Table Of ContentTeaching
Thinking
Also available from Bloomsbury
Teaching Thinking Skills, Stephen Johnson and Harvey Siegel
The Philosophy of Education: An Introduction, edited by Richard Bailey
Philosophy in Schools, edited by Michael Hand and Carrie Winstanley
Teaching
Thinking
Philosophical Enquiry
in the Classroom
4th edition
RoBeRt FiSheR
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2013
© Robert Fisher, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Robert Fisher has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting
on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication
can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eISBN: 978-1-7809-3774-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fisher, Robert, 1943-
Teaching thinking : philosophical enquiry in the classroom / Robert Fisher. – Fourth edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-78093-679-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN) 978-1-78093-750-2 (epub) –
ISBN 978-1-78093-774-8 (epdf) 1. Thought and thinking–Study and teaching (Elementary)
2. Philosophy–Study and teaching (Elementary) 3. Discussion–Study and teaching
(Elementary) I. Title.
LB1590.3.F55 2013
370.15’2–dc23
2013011969
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
ContentS
Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Thinking about thinking 5
2 Philosophy for Children 27
3 Community of enquiry 53
4 Stories for thinking 89
5 Dialogic teaching and learning 123
6 Philosophy in schools 153
7 Thinking for life 187
Appendix 1: Questions and topics for thinking
with children 233
Appendix 2: Thinking words: A curriculum of
concepts 235
Appendix 3: A checklist of dialogic skills 239
Appendix 4: How do we assess progress in dialogue? 241
Appendix 5: Evaluating a discussion: Some questions
for students 243
Bibliography 245
Index 249
iLLUStRAtionS
Figures
2.1 Concept map: Real and not real 34
3.1 Moral education: Extending the range of moral concern 67
4.1 The Question Quadrant 113
6.1 Socratic setting for discussion 159
7.1 Philosophy across the curriculum 189
tables
2.1 The main elements of the Philosophy for Children programme 29
2.2 Divisions of philosophical enquiry 37
2.3 Elements of everyday and critical thinking 38
2.4 Questions to prompt critical thinking 40
2.5 Questions to prompt creative thinking 41
3.1 S kills of moral reasoning to help to develop a moral
point of view 79
3.2 Elements of moral education linked to key moral questions 83
3.3 Features of the growth in a classroom community 86
4.1 Questions to stimulate philosophical discussion of stories 118
5.1 Traditional versus dialogic teaching 125
5.2 Socratic method and academic traditions in education 132
5.3 Philosophy for Children and Socratic dialogue 137
7.1 Platonic and constructivist approaches to maths 195
7.2 Reflective and active aspects of design and technology 204
7.3 Examples of news stories for discussion 224
ACKnoWLedGeMentS
I am deeply indebted to the many people who have shared in the task of
developing ‘philosophy for children’ in this country and around the world.
My particular thanks go to Michael Whalley who first demonstrated
for me more than 30 years ago the potential of philosophical discussion
with primary children; and to my colleagues at SAPERE (the Society for
Advancing Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education) who have
helped research and develop philosophy with children in this country,
including Will Robinson, Roger Sutcliffe, Karin Murris, Joanna Haynes,
Victor Quinn, Roger Prentice, Sara Liptai, Steve Williams and Paul
Cleghorn, for their many contributions to my understanding of the theory
and practice of philosophy with and for children.
I am deeply indebted to the pioneering work of Matthew Lipman, Ann
Margaret Sharp and their colleagues at IAPC (Institute for the Advancement
of Philosophy for Children) at Montclair State University, and thank them
for permission to quote from their Philosophy for Children programme. I am
also grateful for the work and advice of others in the international community
of researchers into philosophy with children including Gareth Matthews in
the United States, Catherine McCall in Scotland, Phil Cam, Lynne Hinton
and Laurence Splitter in Australia, Michel Sasseville in Canada, Marie-Pierre
Doutrelepont in Belgium, and Daniella Camhy in Austria.
My special thanks go to Julie Winyard, Lizann O’Conor and the many
teacher researchers in west London schools who have contributed to my
Philosophy in Primary Schools project, and to the colleagues who have
supported my research at Brunel University.
Special thanks are also due to the many children in primary and
secondary schools who have shared philosophical discussion with me and
constantly surprised me with the freshness of their thinking and depth of
their philosophical interests, and especially those whose words are quoted
in this book, including my sons Tom and Jake who have demonstrated to
me the value of philosophical discussion within the family.
Thanks are also due to Debbie Pacey and Johanna Kiernon for their
contributions and the many other teachers and researchers who in schools, in
conferences, through publication and personal correspondence have shared
their work with children with me and helped me in my understanding of
the rich potential of teaching thinking through philosophy with children.
The work of all these people has informed this book, and the flaws and
shortcomings in it remain my own.
Introduction
Philosophy for me means having adventures in ideas with
children. I know it can be done. The problem is: how can
I do it, and how can I do it better!
Student teacher
The challenge to improve children’s thinking lies at the heart of education
and has been the focus of curriculum reform in recent years. As Paul, aged
8, said: ‘It is through thinking that we make a better world.’ Teaching
children how to think lies at the heart of the worldwide ‘philosophy for
children’ movement, which is using philosophical enquiry to enhance the
thinking, learning and language skills of students of all ages and abilities in
more than 30 countries around the world.
This book is about the theory and practice of philosophy for children,
illustrated with work from children and schools in the United Kingdom.
It offers ways to facilitate philosophical enquiry with groups of children
at home or school, encouraging children to think critically and creatively
through dialogue. It is not about teaching children the subject of philosophy,
but about how to engage them in a special kind of discussion – philosophical
discussion, teaching them how to philosophize. It aims to shows ways in
which philosophical discussion can be used to add value to speaking and
listening with children at home or school. It is about what we do with
children every day in talking and thinking with them, but trying to do it
better through an approach called ‘philosophy for children’.
The first chapter, ‘Thinking about thinking’, begins by exploring reasons
why teaching thinking is so important, and the role philosophy can play in
providing the means for developing more effective thinking, and seeks to
answer such questions as:
l Why teach thinking?
l What kinds of thinking should be taught?
l Why philosophy for children?
