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Philosophical Inquiry introduces teachers to a philosophical approach to collaborative inquiry-based teaching and learning.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Arranging the Classroom and Setting the Rules
Structuring a Lesson
A Toolkit for Thinking
Learning Outcomes
Chapter 2: Questioning
Question Starters
Thinking about Response Demands
The Question Quadrant
Factual, Evaluative and Conceptual Questions
Setting an Agenda
Unpacking Problems and Questions
The Teacher as Procedural Questioner
The Characteristics of Philosophical Questions
Constructing Discussion Plans
Exercises and Activities
Chapter 3: Conceptual Exploration
Categorical Operations
Comparative Operations
Complex Concepts
Clarification
Exercises and Activities
Chapter 4: Reasoning
The Language of Reasoning
Justification and Inference
Conditional Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
Contradiction and Logical Impossibility
Analyzing and Evaluating Reasoning
Mapping Arguments in Discussion
Exercises and Activities
Bibliography
About the author
Dr. Philip Cam is an international authority on philosophy in schools, who has run workshops for educators in many countries, and whose books for teachers and children have been widely translated. He has a DPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford and has had a long university career in Australia.
Summary
Philosophical Inquiry introduces teachers to a philosophical approach to collaborative inquiry-based teaching and learning.
Additional text
Phil Cam invites educators to see each school subject and academic discipline as a realm of inquiry to which we invite our students to bring their own questions, and where we think together with them in ways that are likely to result in deeper understanding, keener appreciation and fresh insights, not only about the subject, but also about ourselves and one another. Cam makes the compelling case historically, theoretically, and most of all practically, that the tools of philosophy are just those needed to conduct genuine inquiry across school subjects. The treasure trove of practical suggestions and organized activities he offers on questioning, concept development, and reasoning is more than a welcome resource for the classroom: it is a framework for inquiring into one’s own pedagogy.
