Philosophy Classes Research Articles

Adultcentrism and the children's classroom: if you want to teach them you must know who they are

The paper addresses academic adultcentrism from the perspective of the pre-service instruction and practice of philosophy teachers, based on the experience we have gained while leading a Didactic of Philosophy seminar for a Philosophy and Letters academic program where students are engaged in the designing, implementation and evaluation of academic material and class performance for K-12 schools. After giving a brief presentation of the context in which philosophy teaching takes place, and a description of the logic and horizon that set the basis of our seminar, we define and discuss four particular ways in which adultcentrism permeates the preparation and performance of philosophy classes for classrooms with students ranging from 8 to 15 years old: cognitive, epistemic, pedagogical and disciplinary adultcentrism. As well as some of the ways in which, as part of the seminar, the students and the instructor have devised to address and overcome the adultcentrism problems. At the end of the discussion, an auto-critical note is included in order to show the limits of our own practices and base ground, as well as a way to define new necessary approaches and perspectives required to address both the problems we found to be at the bottom of current teaching practices. As well as n our own expectations, methods and ways to deal with those issues with our pre-service young colleagues.

Academic Profile of Teachers Affected by Poor Performances in Philosophy in the Final Year of Secondary School in Yaounde and Mbalmayo, Cameroon

Objective: The aim of this article is to examine the extent to which the teacher's academic profile can help to improve the performances of students in the final year of literary classes in philosophy. Methodology: This article is part of the field of Education Sciences, specifically in Discipline Didactics. The study is of an experimental type, centred on the reality of the educational facts that surround the practice of teaching philosophy. With the help of measuring instruments such as the questionnaire, test papers and observation guide, this approach made it possible to understand the determinants of performances in philosophy mentioned above. Results: The academic profile of the teacher constitutes a fundamental characteristic in the teaching practice of a discipline. Thus, in organised and structured teaching systems, only those who have the aptitudes to teach can really be admitted to teaching. This presupposes initial training in the subject coupled with appropriate professional training. In this way, we can partly understand the public authorities' demand for a selection process to recruit and train philosophy teachers. Discussion: The teaching of philosophy is based on a requirement of qualification and academic profile for the teacher, although it is more often referred to as a matter of vocation. In any case, a teacher with a vocation, unless he or she is gifted, is first and foremost concerned with training, with a view to practicing the profession of his or her heart with passion. This training predisposes them not only to be masters of their subject, but also to be able to overcome the socio-professional hazards characteristic of the educational environment. Conclusion: Philosophy is the subject in which students in the final year of secondary school perform worst. Consequently, this subject is increasingly feared and considered by learners to be their ‘bête noire’. Consequently, students' performances in philosophy can be improved thanks to ........

The philosophical workshop as an intervention proposal based on István Mészáros

This research aims to reflect on the philosophical workshop as a possible intervention proposal for teaching philosophy to high school students in order to strengthen their interest in this curricular component. This is research that is based on the historical-dialectic materialist method and the thought of the philosopher István Mészáros, which inspires the debate on philosophy teaching committed to the omnilateral formation of the socio-historical subject. Six (06) high school students from a public school in the municipality of Joca Marques, in the State of Piauí, participated in the research. The data were organized and analyzed according to Bardin's content analysis technique. The results reveal that the intervention proposal is an important resource to help students arouse interest in philosophy classes, as they can take a critical position on a certain topic related to their daily lives. In view of this, it is hoped that the workshop can contribute to students, as it can educate them to be critical, to overcome common sense, to have a critical view of the world and to engage in the struggle to radically overcome class society.

Philosophy teachers about teaching philosophy

The subject of this research refers to the attitudes of philosophy teachers towards today?s philosophy classes in secondary schools. The process of reforming secondary school education started in Serbia some twenty years ago. First, there was the reform of the curriculum and syllabus for the majority of vocational schools, and then, since 2018, a new curriculum and syllabus have started to be used in high schools as well. Not only have the curriculum and syllabus been changed, but also the approach to the teaching process. The changes relate to all the school subjects, including philosophy classes. The focus is on both, the subject learning outcome and the teaching unit outcome. Philosophy teachers described the experiences, impressions and thoughts about their philosophy classes.

