Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Carrie Winstanley
Suggesting that philosophy has a place on the National Curriculum is met with mixed
responses, particularly with regard to younger pupils of primary or infant school age.
The teaching of thinking or thinking skills has been included in statutory
curriculum documents but is also controversial, with philosophers of education failing
to agree whether it is desirable, or even possible to undertake such projects (White,
1992; Johnson, 2001; Siegel, 2003; Murris, 2000, etc).
This workshop considers the teaching of thinking and philosophy to children with an
emphasis on the practical aspects of such an undertaking, by examining the teaching
materials available to schools. Although the session focuses on classroom activities,
key questions underlying the controversy will not be neglected. Through reviewing
the kinds of tasks that pupils are expected to complete, the following contentions will
be addressed:
1. whether is possible to teach philosophy to children (i.e. that philosophy is not
too difficult, abstract, esoteric or technical for children to cope with);
2. whether the activities presented to children can fulfill their stated aims of
developing their thinking and / or teaching them to philosophise;
3. whether it is desirable to teach thinking and/or philosophy to children (i.e. that
philosophy has educational value, either intrinsically as a worthwhile activity
or instrumentally as a means to the development of thinking skills, rationality,
personal autonomy, etc.)
It is important to consider philosophy and thinking skills in this context as they are
both growing in popularity among teachers. The UK Department of Education and
Skills Standards Site notes that since the explicit inclusion of thinking skills in the
National Curriculum, interest in the teaching of thinking skills has burgeoned in the
UK. Thinking skills approaches are emerging as a powerful means of engaging
teachers and pupils in improving the quality of learning in classrooms (DfES, 2005).
The DfES has categorised published programmes using the following model.
The workshop will include presentation and discussion of materials from each of the
key sections delineated, including some from programmes that fall into more than one
category. Attention will also be given to the further popular area of study skills.
Bibliography
Adey, P. & Shayer, M. (1994) Really raising standards: cognitive intervention and
academic achievement London: Routledge.
Bailin, S. and Siegel, H. (2003) Critical Thinking in Blake, N., Smeyers, P., Smith,
R. and Standish, P. (eds) The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education
Blackwell: Oxford.
Carrie Winstanley
Roehampton University
Froebel College, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PJ
C.Winstanley@Roehampton.ac.uk