Super Seminars

Thinking Creatively about Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is normally seen as one of the outcomes that any educational programme should deliver (by whatever route). However, it needs to be understood properly before it can be delivered. Too often, it is seen as no more than a fixed sequence of skills, together with an unexamined set of dispositions. Central to this problem is that it’s often forgotten that Critical Thinking is essentially creative. The familiar distinction between ‘creative’ and ‘critical’ thinking is unhelpful, as if the two things were two necessarily separate activities. Focusing on the central creativity of Critical Thinking will show its significant power in enabling us to ask lots of questions about claims, explanations, and inferences. This seminar will provide many illustrations of this approach, thereby showing the huge possibilities of Critical Thinking for any education programme.

Developing Philosophy with Children

Classroom interaction and dialogue have become a major focus of pedagogic research and debate in recent years. At the level of policy there is much talk of the importance of listening to children and young people. But what does dialogue mean and what are the constraints on listening in classrooms? In this seminar Joanna will explore the kind of open, responsive, yet critical listening that is necessary condition for reciprocal dialogue. Joanna will draw on ideas and examples from her book, Children as Philosophers, to offer glimpses of practice and to make the case for a philosophical approach to listening and dialogue in classrooms.

Think Big: Think Gifted

Somewhere in the 20th century western educational systems took an infelicitous turn in the field of gifted education - a turn signposted 'Fixed Ability'. The assumption has since been that we need accurately to identify 'the gifted' in order to provide for their needs. As a result, teachers and systems still find themselves driven in ever decreasing circles by accountabilities based on such procedural and actuarial concepts as 'identification strategies', 'cohort registers' and 'tracking systems', and run the risk of losing sight of the real point of gifted education (as opposed to 'gifted learners') - creating and nurturing committed, passionate and wise learners who can and do excel in a demanding and fast-changing world. In this seminar we will explore alternatives to test-and-place and consider how a 21st century school can set out to create giftedness - not just "meet the needs" of an identified group.

Valuing Philosophy in the 6th Form

Any syllabus is set with certain assumptions - about the nature of the topic, its essential questions, and about how it can best be approached, and the exams are designed in line with these. This seminar would provide Headteachers and Directors of Studies, as well as Philosophy Teachers, with an unique opportunity to look at the thinking behind the philosophy A level, and to refine their view of its place and value in the sixth form curriculum.

Adaptable Learning

In a world of change, schools have a responsibility to prepare young people for a lifetime of learning, so that they can thrive in whatever situation they find themselves. Far more than study skills and going beyond the scope of PLTS, learning to learn involves a set of strategies and habits of mind which can be learned and developed and which both develop learners and improve results. But this area is fraught with bad science and false prophets. Bill's session will look at what the research says and suggest powerful approaches to growing schools full of world-class learners. Specifically it will look at how we need to adapt and respond to new circumstances if we want to be successful today.

Improving Learning by Taking Account of Learners’ Perspectives

The question of how pupil voice can influence teaching and learning is a relatively new idea. However, when learners engage with teachers in co-constructing their learning the evidence shows benefits for:

• learners, such as enhanced self-esteem, commitment and capacity for learning
• teachers, such as deeper insight into young people’s capabilities and a practical agenda for improvement
• school, such as improved relationships between pupils and teachers, providing a sound basis for change and development as a learning organization.

This seminar will consider the why, what and how of pupil voice to improve the quality of learning in classrooms.

SEAL - from first principles to flexible and creative practice

Social and emotional aspects of learning starts from aspirations, for children and young people, for our communities and for society both now and in the future. It is based upon what children and young people need to learn to meet those aspirations. However, it is sometimes seen as a programme that must be delivered under the direction of others which stifles its essential creativity. During the seminar we will explore the question: how we can free SEAL from these constraints so that it can support schools and communities in a creative way - building communities and developing individuals.

