Philosophy and Education
Engaging Pathways to Meaningful Learning
Summary
Philosophy and Education is primarily designed to help students improve their reasoning skills both orally and in writing, and prepare them for tests and exams at the end of the upper secondary and university-preparatory courses. Some of the chapters in Philosophy and Education have been used in the classroom, resulting in highly engaged students who feel they are offered the opportunity to relate to the classroom experience in a meaningful way. None of the activities ask students to make lists of words or spend enormous amounts of time on close reading and interpreting texts - instead, they are required to reflect and share their own thoughts on the relevance of the texts, movies, etc. to their own lives. They learn new words and ideas by discussing the myriad of philosophical questions presented, which makes learning a conversation about life.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Knowledge
- Conceptualization
- Why do we need to know?
- How do we know what we know?
- Is knowledge individual or collective?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is knowledge more important than thinking?
- What is the utility of knowledge?
- Is certainty better than doubt?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is knowledge more important than thinking?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 2: Ambition
- Conceptualization
- What makes somebody ambitious?
- What makes a person ambitious?
- Are you ambitious?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- What is better: the ambitious or the comfortable life?
- Is the ambitious life the only life worth living?
- Is the comfortable life the most enjoyable life?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- What is better: the ambitious or the comfortable life?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 3: Success
- Conceptualization
- What is a successful life?
- What is success?
- Is success need or desire?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is success essential for a satisfying life?
- Is success fundamental to happiness?
- Is success the ultimate measure of life?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is success essential for a satisfying life?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 4: Regret
- Conceptualization
- Is regret essential to life?
- What makes us have regrets?
- Is regret useful?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is regret weakness or strength?
- What is the relationship between regret and courage?
- What is the relationship between regret and weakness?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is regret weakness or strength?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 5: Forgiveness
- Conceptualization
- What makes us forgive?
- When do we forgive?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Context Ten
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is forgiveness bravery or weakness?
- Is forgiveness a sign of weakness?
- Is forgiveness a sign of courage?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is forgiveness bravery or weakness?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 6: Truth
- Conceptualization
- What is truth?
- What makes something true?
- Which is harder: to tell or hear the truth?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is comfort more important than truth?
- Do we always need the truth?
- What is better: truth or comfort?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is comfort more important than truth?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 7: Prejudice
- Conceptualization
- What makes us prejudiced?
- What makes us form prejudices?
- Why do prejudices exist?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is prejudice a social or an individual responsibility?
- Is prejudice ever justified?
- Is prejudice individual or collective?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is prejudice a social or an individual responsibility?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 8: Superiority
- Conceptualization
- What makes us feel superior?
- Why do we feel superior?
- What makes a nation feel superior?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Context Ten
- Context Eleven
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Are some cultures better than others?
- What makes a culture better than others?
- Is there a right way of living?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Are some cultures better than others?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 9: Inequality
- Conceptualization
- Is full equality ever possible?
- What makes up inequality?
- What perpetuates inequality?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Context Ten
- Context Eleven
- Context Twelve
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is inequality an individual responsibility?
- Do we get only as much as we fight for?
- Is inequality individualistic or collective?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is inequality an individual responsibility?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 10: Freedom
- Conceptualization
- What does it mean to be free?
- What is a free life?
- What does freedom have to offer?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Would you sacrifice freedom for security?
- When can freedom be a burden?
- What is more important than freedom?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Would you sacrifice freedom for security?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 11: Duty
- Conceptualization
- What is the value of duty?
- What determines our sense of duty?
- What makes some duties better than others?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Context Ten
- Context Eleven
- Context Twelve
- Context Thirteen
- Context Fourteen
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Do moral duties increase or decrease our happiness?
- Is duty essential for a pleasant life?
- Does duty hinder or promote happiness?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Do moral duties increase or decrease our happiness?
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 12: Identity
- Conceptualization
- How do you know who you are?
- What makes up one’s identity?
- What makes you you?
- Contextualization
- Context One
- Context Two
- Context Three
- Context Four
- Context Five
- Context Six
- Context Seven
- Context Eight
- Context Nine
- Context Ten
- Context Eleven
- Context Twelve
- Context Thirteen
- Context Fourteen
- Argumentation: Part 1, Speaking
- Is identity a personal choice?
