Jumpstart! Philosophy in the Classroom

Games and Activities for Ages 7-14

Steve Bowkett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351388351
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This collection of inspiring and simple-to-use activities will jumpstart students' understanding of philosophy, and is a treasure trove of ideas for building philosophical enquiry into the curriculum. It offers teachers a range of quick, easy and effective ways for developing children's comprehension of and engagement with philosophy, and will help them 'learn how to learn'.

With a wealth of activities, including puzzles, class discussion techniques and group tasks, Jumpstart! Philosophy in the Classroom covers the following topics:

• curiosity and imagination
• language for thinking
• critical thinking
• creating a community of enquiry.

Practical and immersive methods will encourage children to think, analyse, evaluate, discuss, judge and arrive at reasoned conclusions across all areas of the curriculum, stimulating philosophical conversation and changing the way that content is processed and understood in the classroom. This book will be a vital resource for all those who want to develop thinking skills and philosophical enquiry in their school.

CHAPTER 1
Jumpstart curiosity and imagination

Children are naturally curious, creative and imaginative. In his book A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, author Roger von Oech recounts how, when he was a sophomore (mid-teens) in high school, his English teacher drew a chalk dot on the blackboard and asked the class what it was. After several seconds had passed, someone said, “It’s a chalk dot on the blackboard.” Everyone seemed relieved that the obvious had been stated. When no further ideas were forthcoming the teacher expressed her surprise and mentioned that when she had done the same activity recently with a group of 5-year-olds they had come up with around 50 different ideas.

An ancient Chinese proverb tells us, ‘In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities but in the expert’s mind there are few’. An important function of education is to celebrate and cultivate the uninhibited creative energy that young children so often display while adding to their repertoire of thinking skills such that the ideas they have can be explored, analysed, reflected upon and refined with increasing sophistication. Or as Roger von Oech says, ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after growing up.’ Showing children how to ‘do philosophy’ is a practical and enjoyable way of achieving this, You can start children off as soon as they begin school, as teacher Sara Stanley demonstrates in her book But Why, explaining that by the time they reach Year 3 most of the young philosophers are capable of discussing abstract concepts in depth (see the If-Then game on page 80 for an example of this).

Incidentally, the ‘chalk dot game’ is a great way to jumpstart children’s imaginations at the start of any lesson where you want them to actively engage with the ideas you present. Vary the activity over time by using dots of different colours and a variety of shapes such as those in Figure 1.1. Either choose an image deliberately or use dice rolls to select a shape randomly.

‘WHAT COULD THIS BE?’ GAME

Prime the children’s thinking by asking, ‘What could this be? What does it remind you of?’ Running this activity from time to time will boost children’s creative ability and their self-confidence in expressing ideas. At the outset the typical response to shape 3/3 will be ‘a star’. Later and more original ideas may include ‘a laser beam bouncing off mirrors’, ‘a five-sided box with the top flaps unfolded’, ‘a five-petalled flower’, or ‘an optical illusion – two glass arrowheads laid one on top of the other’.

When I play this game during school visits, once all the ideas are in I say, ‘And out of all of those answers you’ve given me, which is the right answer?’ Almost invariably one or more children will say, ‘any of them’ or ‘all of them’, to which I reply, ‘That’s very wise’. Then I ask that out of all the ideas I’ve heard, which is the best idea? Most youngsters have got the message by now and chorus, ‘any of them’ or ‘all of them’. to which I reply, ‘That’s very wise’.

Figure 1.1

Take it further

Explain these two important principles of thinking creatively.

1. To have our best ideas we need to have lots of ideas.

2. How many ideas can we have and what use can we make of them?

In discussing these principles with the class, point out that ‘best’ is what I call a slippery word – that is to say, a word that carries a particular meaning in my mind but may have different meanings in the minds of the people I’m talking to. Ask for adjectives other than best to describe ideas. Further point out that the second principle necessitates two different kinds of thinking. Generating ideas effectively requires children to be in ‘brainstorming mode’, allowing thoughts to pop up without conscious effort – say it as you think it: the chalk dot game is a clear example of this. Making best use of children’s suggestions (whatever you decide ‘best’ might mean here) requires deliberate analytical/critical thinking and a more systematic exploration of the ideas.

QUESTION CASCADE

Choose one of the words used to ask open questions – who, what, where, when, why or how – place it in the middle of a display board and invite children to write their question suggestions on sticky notes to place around it. To begin with, emphasise that children don’t have to know the answers in order to ask the questions. In subsequent lessons, work with the children to categorise some or all of the questions, including those that potentially have a right answer but one which cannot be discovered (Exactly how many people are alive in the world right now?), and those that may be inherently unanswerable (Is the universe infinite?) (see also page 154 note 18).

You may well find, as I have done, that many children delight in asking big questions that often form the basis of philosophical enquiries. Most recently this happened when I was running a writing workshop with a group of Year 6 children who, so their teacher told me, had ‘learning challenges’. We were aiming to write science fiction stories and were talking about robots, spaceships, planets and aliens when Jaydon wondered in all seriousness, ‘Yes, but why do we have stars? Why is the universe made of stars rather than something else? Why is the universe here at all?’ The temptation to talk about these things rather than write stories was almost overwhelming – but we had to get the writing done! Incidentally, Jaydon’s question echoes that of the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) who asserted that ‘The first question which should rightly be asked is why is there something rather than nothing?’ Contemporary philosopher Steven Law suggests that this is perhaps the greatest mystery of all and discusses it in his book The Philosophy Files 2.

SO WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

When you first ask the class this question you’re likely to get references to the Harry Potter stories. Quite a number of children also believe that philosophy has something to do with the stars (which on thinking back to Jaydon’s questions it has). Other definitions I’ve encountered from children include:

• Philosophy is talking about things you can’t measure.

• It’s trying to understand other people’s thoughts.

• It’s using your imagination to think about impossible things.

• It’s about wondering why.

• Philosophy is about looking deeper into words.

• It’s playing with ideas to see where they can go.

And, I have to say, my favourite:

• Philosophy is talking about ideas that are too big to fit inside one person’s head.

It’s interesting to collect children’s definitions before you’ve established a community of enquiry. As these examples show, some are very insightful. Once your class becomes familiar with philosophical thinking ask the children to define philosophy again to see how far their understanding has developed. (Some time ago I was invited to a school to run some thinking skills workshops. I happened to say to one boy in my first session, ‘So I understand you do philosophy at this school?’ To which he replied, ‘Well it depends what you mean by “philosophy” and “do” and “school”.’ Which both answered my question and properly put me in my place.)

It’s also worth asking, as yo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgement
• Introduction
• 1 Jumpstart curiosity and imagination
• 2 Jumpstart language for thinking
• 3 Jumpstart critical thinking
• 4 Jumpstart a community of enquiry
• Notes
• References