감수성의 통합과 통각의 초월적 통합

Immanuel Kant argued that the object does not represent the state of the thing-in-itself, but becomes a phenomenon constructed by human subjectivity in general, and this is called the Copernican revolution. Kant is a philosopher representing German Idealism, followed by Bradley and Bergson. In the meantime, it has been assumed that Eliot’s core poetics developed from the cognitive framework of Bergson or Bradley: the concept of flux that grasps the time of the past, present, and future as an indivisible continuum in mutually organic relationships, immediate experience, historical consciousness, Impersonality, and unification of sensitivity, etc. in “Tradition and Individual Talent,” “Hamlet,” and “Metaphysical Poets.” However, in the “Report on Kant’s Categories” submitted by Eliot to a philosophy class at Harvard University in Mar. 2013, it can be confirmed that Eliot was already aware of Kant’s transcendental philosophy. Eliot’s unification of sensibility, which represents an experience in which, intellect and sensibility are unified, is nothing other than Kant’s transcendental unity of apperception.

Human Dignity and Renunciation of Force in Islamic and Indian Education: A Perspective of the Intercultural Human Rights Education

Abstract Migration and diversity are important factors in education of teachers around the globe. From an intercultural perspective, we shall analyse how metaphysical and religious assumptions overlap and enable teachers to motivate pupils from different religious-cultural backgrounds to understand in greater detail the facets of (minimal) universalism, relativism and other concepts that obtain in more or less open societies. We argue for a concept of Intercultural Human Rights Education that uses different texts in philosophy classes, includes controversial positions from different cultures, and is methodologically versatile. According to this concept, we think that a) human dignity (as a typically Western concept) and human rights and b) one tradition of interpreting the Qur’an (renunciation of force and the Indian concept of ahimsā (nonviolence)), can motivate teachers to discuss the efforts and also the limits of an overlapping consensus about the intercultural perspective. Finally, we provide the outlines of a teaching unit plan in accordance with our theoretical insights.

Experiences of Taking a Nursing Philosophy Class among Nursing Graduate Students

Experiences of Taking a Nursing Philosophy Class among Nursing Graduate Students

Water 2050: A New Magic 8 Ball

AWWA's Water 2050 initiative seeks to chart the future of water by focusing on five key drivers: sustainability, technology, economics, governance, and social and demographic issues. The goal is that by focusing on each driver, making connections between them, and taking intentional action now, the result will be better water for future generations. While each of the five drivers is integral to water's future, technology could have the greatest effect. It is advancing faster and faster. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of those fast-advancing technologies. It was also identified during the Water 2050 Technology Think Tank as key to transforming water services in 2050, specifically related to optimizing efficiency, improving operations, and strengthening water quality. I remember a term paper for my college philosophy class. I made the case that as society became dependent on technology, original knowledge would eventually be replaced by technology knowledge—the result being when technology mistakenly tells us 2 + 2 = 5, we will “know” it to be true. I now wonder if AI could be the technology I imagined. To find out, I (ironically) asked an AI technology called ChatGPT about water in 2050. Water is essential for life, but its availability and quality are increasingly threatened by population growth, climate change, and pollution. It is imperative that we adopt sustainable water management practices, such as reducing water waste, increasing water reuse, and promoting efficient irrigation methods. In addition, technological innovations . . . will play a crucial role in ensuring adequate and safe water supplies. In conclusion, the future of water in 2050 will depend on a combination of sustainable water management practices, technological innovations, and greater protection of water quality. It is imperative that we prioritize water management and conservation efforts now to ensure a secure and sustainable water supply for future generations. This mostly aligns with the Water 2050 conclusions. The last sentence includes one of our key points—taking steps now is critical to a better future because waiting for the future to come to us is not a strategy. In the year 2050, AI is expected to play a significant role in water services. Smart water management systems powered by AI will be able to optimize water usage, reduce waste, and detect leaks or other issues in real time. AI-powered sensors and monitoring systems will improve water quality and reduce the risk of contamination by providing early warning of potential threats. Interestingly, many aspects of this answer—optimizing water, detecting leaks, using sensors—again align with the recommendations included in the Water 2050 Technology Think Tank report. In 2050, the water utility workforce is expected to become more diverse and highly skilled, with a greater emphasis on technology and innovation. AI and automation will streamline operations, reducing the need for manual labor. However, highly trained technicians and engineers will still be necessary to operate and maintain advanced technologies. Again, ChatGPT mostly aligns with AWWA's think tank recommendations. My conversation with ChatGPT continued for some time. While it was fun, like using a modern-day Magic 8 Ball, it did not ease my concern—rather, it focused it. For one thing, ChatGPT does not actually think—the “A” does stand for artificial, after all. In fact, it told me “my responses are based solely on the input provided to me, and I may not always understand the context or intent behind a question.” Assuming AI does play an increasingly significant role in water services by 2050, knowledge organizations like AWWA must ensure true knowledge is available for AI technology to find. Remember, ChatGPT cannot evaluate context; it only provides access to what it finds, irrespective of whether it is right or wrong. The good news: ChatGPT agrees that 2 + 2 = 4.

