Doing philosophy effectively II: A replication and elaboration of student learning in classroom teaching.

Natascha Kienstra,Peter G M Van Der Heijden

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208128

Natascha Kienstra, Peter G M Van Der Heijden

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208128

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Dec 3, 2018
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Tilburg University, Radboud University Nijmegen

Abstract

An important aim of teaching philosophy in Dutch secondary schools is to learn about philosophy (that is, the great philosophers) by doing philosophy. In an earlier study published in PLoS ONE, we focused on the relationship between student learning activities and teacher behavior by analyzing eight lessons. Correspondence analysis revealed that doing philosophy was more effective in some lessons than in others. We replicated this finding in the current study, using 10 new lessons, and elaborated on the relationship between the likely causes for doing philosophy effectively. The data suggest that conducting a dialogue in the form of a philosophical discussion is sufficient for achieving an effective lesson, whereas the teachers’ guidance being shared with the students is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving an effective lesson.

Highlights

An important aim of teaching philosophy in Dutch secondary schools is to learn about philosophy by doing philosophy
The first issue is that both studies found that the approach connected to truth finding was least effective; in the earlier study juridical debate was more effective than testbased truth finding, while in the current study test-based truth finding is more effective than juridical debate
We formulated the following research questions: RQ1: Can the one-dimensional structure found in the earlier study by Correspondence analysis (CA) be replicated? RQ2: that we have data from the earlier study and new data, can we obtain a better understanding of how teacher behavior leads to the level of doing philosophy? For the first research question, the answer is positive

Summary

Introduction

An important aim of teaching philosophy in Dutch secondary schools is to learn about philosophy (i.e., the great philosophers’ contributions to the world, in terms of civilization’s understanding of the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence) by doing philosophy. Is seen as a largely interactive process of constructing new knowledge and skills based on the information that a person already has [2]. The phrase “doing philosophy” was used by Rudisill to describe students’ abilities to engage in philosophical activities. Doing philosophy is in contrast to just being competent with a specific domain of knowledge [3]. We focused on the relationships between students’ learning activities and teachers’ behaviors, while investigating the correlates of doing philosophy effectively [4].

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