Introductory Certificate Course – Philosophical Community of Inquiry

The Philosophy in Schools Association of NSW offers a two-day workshop program for Introductory Certificate in Teaching Philosophy in Schools.

The workshop is designed as an introduction to philosophic practice in the classroom and presupposes no formal training in philosophy or experience in teaching philosophy in schools.

This course is offered in face-to-face format only, with a maximum of up to 16 participants for quality delivery and interactions. The cost is $610 (students $350) for the two day course.

To see more information including upcoming dates and registration details, click this link: https://events.humanitix.com/introduction-to-philosophical-community-of-inquiry-workshop

Day 1 

9.00-9.30 Introduction and course outline
9.30-10.30 “Plain vanilla” classroom session: hands-on introduction working with a picture book or purpose-written materials:  warm-up, introducing stimulus material, agenda with student’s questions, conducting discussion, small group activity or exercise and reflection.
10.30-11.00 Rules and tools for conducting discussion: complete run-through of rules and how to introduce them;  building a basic thinking toolkit that teachers will learn to use in the workshops and establishing proficiency.
11.20-12.40 Questions and questioning in Philosophy: Developing the student as a questioner, early years questioning scaffolds, the Question Quadrant, procedural questions and discussion plans.
1.40-2.50 Conceptual exploration in Philosophy: Introduction to conceptual warm-ups, distinction-making, categorical thinking and concept games
2.50-3.00 Q&A and Homework assignment: Teachers to choose an introductory activity to run in their classrooms from a selection provided

Day 2

9.00-10.00 A classroom session based around questioning and conceptual exploration: a session focusing on some of the things we covered on Day 1
10.00-10.30 Discussion of our initial classroom efforts: Teachers share and discuss what worked well and any difficulties
10.30-11.00 The basic pattern of classroom inquiry: Looking at a lesson in outline to see how it follows the pattern of inquiry
11.20-12.40 Reasoning in Philosophy: An introduction to reasoning exercises and activities
1.40-2.40 Lesson planning and explanation of Level 1 certificate submissions: Teachers work on designing a lesson using a lesson planner. Explanation of the short assignment submission required for Level 1 certification by the Philosophy in Schools Association of NSW
2.40-3.00 Q&A