Moral Education Through the Fostering of Reasoning Skills

The development of reasoning skills is often regarded as a central goal of ethics and philosophy classes in school education. In light of recent studies from the field of moral psychology, however, it could be objected that the promotion of such skills might fail to meet another important objective, namely the moral education of students. In this paper, I will argue against such pessimism by suggesting that the fostering of reasoning skills can still contribute to the aims of moral education. To do so, I will engage with the concept of moral education, point out different ways in which reasoning skills play an essential role in it, and support these considerations by appealing to further empirical studies. My conclusion will be that the promotion of ethical reasoning skills fulfils two important aims of moral education: First, it enables students to critically reflect on their ethical beliefs. Second, it allows them to explore ethical questions in a joint conversation with others. Lastly, I will refer to education in the field of sustainable development in order to exemplify the importance of these abilities.

On the Use of YouTube, Digital Games, Argument Maps, and Digital Feedback in Teaching Philosophy

We give an overview of the methodological possibilities of some important digital tools for teaching philosophy. Several didactically applicable methods have evolved in digital culture, including their implicit methodologies, theories about how these methods may be used. These methodologies are already applied by philosophers today and have their benefits and justifications in philosophy classes as well. They can help to solve known problems of philosophy education. We discuss problems of incomprehensibility and their possible solutions through digital explanations in pod- and videocasts such as YouTube; problems of interaction, motivation, and immersion that digital games and gamification may solve; problems of the complexity of philosophical content and digital concept- and argument-maps to deal with these; problems of implicitness and the possibility to make implicit things in philosophy class explicit through indirect feedback tools.

The Epistemic Benefits of Diversity in Introductory Philosophy Classes

The Epistemic Benefits of Diversity in Introductory Philosophy Classes

ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS ATTITUDES TOWARDS PHILOSOPHY CLASS AND A LOOK AT STUDENTS FROM THE MIRROR OF TEACHERS

