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He number of courses and teaching material available education essay

Professor Lipman’s contribution and influence to PFC continued through his publications. With Ann Margaret Sharp, Lipman produced a series of novels, each with their accompanying manual (Martin, 2011). These philosophical novels are about a group of children who encounter philosophical problems and discuss them with intellectual curiosity and philosophical reflection. In 1974 Lipman published his first children’s book; a philosophical novel named ‘ Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery’ and afterward its accompanying guidebook came about. This book gave a new dimension to Philosophy using novels as text models, specifically intended to help children practice Philosophy. This book was designed for 10 year olds (grade 5 and 6) and addressed the teaching of laws of logic through classroom dramas where logic is not presented as material to be learnt but it is up for discussion. This novel stimulates and encourages the children to engage in critical dialogue about philosophical issues (Vansieleghem & Kennedy, 2011). Through Harry, the protagonist of this novel and his friends, the children are introduced and made to discover the truths of elementary logic, for example by the laws of logic the inversion of a true sentence may not be necessary true, say ‘ All cucumbers are vegetables,’ which is true and its inversion ‘ All vegetables are cucumbers’ which is absurd (Martin, 2011). Harry and his friends explore the validity and logicality, transitivity and symmeticality in terms of daily situations and events (Lipman, 1988b). Moreover, through the novel Harry realises the important role thinking has in our everyday life and this is in fact the message that Lipman wants to transmit to the children.‘ Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery’ (1974) has been used in many classrooms and also subjected to several evaluations. Other fictional books include ‘ Lisa’ (1983), designed for grade 7 and 8, where Harry and his friends continue their search for logical inquiry, but this time the main focus is ethics; in taking reasonable decisions, fair judgments, and considering concepts like freedom, fairness, truth and others. In ‘ Suki’ (1978), another fiction book, designed for grade 9 and 10, philosophical thinking in aesthetics is the main concern. Here many questions in aesthetics arise, most of which are not answered (Beardsley, 1979). ‘ Pixie’ (1981), intended for grade 3 or 4, leads to wondering what is real and what looks like but isn’t real, deals with ambiguity and identity example; ” Would you still be you if you had a different name. . . face . . . body. . . mind” (as citied in Lipman, 1988b). ‘ Elfie’ (1987), designed for first-graders, the protagonist makes the children wonder about the nature of sentences, including the making of distinctions and recognition of connections. While in ‘ Kio and Gus’ (1982), the protagonist and his friends wonder about appearances and reality, fear and courage, relationship between language and the world, truth, beauty and others (Lipman, 1988b). In these novels, the group of fictional friends encounter a number of issues which in spite not being highly elaborated they are enough to get the children wondering about and set a classroom discussion going. The topics and issues raised from these novels are very well pitched to the readers’ age in enhancing them to think philosophically and to arise questioning for discussion (Beardsley, 1979). The philosophical novels help children to realise that there exist different thinking styles, modes of intelligence and different perspectives about everything. They realise that people give meaning to things and situations from their experience and through discussions they get a glimpse of others’ meanings and values. The children also notice that the children in the novels do things which they themselves do not do, but should and can do (Lipman, 1998). Moreover, these novels consist of dialogues so that the children can relate to and easily place themselves in the characters’ shoes. The children in the story are set to take responsibility of what they say and act accordingly and dialogues are in fact used to help the children understand more the children in the story (Lipman, 1998). The characters in the novels are not taught any principles but are set to discover logical and philosophical principles themselves and apply them to their lives; in so doing the children are introduced to these principles, encouraged to discuss, share ideas and in the process also reflecting upon their application. Most of the situations depicted in the novels would be similar to experiences most children would have already encountered in their everyday life