philosophy in the classroom

Following on from the entry:
Jay Doubleyou: the philosophy foundation

And following on from a seminar introduced last week by Steve Hoggins:

Why I became a philosophy teacher: to get kids thinking about life's big ideas

The emphasis on knowledge in schools led Steve Hoggins to take up philosophy teaching and encourage more thinking and questioning in the classroom

Teaching primary school children philosophy has really helped with their confidence, says Steve Hoggins. Photograph: Steve Hoggins

I didn't have a clue what philosophy was when I chose it as one of my AS levels. The most fascinating thing for me was hearing about concepts and ideas that I had started wondering about before I ever studied philosophy. My older brother died when I was 11 so I'd thought a lot about what death is. I thought I couldn't tell anyone what I thought about this and then I met philosophers who had all these ideas.

I failed all my A-levels apart from one E grade in English. I had moved schools for sixth form and my priority was trying to be cool and having loads of friends. I spent more time in pubs underage drinking than doing my home work. I thought my life was over, then Lampeter University threw me a lifeline and said I could do a one-year diploma and then go on to do a degree but, by a strange administrative error, I ended up doing the degree straight away anyway.

My own experience of education means I can really relate to young people at both secondary and primary level who don't want to do something because they are told to do it. I can also understand and admire the brilliance of young minds who find a way to get round rules and still get to do what they want. These kids resonate with me.

After my degree I went to work in Italy and Portugal as a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) teacher. I found I loved making the potentially very dry task of learning English fun using performance and playing games. For the first time I felt really proud about what I was doing. I came back to the UK and did a primary PGCE at the College of St Mark and St John.

In my final placement at a school in Bradninch in Devon I worked with a great year 6 teacher who was into doing critical thinking and I started experimenting with Socratic questioning. That same week I read a magazine article about Pete Worley from the Philosophy Foundationdescribing using philosophy in class. I remember thinking: "That's it! There's a philosophy shaped hole in the curriculum." We focus so much on knowledge, there isn't enough thinking going on.

So after my PGCE I came down to London and did a course with the Philosophy Foundation. I did my teaching practice at Rathfern Primary school in south east London, working at first with a year 6 class. The headteacher watched me delivering the session and encouraged me to apply for a full-time job as a class teacher to complete my NQT year.

So I started teaching a year 4-5 class. It was the worst year of my life. I was living alone without any network of friends or family and I found the work so hard. All the boxes to tick were a huge problem for me. Part of me said I can't do it and another part said the children shouldn't have to do it and I generally just fell to pieces.

I failed some lesson observations and the head was worried I'd fail my NQT year. I thought I should just leave the school but the head suggested I try working in early years and foundation stage (EYFS). I didn't know what else to do, so I took up the head's offer.

Teaching in EYFS was one of the best experiences of my teaching life. When you mark work of older children you do so on levels of certain criteria. So if you have a piece of writing that has terrible spelling, no connectives, no capital letters you have to give it a terrible grade, even though in its concept the piece of writing really made you think and was fascinating. The ideas in it can't be graded. I found that so depressing and frustrating.

But in EYFS you can approach a child anywhere, not just at the table; for example, at the water tray and ask questions and they can explore ideas. It's a lot more fluid, and you can find opportunities to hit the objectives.

I'd always kept in touch with the Philosophy Foundation and had run an after school philosophy club at Rathfern. So when the foundation offered me the opportunity to work with them, I jumped at the chance.

Now I work particularly closely with primaries Holy Trinity and Kelvin Grove and am also the inhouse philosophy consultant at Ravenscroft school where the head wants to get philosophical inquiry imbedded into their whole curriculum. I also do philosophy sessions with Harris Aspire, a new secondary school set up to turn around he education of children who were struggling in year 7 and 8.

The first lesson I ever did with the year 8 and 9s at Harris Aspire was awful, they ground me to dust. But my work there is going from strength to strength. We've been able to cover really difficult issues in a really intense way, from beating children to whether we should obey laws and rules, so it's in a real-life context. My work in primary schools stays fun and friendly.

The effect on children of doing philosophy sessions is huge. The most obvious change is confidence in speaking out in front of a group. Children aren't expected to know the answer or to correctly guess the teacher's ideas. That's a big change from ordinary lessons. If you know something because the teacher has told you or because you read it in a book you can say it quite confidently. But when children can give a set of reasons for something that they've worked though, discussed and thought for themselves that gives an entirely different level of confidence.

I want to carry on doing this, my dream is for every child to do philosophy. Getting people thinking is a massive thing with life changing and potentially world changing consequences.

Steven Hoggins is development director at the Philosophy Foundation, working in schools, mentoring newly-trained specialists and part of the training team.

Why I became a philosophy teacher: to get children thinking about the big ideas in life | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional

Some excellent books:

The Philosophy Foundation | Resources - Philosophy Foundation Publications - The Philosophy Shop

The Philosophy Foundation: The Philosophy Shop- Ideas, activites and questions to get people, young and old, thinking philosophically: Amazon.co.uk: Peter Worley: Books
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