Felsefe derslerinin programlarda yer alması ile düşünen, sorgulayan, eleştiren bireylerin yetişmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Bu becerilerin kazandırılması sürecinde ise öğrencilerin felsefe dersine yönelik tutumlarının etkili olabileceği düşünülmektedir. Bu bağlamda çalışmanın amacı, on birinci sınıf öğrencilerinin felsefe dersine yönelik tutumlarının belirlenerek, öğretmenlerin bakış açısından öğrencilerin tutumlarının değerlendirilmesidir. Araştırma Kahramanmaraş ili Onikişubat ilçesinde bulunan beş farklı lisede öğrenim görmekte olan 200 on birinci sınıf öğrencisiyle ve aynı il ve ilçenin devlet okullarında görev yapmakta olan 10 felsefe öğretmeniyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Nicel ve nitel bölümlerden oluşan araştırmada tarama modelinden faydalanılmıştır. Nicel veriler “Felsefe Dersi Tutum Ölçeği” kullanılarak, nitel veriler ise yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılarak elde edilmiştir. Nicel verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistiklerin yanında, t Testi, Mann Whitney U, One Way ANOVA ve Kruskal Wallis testleri kullanılmıştır. Nitel verilerin analizi ise içerik analizi yöntemiyle yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda on birinci sınıf öğrencilerinin felsefe dersine yönelik tutumlarının cinsiyete, göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiği, anne-baba eğitim durumunun ve kitap okuma sıklığının da öğrencilerin tutumlarını etkilediği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca felsefe dersi öğretmenlerinin lise öğrencilerinin felsefe dersine yönelik tutumlarını olumsuz buldukları; bunun nedenlerini ise felsefenin birçok konuyu sorgulaması, üniversite sınavında az sayıda soru sorulması gibi faktörlere bağladıkları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Philosophical Activity of Students with Different Educational Needs

Philosophy for children has long been an element of pedagogical research in which children's philosophizing is treated as a method of their educating. The conducted research shows that philosophical reflections of children bring benefits in the implementation of some teaching content or support the social and emotional development of children. This study presents the results of qualitative research carried out to understand the philosophical activity of younger school-age children with different educational needs. The main problem was included in the question: What is the philosophical activity of students of younger school age with different educational needs? Participant observation was used in the conducted research procedure. The results of the research carried out in a group of 15 students of the second integrated grade showed that, in most cases, the philosophical activity of the respondents was very diverse, regardless of their educational needs. The only exception included students with a certificate on the need for special education who attended the philosophy classes in a very limited scope. The conducted research is an example of children's philosophical reflections.

Философские дискуссии с детьми в контексте образовательных и научно-исследовательских практик: проблемы и перспективы

Introduction. The article presents the results of the philosophical discussion with high school students, considers the problems and prospects for conducting classes in philosophy with children, and proposes original teaching methods that repre- sent a synthesis of philosophical, pedagogical and research approaches. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the relevance of the ideas, methods and approaches of philosophy with children in the context of modern philosophical, pedagogical and research problems. Research methods are based on the theoretical principles of hermeneutic-phenomenological and psychoanalytic approaches to the interpretation and structural-semiotic analysis of linguistic state- ments. The scientific novelty of the research lies in devel- oping the author’s approach to holding philosophi- cal discussions with schoolchildren, which carries out the synthesis of philosophical-pedagogical and research teaching methods. Results and conclusions. As a result of the study, a conclusion is made about the relevance and demand for such classes of philosophy with children related to interdisciplinary trajectories of its development, the search for effective teaching strategies focused on the comprehensive develop- ment of children and their involvement in research activities.

Me-thinking: report on a pilot intervention with women in custody

PurposeThis pilot study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting shared philosophical inquiry with women at risk of re-offending to improve motivation to change. The philosophy sessions aimed to give participants new ways to think about their lives and to help them have more control over their own mind by learning new ways to think differently.Design/methodology/approachThe pilot study adopted a mixed-methods approach to collect and analyse data pre- and post-intervention. Ten women serving a custodial sentence at the Democratic Therapeutic Community (DTC) in HMP Send were recruited to take part in ten weekly sessions of philosophical discussion. The intervention was adjunctive and not meant to replace other treatments an inmate may already be receiving.FindingsThe results showed that most participants experienced improved levels of well-being and mental health post-intervention, and that the intervention has the potential to help participants better critically assess their own behaviour and ways of thinking. It also suggested that the intervention has the potential to help participants engage more effectively with the therapeutic process.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study are limited by the small sample size and the lack of a control group. As such this study cannot rule out that the changes observed in participants were a function of time or the specific therapeutic environment they were in (or both).Originality/valueThis pilot study is innovative not just for introducing philosophy classes to the women’s prison estate for the first time in England and Wales, but also in its ambition to contribute to the “what works” agenda in offender rehabilitation.