thus making it easier for them to relate with. Discussion about the story will than follow since according to Lipman philosophical stories trigger critical thinking in children thus providing grounds for dialogue (Vansieleghem, 2006). From tests conducted, Lipman concluded that children exposed to these novels acquired incredible development in logical reasoning and significant improvement in the other disciplines (Brandt, 1988). This happens because it raises the quantity and quality of meaning that students make from the subject matter through what they read and perceive and also in what they express in written and spoken language (Lipman, 1988a). In 1990, Dr. McCall organised the BBC documentary ‘ Socrates for six year olds’, which featured the ‘ CoPI’ approach in practise alongside Prof. Lipman’s PFC method. This documentary was broadcasted in UK, USA and other countries and was highly encouraging to all PFC practitioners. In 1991, McCall introduced the postgraduate courses, M. Phil and Ph. D degrees, in Philosophical Enquiry at the University of Glasgow while in 2005, McCall put forward the ‘ CoPI’ approach. McCall organised a number of international training workshops in introducing the Nelson’s Socratic Method and Philosophical Enquiry in UK, France and Spain. She published a number of novels for children, including ‘ Laura and Paul’, and ‘ John’s story’ and also books for high school pupils and also books for teachers to help them develop the pupils’ reasoning, thinking and communication skills. (See Appendix A. 5. 2) (McCall, n. d.). Dr. McCall is currently the president of ‘ Stichting SOPHIA: The European Foundation for doing Philosophy with Children’, the Philosophy Consultant for East Renfrewshire Department of Education, the founder and director of the European Philosophical Inquiry Centre (EPIC), SAPERE trainer and also the creator and director of teacher-training courses in ‘ Community of Inquiry’ (CoPI). She is also board member of ICPIC advisory board and SOPHIA (McCall, 2011). Dr. McCall produced a PFC curriculum in which the creation of a community of philosophical enquiry prevails since she believes that sharing of ideas and inquiring are essential for future citizens. CoPI empowers children and individuals of any age by equipping them with critical thinking and reasoning skills, and a voice for active participation in the community and the wider society (Cassidy, n. d.). In the present, Dr. McCall trains PFC teacher-trainers in the CoPI approach in UK. She also runs ‘ The Philosophy Doctor’ (2011) website through which advice and solutions are given upon demand, together with monthly video talks about PWC and adults and also internet training for teachers in PFC including a guide for the implementation of the Socratic Discussion Programmes with children and teenagers. Dr. Cassidy is another key contributor to PWC and a former student of Dr. McCall. She is a founding member of the ‘ Philosophy with Children and Communities group’ in Scotland and member of the ‘ Applied Educational Research Scheme, Learners, Learning and Teaching, Network Project on Communities of Enquiry in Educational Research’. She is particularly interested in practical Philosophy and in philosophical and dialogical issues in children’s education (see Appendix A. 6. 1). She also researched in dept the concept of the ‘ child’, on which she wrote a book named ‘ Thinking children: The Concept of ‘ child’ from a Philosophical Perspective’ (Cassidy, 2009). Cassidy is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in the Department of Educational and Professional Studies where she teaches a range of educational modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including an optional introductory module on PWC. She has also developed the Postgraduate Certificate in PWC to help the practice of doing PWC. She also organises a number of introductory sessions in PWC. Dr. Cassidy is the B. Ed. Programme Coordinator for Education Studies and the Major Project. She is also member of: the ITE Review group, course committee Postgraduate Certificate in Supporting Bilingual Learners, Department Research Committee, editorial board for Research Matters, Faculty Research Committee, Faculty board of Study and the B. Ed Course Management Team. She is also part of the Course Review Working Group and PDP staff mentor and does interviews for B. Ed. and PGDE(P) courses. Dr. Cassidy is also part of the editorial board for ‘ Childhood and Philosophy: Journal of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children’, member of the Faculty of Education ‘ Philosophy and Education Reading Group’ and part of the Glasgow’s Council of the Royal Philosophical Society’ (University of Strathclyde, n. d.). Dr Cassidy also published a number of articles, books, book sections, organised conferences and others (see Appendix A. 6. 