‘Blobs’ fall flat
Ever on the lookout for innovative teaching resources, I jumped at the invitation to preview a sample of The Blob Guide to Children’s Human Rights, a new release in the […]
Tag Archives: critique
Doing without Socrates
The Socratic method, when used correctly, is an ingenious and dependable way of fostering collaborative dialogic argument in the classroom. Yet the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) presents […]
Is philosophy dead?
You might have noticed: having a dig at philosophy seems to have become a sport among high profile scientists. Stephen Hawking famously declared: “philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept […]
Beyond parallel play: Three keys to dialogic argument
In honour of World Philosophy Day, I’m capping off my series on relativism and evaluativism today. If you haven’t read my previous posts in the series – Epistemology Needs to […]
Tolerance gone rogue: More troubles with relativism
“I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn’t speak on behalf of anyone else as to what’s […]
Dying goats and flying dogs: Troubles with relativism
Tweens and teens, however strong and resilient they may be as individuals, are collectively a vulnerable bunch. We hear a lot about how they’re susceptible to social exclusion, peer pressure, mental […]
NAPLAN persuasive writing test subverts critical thinking
The capacity to persuade is a vital currency: it fosters active civic participation and affords access to power in a democracy. Developing persuasiveness therefore has an important place in education. […]
A cheap shot?
The New Yorker has disappointed me again, this time by its recent coverage of a series of children’s philosophy workshops at the Brooklyn Public Library. Rebecca Mead’s article, ‘When Kids […]
Tripping over logic
Interested in a quirky picture book for grown-ups? Take a look at An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi, with woodcut-style illustrations by Alejandro Giraldo. In a bold […]
Can you kill a goat by staring at it?
This year’s $1 million TED Prize was awarded to a novel educational project that encourages small groups of children to work together, using the internet to answer big questions that […]