Contextualist Approach to Teaching Antisemitism in Philosophy Class

This paper argues for a ‘contextualist’ approach to teaching antisemitism in philosophy class. The traditional ‘systematic’ approach emphasizes recognizing and dismantling antisemitic aspects in canonical philosophical texts. The introduced contextualist approach broadens the perspective, treating philosophy as a continuous debate embedded in cultural realities. It focuses on historical controversies rather than isolated arguments, includes the voice and the perspectives of the oppressed, and so has the potential to broaden traditional philosophical canons. In the second half of the paper, we provide a case study of the contextualist approach, applying it to the ‘Berlin antisemitism controversy’ of 1879/80. We argue that the contextualist approach is particularly valuable when dealing with antisemitism as it teaches students to analyze arguments within the socio-political landscape and to identify antisemitic elements. The students thereby acquire the skills to discern antisemitic argumentation in other contexts as well. We suggest that this approach could be used to teach other debates in the history of philosophy, especially those tackling race, sex, and gender issues.

The New Calling

The New Calling

When law and ethics come apart: Constraints versus guidance.

The generally agreed upon principle that legality and ethics can come apart is frequently overlooked in our professional ethics education and decision-making procedures. The crux of the issue is that we teach in our philosophy classes that the law can sometimes be unethical, but then clearly state in nursing codes of ethics that students should always follow the law. The law could no doubt give us some reason to choose action A over action B, but in professional contexts we frequently treat the law as a side-constraint that limits the logical space of choices to exclude even consideration of action B. If B is the mandatory action, this in effect forces professionals to do something unethical by preventing them from ever seeing the ethical action as an option. This is a problem. Ultimately we concede that there might be an irresolvable tension in competing normative interests in ethics and the law, though we suggest that a more nuanced approach to ethical code formation could help alleviate the issue somewhat.

Coding for Critical Thinking: A Case Study in Embedding Complementary Skills in Legal Education

This article contributes to the debate over the place of skills in the law curriculum, offering observations from the author’s experience in scaffolding critical thinking skills and coding into an online legal philosophy class at the University of Canberra. It begins by justifying the selection of critical thinking and coding as skills that should be better integrated into the law curriculum in the 21st century. It then describes pedagogical models for improving students’ skills through scaffolding and other strategies. It proceeds to explain how these can be implemented to facilitate students’ critical thinking and coding skills and, in a complementary way, mastery of the subject matter. The article suggests how different types of skills can be integrated into law units and how the risks of over-crowding the curriculum can be managed. The conclusion reiterates the importance of critical thinking and coding skills and urges other educators to consider how these and other skills can be better integrated into their teaching.

A comicsophy approach to teaching philosophy

The paper presents an innovative approach to teaching philosophy, which the authors name as a comicsophy approach to teaching philosophy. Such creative application of comics in the teaching of philosophy fully corresponds to the skandalonic and dialogical character of philosophy itself. The methodical value of using comics in philosophy teaching is manifested exactly in comics’ distinctly skandalonic character. The skandalon is a methodical process that seeks to provoke students' curiosity by questioning something that otherwise seemed unquestionable, self-evident, to present it in a new light, in order to make it the subject of critical questioning and reflection. Given the visuality of the comics, its fun and root in popular culture, it is an excellent motivational tool for philosophical reflection and understanding of reality, philosophical issues, ideas and concepts in teaching philosophy. By introducing comics as recognizable products of pop culture close to students' reading interest and experience in teaching philosophy, it is easier for them to connect what they learn in school with real life, ie to apply what they have learned in everyday life situations. Comics can be used as a source of information, a form of learning new content, as well as a basis for encouraging dialog and discussion in the classroom. Also, students can individually or in pairs/groups create comics on specific philosophical topics, thus developing creative, critical and collaborative thinking. The paper presents specific criteria for evaluating comics on philosophical issues that students create in philosophy classes.