2). Prof. Sutcliffe is considered a leader in the PFC/PWC area and well known for his training and good practice through balance of critical and creative thinking (Dialogue Works, 2010). He is a leading educationalist, director of Dialogue Works, founder and president of SAPERE and former president of ICPIC. He is a trained counsellor and mediator who worked hard in introducing PFC and communities of inquiry to teachers throughout UK. Sutcliffe runs the SAPERE Level 1 and 2 courses, in which creative inquiry and reflection are very much emphasised (Dialogue Works, 2007). Sutcliffe invented the concept of ‘ Super Seminars’, which seminars gave a new dimension to the teachers’ professional development through seminars (Dialogue Works, 2010). Sutcliffe wrote many journals and papers (see Appendix A. 7. 2). He also did consultancy work with a number of organisations and has been advisor in a number of UK projects in PWC. Together with Steve Williams, Sutcliffe wrote ‘ The Philosophy Club’ to help teachers and others interested in setting up a Philosophy community of inquiry with young children and adults (Sutcliffe & Williams, 2000). He is also the author of ‘ Newswise’ where ideas for critical thinking based on news issues are provided to stimulate thinking through questions and exercises. Sutcliffe is the co-director of ‘ p4c. com’ (2008-2013) which provides resources and advice on PWC and also one of the consultants of ‘ Creating Thinking Schools’ (Kestrel Education, n. d.). Prof. Fisher spent many years teaching in UK, Africa and Hong Kong before becoming a professor of education at the University of Brunel. He was a researcher and a writer; where his main research interests are creativity, thinking, talk for thinking, dialogic teaching and PFC. Currently, since he retired, he is more focuses on developing his creativity through sculpture, writing, painting and others (Fisher, 2011). Fisher took part in many conferences, national and international and was also a consultant to many teaching thinking projects including conference presentations, in-service training and consultancy on research. He is also a consultant to a number of organisations, including schools educational authorises and councils. Fisher published a number of books on teaching thinking and creativity; including ‘ Teaching Children to Think’, ‘ Teaching Children to Learn’ and others. Fisher’s books have been translated into a number of languages. He also write a number of papers on teaching thinking including; ‘ Thinking Skills: an introduction’, ‘ Think Books: Writing to Learn’ and others (see Appendix A. 8. 2). (Fisher, n. d..). Professor Murris is well known worldwide for her method of using pictures book to help children engage in philosophy, ethics and learn to think. In fact, her work has featured in a number of national and international media. She was trained by Professor Lipman and helped in the setting up of the British training programme in PFC and SAPERE. Since 1989, Murris has been teaching thinking and PFC to teachers, children and teacher educators. She also teaches and supports graduate, post-graduate and PhD students in research and continuous professional development of University staff. She teaches in the B. Ed, PGCE and M. Ed thinking classrooms and runs the Wits professional courses ‘ Thinking Teachers: Thinking Children’ (University of the Witwatersrand, 2000-2013). She was a senior lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a visiting professor of practical Philosophy and ethics at the University of Wales, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town and co-director of Dialogue Works. Murris is a member of the Executive Board of Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain and is on the editorial board of ‘ Teaching Thinking &Creativity’ magazine and ‘ Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children’ (DialogueWorks, 2007). In 1992 Murris published ‘ Philosophy with Picture Books’, a teacher manual which was re-published in 2000 with the name, ‘ Storywise: Thinking Through Stories. The first manual contained a list of issues to be dealt with during the Philosophy sessions together with a number of questions for each issue, while more detail and information for teachers were added in the lesson notes of the second publication. Murris wrote a number of articles and papers including ‘ Metaphors of the Child’s Mind’ and ‘ Philosophy with Picture Books’ (see Appendix A. 10. 2). Prof. Murris, in collaboration with Dr. Joanna Hynes, have continued to encourage the use of children’s picture books for doing PWC. Since 2005, Murris and Hynes have also been conducting ‘ Dilemma Training’ at UK Universities (DialogueWorks, 2007).

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