- How is identity formed?
- Are we the sole authors of our identity?
- Argumentation: Part 2, Essay Writing
- Is identity a personal choice?
- Notes
- References
Educators today are confronted with many challenges brought about by technology, both in and outside the classroom. Sitting at a desk and laboring through numerous activities are no longer part of the typical classroom. Not only are students distracted by the overwhelming input of information, they are also helpless when discerning relevance from irrelevance. Besides, school learning has always been disconnected from the real world—it has very often been too theoretical, too abstract, too impersonal. Offering learning that bears relevance to the real world, connecting literature, historical events, and social issues to the learners’ own experiences, guarantees to get them engaged.
My reason for writing this book was to offer my students the chance to experience learning as significant and gratifying. I remember myself as a student—I was motivated by teachers who knew how to connect the learning material with my personal experiences, views, and feelings. This makes students feel seen, heard, and understood. They feel they are contributing to a world of better understanding. Ultimately, everything we learn about the past bears a striking resemblance to what we try to discover about the present. All learning starts with the eternal philosophical questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Am I significant? What determines my existence? What do I believe in and why? In the end, life becomes manageable when we feel we are not alone. ← vii | viii →
None of the activities in the book ask students to make lists of words but lists of ideas and reflections. Learners are encouraged to reflect and share their thoughts on the relevance of the texts, films, etc. to their own lives. They learn new words and ideas by thinking critically and deliberating over the myriad of questions presented, which makes learning a conversation about life. It would not be an overstatement to claim that I have never had more engaged students in my life! They love being in my class and discuss issues which they feel they can easily relate to.
There is hardly something more delightful for a teacher than a group of learners engaged in a heated debate about the essence of things! My classes always end up with unfinished conversations—everybody has so much more to say than the time allows! Who can’t relate to concepts like forgiveness, regret, ambition, superiority and success? They are perennial philosophical questions that humans will always grapple with. They are the essence of being human in a world that seems chaotic, overwhelming, and incomprehensible most of the time.
I hope that this book can help teachers make a difference and be remembered for making learning meaningful.
Mara Cogni
Educator
Conceptualization
Why do we need to know?
1. DEFINE THE CONCEPT
A. Read the definition to the right. Write down your own definition.
Knowledge, in my opinion, can be defined as …
B. Share with the class. Add details to your definition.
2. UNPACK THE CONCEPT
A. Discuss in groups. Share with the class.
1. What makes us want to know?
2. Does familiarity equate knowledge?
3. Does knowing mean understanding?
4. What is the relation between knowledge and intuition?
5. What is the relation between knowledge and feelings? ← 1 | 2 →
6. What is the difference between knowledge and learning?
7. What is the relation between knowledge and memory?
8. What is the relation between knowledge and trust?
9. What is the difference between knowledge and imagination?
10. Is knowledge objective or subjective?
11. What is the difference between knowing why and knowing how?
12. What is the difference between knowledge and self-knowledge?
How do we know what we know?
Write a paragraph summing up what you have discussed.
B. Write in your notebook. Share with the class.
1. Imagine a society where every individual possesses a different kind of knowledge from everybody else. Describe the society in a short paragraph.
2. Imagine a society where all individuals possess the same kind of knowledge as everybody else. Describe the society in a short paragraph.
Is knowledge individual or collective?
Write a paragraph summing up what you have discussed.
3. SUMMARIZE IN WRITING
Summarize ideas from previous discussions in one or two paragraphs.
Knowledge can be defined as … The things that make up knowledge are … For example, we know when … Besides, knowing something means … ← 2 | 3 →
Contextualization
Context One
What is knowledge? Is it truth? Is it belief? Is it perception? Or is it justification? We tend to think about knowledge as opposed to ignorance. However, we can safely say that knowledge is our mind’s relationship to the world, it represents the sum total of our representations of what, how and why the world is. The extent of our knowledge about the world determines our mind’s image of it, as well as the mind’s adaptability to the world. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology, which means to reason about knowledge. It is common to explain knowledge in terms of beliefs, as belief comes prior to knowledge and it takes the form of knowledge when coupled with facts.
