong pragmatic rather than speculative or history-of-ideas character, saw
philosophy as doing something and doing something for society. What the
community of inquiry does is to foster critical and creative thinking. This
means, thinking that is self-reflexive, in other words, thinking that has a
sense of its criteria, that is sensitive to the opinions of others and their
right to differ, and that is creative in the sense of not fixed, but
self-correcting. This is the kind of thinking required in a democracy. Critical
and creative thinking is good democratic thinking.
Why
is this approach more and more pertinent to contemporary education? The
reasoning goes as follows. With the rationalisation of education we have tied
learning to outcomes, and mapped the curriculum to these outcomes. In assessing
whether the outcomes have been met we have developed marking criteria. At the
upper end of these marking criteria, across the curriculum, developed learning
is judged to be that which is analytical. At the lower end of the marking
criteria is learning which is descriptive. The difference here is between
a student that can remember and describe information they have been given in
lessons, and a student that can pick that information up and do something
with it; analyse, assess, evaluate, appreciate, in a word, show they understand
it.
Modern
technological democracies need the latter kind of person who can do something
with what they have been given, which is responsible, reflective and
relevant.
The
world is awash with information, but do we have the young people coming through
that know what to do with it? It is one thing to know how to access
information, it is another to be able to judge whether the information is worth
accessing. The one is a passive mind, the other an active judgement. It is the
latter modern technological democracies need.
But
can we expect such 'higher order' skills of our young people? In the democratic
spirit, the answer is a resounding yes. Being a philosopher is for
everyone. When should you start? The earlier the better. Lipman started working
at the younger end with primary school children and then extended his work into
secondary schools.
The
DVD under review here is entitled 'Thinking Allowed'. There is a pun on aloud,
but the title is nevertheless provocative. Are we getting our school children
thinking out loud among themselves in an engaged and intelligent manner, or do
we shut their thinking in on them and deluge them with information. Are they
allowed to think? Do our educational planners, our school leaders even
really know what thinking is? There are political questions here. Thinking is
dangerous, as Plato recognised, because once people begin to think for
themselves things can start to change in unplanned ways.
Gallions
Primary school is in East London. It is multi-cultural, in fact primarily
non-Anglo. I'm just guessing, but I don't imagine the parents of these children
are London's middle class. They are mainly (I'm guessing) kids of migrant
parents trying to make a way in the new society. This is important because it
shows the democratic importance, strength and potential of embedding philosophy
into school. There are two ways of doing it. One is having philosophy as an
add-on to an already packed curriculum or under the gifted and talented budget,
the other is to embed it right through the school as the way to process
what is being taught. By 'process' I mean the students really working with the
materials they get given in lessons and playing with it. Gallions Primary has
followed the second, more adventurous route.
Thinking
Allowed
mainly shows footage of the community of inquiry, showing how it works, how
students process work, how they work together and how the teacher operates as a
facilitator. The DVD manages to show the developmental aspect of this, by which
I mean how, over time, the community of inquiry develops like a team that knows
how to work together. Also the DVD gives us at least a glimpse of how embedding
community of inquiry style learning through the school changes the school
culture in ways that have huge positive impact over time.
Thinking
Allowed
is most useful for those who are thinking of venturing down the path of
philosophy in school and want to see what it looks like; it is less useful for
those already thoroughly versed in the ways of community of
inquiry.
On
the point about embedding school-wide philosophy or critical and creative
thinking skills, it is true that the culture of the school will improve,
enrolments will improve, and the outputs will improve (i.e. student's
achievements). Of course there is a circular relationship between these, once
one improves, that has influence on the others.
The
story of Buranda State High, a primary school in downtown Brisbane is often
cited in this part of the world. Burunda had failing enrolments on the back of
its poor reputation and performance and was going to be closed down. A new
Principal took the school on and said she would turn it around. She introduced
philosophy in school across the classes. She sent teachers off for philosophy in
schools training. The school completely turned around and begun to compete as
one of the best primary schools in the state, both for its learning culture and
the quality of students it produced. The measure of success, surely the result
of philosophy in school, was the minister of education in Queensland picking
Buranda as school of choice for his child.
In
the DVD of Gallions, similar improvement in culture is mentioned. They cite the
complete drop in incidents at play-time, with students being able to sort
through their problems by talking about them. This is spontaneous and not set up
by or monitored by teachers on duty. It is simply a marked improvement in the
school's culture that is a benefit, they believe, of introducing philosophy in
school to all classes and developing a thoughtful culture out of that
base.
I
will not go into how the community of inquiry works, for children or from the
point of view of the facilitator, who is the teacher; and it is
facilitating, not teaching, which is big shift for some staff. You can see all
this if you obtain the DVD.
I
thoroughly recommend this DVD to anyone whose interest has been aroused by this
review. As a practitioner of philosophy in schools here in Australia I know the
information is accurate. It is also well presented. The DVD is realistic and
down-to-earth, showing that philosophy in school is not something for elite
schools but for all schools that truly value learning.
More
information on Philosophy in School in UK can be obtained from the leading
organisation SAPERE (Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and
Reflection in Education) http://www.sapere.net.
(c)
Matthew Del Nevo 2008
Email:
research@bbi.catholic.edu.au
Dr
Mathew Del Nevo
Senior
Lecturer in Theology and Christian Spirituality
Dean
of Research and Development
The
Broken Bay Institute
http://www.bbi.catholic.edu.au
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