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Reasonableness instead of rationalityIn Saeed Naji & Rosnani Hashim (eds.), History, Theory and Practices of Philosophy for Children: International Perspectives, Routledge. 2017.
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Connecting concepts and developing thinking classroomsIn Gilbert Burgh & Simone Thornton (eds.), Philosophical Inquiry with Children: The development of an inquiring society in Australia, Routledge. 2019.
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5For Example? A Philosophical Case Study of Some Problems When Abstract Educational Theory Ignores Concrete PracticeJournal of Philosophy of Education 51 (2): 476-490. 2017.
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363Leadership for Creating a Thinking School at Buranda State SchoolJournal of Australian Council of Educational Leaders 18 (1): 91-106. 2012.ABSTRACT: This article explores the role of principal leadership in creating a thinking school. It contributes to the school leadership literature by exploring the intersection of two important areas of study in education school leadership and education for thinking which is a particularly apt area of study, because effective school leadership is crucial if students are to learn to be critical and creative thinkers, yet this connection has not be widely investigated. We describe how one prin…Read more
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29Thinking together with Philip Cam: Theories for practitioners and assessing thinkingJournal of Philosophy in Schools 5 (2): 17-34. 2018.Philip Cam has been an inspiration to me in his approach to Philosophy for Children, and I have tried to follow the trail he blazed. He is a master of developing what I call ‘practitioner theories’ of Philosophy for Children. These are practical theories designed to be useful for practitioners of Philosophy for Children, rather than abstract theories designed to contribute to the scholarship of Philosophy for Children. I first explain what I mean by a practitioner theory, using Cam’s Question Qu…Read more
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59A Handy Account of Philosophy in SchoolsJournal of Philosophy in Schools 1 (1): 68-88. 2014.Philosophy in Schools is a complex educational practice, unfamiliar to most teachers and philosophers, subtly different to similar forms of education, and so easy to misunderstand and mishandle. Because of this, a common worry for practitioners is whether they are doing it properly. Given this slipperiness of Philosophy in Schools, one of my main concerns has been to give an account that would be useful; that could guide practitioners to teach well. I presented my first account in a 2006 article…Read more
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15How to Do Things with Mouse Clicks: Applying Austin’s speech act theory to explain learning in virtual worldsEducational Philosophy and Theory 48 (11): 1168-1180. 2016.This article addresses learning in desktop virtual worlds where students role play for professional education. When students role play in such virtual worlds, they can learn some knowledge and skills that are useful in the physical world. However, existing learning theories do not provide a plausible explanation of how performing non-verbal virtual world actions (e.g. performing a virtual chest examination in a virtual hospital) can lead to the learning of the physical world equivalent. Some the…Read more
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40The Teacher as Guide: A conception of the inquiry teacherEducational Philosophy and Theory 45 (1): 91-110. 2013.This article explains how teachers might navigate inquiry learning despite the experience of a constant tension between abandoning their students and controlling them. They do this by conceiving of themselves as guides who decide the path with students, not for them. I build on a conception of teaching as guiding from Burbules, and argue that inquiry teachers should take the particular stance of an expedition-educator (rather than the stance of either a tour-leader or an expedition-leader). They…Read more
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36Educating Philosophically: The educational theory of Philosophy for ChildrenEducational Philosophy and Theory 43 (5): 413-414. 2011.
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91The Community of Inquiry: Blending Philosophical and Empirical ResearchStudies in Philosophy and Education 34 (2): 205-216. 2014.Philosophical research tends to be done separately from empirical research, but this makes it difficult to tackle questions which require both. To make it easier to address these hybrid research questions, I argue that we should sometimes combine philosophical and empirical investigations. I start by describing a continuum of research methods from data collecting and analysing to philosophical arguing and conceptualising. Then, I outline one possible middle-ground position where research is equa…Read more
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103A Conception of Philosophical ProgressEssays in Philosophy 12 (2): 200-223. 2011.There is no consensus about appropriate philosophical method that can be relied on to settle philosophical questions and instead of established findings, there are multiple conflicting arguments and positions, and widespread disagreement and debate. Given this feature of philosophy, it might seem that philosophy has proven to be a worthless endeavour, with no possibility of philosophical progress. The challenge then is to develop a conception of philosophy that reconciles the lack of general or …Read more
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79We Made Progress: Collective Epistemic Progress in Dialogue without ConsensusJournal of Philosophy of Education 47 (3): 423-440. 2013.Class discussions about ethical, social, philosophical and other controversial issues frequently result in disagreement. This leaves a problem: has there been any progress? This article introduces and analyses the concept ‘collective epistemic progress’ in order to resolve this problem. The analysis results in four main ways of understanding, guiding and judging collective epistemic progress in the face of seemingly irreconcilable differences. Although it might seem plausible to analyse and judg…Read more
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18For Example? A Philosophical Case Study of Some Problems When Abstract Educational Theory Ignores Concrete PracticeJournal of Philosophy of Education 50 (4): 476-490. 2016.In Philosophy of Education we frequently argue for or against different educational theories. Yet, as I illustrate in this analysis of two articles, in order to maintain the abstract theoretical distinctions, we are liable to ignore the concrete details of practice, caricature the theories we reject and make false distinctions. The two articles that I analyse, one from Golding and one from Boghossian, grapple with the pedagogical theories of transmission teaching, constructivism, pragmatism and …Read more
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94The Many Faces of Constructivist DiscussionEducational Philosophy and Theory 43 (5): 467-483. 2011.Although constructivist discussions in the classroom are often treated as if they were all of the same kind, in this paper I argue that there are subtle but important distinctions that need to be made. An analysis of these distinctions shows that there is a continuum of different constructivist discussions. At one extreme are teacher-directed discussions where students are led to construct the ‘correct’ understanding of a pre-decided conclusion; at the other extreme are unstructured discussions …Read more
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7Book Review: Textbook of Healthcare Ethics. Erich H. Loewy. Plenum Press, NY, 1996. 309 pp. ISBN 0‐306‐45240‐5 US$49.50 (review)Health Care Analysis 5 (3): 249-249. 1997.
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52The Philosophy Teacher as GuideProceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 27 29-37. 2008.Central to Philosophy for Children is the commitment that children follow their inquiry where it leads. Teacher interventions that introduce questions and problems from the philosophical tradition are problematic for this commitment. They seem to be necessary to scaffold a rigorous inquiry, but they also threaten todirect the inquiry down the teacher’s chosen path rather than the students’. This paper suggests a way to balance following student inquiry where it leads with introducing knowledge f…Read more
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86Ethics and the community of inquiry: Education for deliberative democracy - by Burgh, G., field, T., & freakley, MEducational Philosophy and Theory 40 (3). 2008.No Abstract
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82"That's a better idea!" philosophical progress for philosophy for childrenChildhood and Philosophy 5 (10): 223-269. 2009.Philosophy for Children is an important educational programme that engages children in philosophical inquiry as the means for them to make sense of the world. A key to its success is that students make progress in their attempts to make sense of the world or, more colloquially, they develop better ideas. Although philosophical progress is essential to the value of Philosophy for Children, there is little written on this concept and what is written tends to be merely suggestive. The result is tha…Read more
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University of OtagoAssociate Professor
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Areas of Specialization
Other Academic Areas |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy, Misc |
Other Academic Areas |