And how do we come about these facts? In A History of Freedom of Thought, Irish historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927) asserts that, “If you ask somebody how he knows something, he may say, ‘I have it on good authority’, or, ‘I read it in a book’, or, ‘It is a matter of common knowledge’, or, ‘I learned it at school.’”1 All these replies indicate that we have formed our knowledge by trusting others with their information and knowledge, and that we have not endeavored to validate their explanations or think the matters out for ourselves. Indeed, most of our knowledge and beliefs are of this kind, acquired from our parents, teachers, colleagues, newspapers, books, etc. without any corroboration.
When an English boy learns French, he takes the conjugations and the meanings of the words on the authority of his teacher or his grammar. The fact that in a certain place, marked on the map, there is a populous city called Calcutta, is for most people a fact accepted on authority. Familiar astronomical facts are known only in the same way, except by those who have studied astronomy. It is obvious that everyone’s knowledge would be very limited indeed, if we were not justified in accepting facts on the authority of others.2
Knowledge is justified when the facts we safely accept can be demonstrated and verified. The boy who learns French can verify his knowledge when he travels to France. I can always travel to Calcutta and verify its existence. As far as the earth being some 149 million km from the sun, it has been demonstrated and agreed upon by all astronomers and there is no need for me to doubt that. ← 3 | 4 →
Pause and Reflect—Share Your Thoughts
1. What is knowledge?
2. How do we know what we know?
3. Is accepting information from others a safe way of acquiring knowledge?
4. Does sharing information with others mean expanding or limiting knowledge?
Context Two
In Democracy and Education, American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey (1859–1952) claims that progressive life in a society occurs through a process of communication of habits, thoughts, and feelings from the older to the younger. Schools are, indeed, one important channel of such communication, but he believes it is a relatively superficial one compared to other means, such as our social interactions with others in society. “Not only is social life identical with communication, but all communication (and hence all genuine social life) is educative. To be a recipient of a communication is to have an enlarged and changed experience.”3 This change of experience, Dewey says, occurs on both ends, both the person who receives the communication and the one that communicates, experience their own attitudes revised. “To formulate requires getting outside of it, seeing it as another would see it, considering what points of contact it has with the life of another so that it may be got into such form that he can appreciate its meaning.”4
An appreciable way by which we acquire knowledge is by observation and by engaging in inquiries with others. One has to remember that the idea of the individual having an intellectual responsibility to get knowledge about the world on his own hasn’t been always part of the social life. The view that knowledge is won through personal experiences has emerged only with the economic and political individualism after the sixteenth century, and with the development of Protestantism. As a consequence, the individual mind was declared the only source and possessor of knowledge. It was the Sophists who investigated the nature of knowledge and who believed that it is through free inquiry and discussion that we can test our knowledge. Furthermore, by promoting a skeptical attitude both towards authority and our own beliefs, the Greeks believed that people can become better at nurturing reflective thinking. The progress of civilization is to a large extent based on the advancement of knowledge. “To advance knowledge and to correct errors, unrestricted ← 4 | 5 → freedom of discussion is required,”5 writes J. B. Bury. History shows that knowledge grew when people engaged in a perfect liberty of thought and discussion.
John Dewey believes that the learning which occurs in school should be continuous with the learning happening outside of school—there should be a free interplay between them.
Discipline, natural development, culture, social efficiency are moral traits of a person who is a worthy member of that society which it is the business of education to further. There is an old saying to the effect that it is not enough for a man to be good; he must be good for something. The something for which a man must be good is the capacity to live as a social member so that what he gets from living with others balances with what he contributes.6
And if there is anything of significance to humans, it is unquestionably the feeling that we contribute, that we matter.
Pause and Reflect—Share Your Thoughts
1. How does social interaction determine our knowledge?
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 238
- Publication Year
- 2018
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433153501
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433153518
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433153525
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433153495
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433153488
- DOI
- 10.3726/b13215
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2018 (May)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2018. VIII, 238 pp.