Tools for Sustaining Any New Approach to Learning

There are many potentially powerful approaches to learning (such as P4C, Building Learning Power, and the like) that are available to schools. Yet with each there are pitfalls: How can we ensure that the approach is embedded across the whole school? And how do we sustain progress in the face of ever more initiatives coming our way? This seminar will identify the thinking behind some of the leadership tools that can be used help us to be more strategic and successful, no matter which initiative we have chosen to implement.

PSP – a wiser approach to PeLTS, etc.

The various educational practices that go under the names of PSE, PELTS, Cross-curricular Dimensions, etc., lose traction because they are neither based on established disciplines nor well-correlated conceptually. They would all benefit from being pursued under the same title of PSP - with the rigour and range that the discipline of philosophy provides. It is hoped that the seminar will help lay the foundation for such change in the timetable and in educational practice.

IBL - Inquiry-based Learning

Inquiry-based Learning could be said to have its roots in the very beginnings of formal education in the West: in the Greek schools inspired by Socrates and his questioning approach. Sadly, as education became institutionalised, teaching and learning tended increasingly towards the ‘banking’ model – with ‘knowledge’ being ‘transmitted’ from teacher to learner, largely through lecturing. Despite overwhelming evidence and reason to suppose that such ‘learning’ is shallow and hard to sustain, many lessons are still designed on the basis that the more information that can be presented by the teacher, the better the students will learn. Inquiry-based learning, which has survived in many forms but with few champions in the mainstream, emphasises two aspects of learning that are fundamental, but often undervalued by teachers: firstly, the importance of nurturing students’ own curiosity (their will to inquiry); and, secondly, the importance of developing their imagination and reasoning (the skills to inquire). This seminar will explore how these aspects can be planned into a school curriculum and into classroom practice.

The Mantle of the Expert – a versatile stimulus to enquiry

The name ‘Mantle of the Expert’ can put some people off this versatile approach to learning and teaching, but its very basis is that anyone can imagine themselves in a position where they might need to show – or at least to develop – a certain expertise. It is this imaginative leap, taken with the support of others in thought and action, that enables young people to enter into possibilities of enquiry and learning that otherwise might remain closed or limited for them. All teachers might benefit from seeing how this process works, and although this seminar will not attempt to turn participants into MoE experts (!) it will certainly enable them to get a sense of how it could gradually be incorporated into different areas of the curriculum, if not right across it.

Developing a Citizenship-Rich Curriculum

The Association for Citizenship Teaching has never seen Citizenship as just a subject among many to be taught in schools, but rather as a subject without which the rationale for other subjects is so much the weaker. It has, accordingly, been developing the idea of Citizenship-rich schools, and this seminar will focus particularly on the ambitions/aspirations that teachers and schools might have of/for Citizenship education.

From Big Picture to Fine Practice

Whilst the QC(D)A ‘Big Picture’, which Mick himself conceived and developed, may stand for a good while as a model of a coherent and constructive curriculum, there is no doubt that the (national) curriculum will (have to) evolve continually over the coming decades. The Curriculum Foundation acknowledges this, and seeks to engage educators at all levels in its ongoing development. Mick will enable some of the big issues to be considered, but, with his extraordinarily wide experience of schools, will also enable models and points of good practice to be highlighted and rehearsed.

Write to Think: Write to Learn

It is well recognised, if not always well practised, that good speaking (oracy) as well as listening are vital to the development of thinking (and literacy) skills. Steve has done much over the past two decades to promote good dialogue in communities of enquiry. But he has always had an interest in, and a commitment to, writing as a channel for critical and creative thinking. In this seminar he will present a case, through practical examples, for raising the profile of writing, not only in communities of philosophical enquiry but across the curriculum.

Issues and Resolutions for the Global Dimension Community

Many current educational initiatives, such as Community Cohesion, Sustainable Schools, the Prevent Agenda as well as the National Curriculum Aims and Purposes contain explicit or implicit reference to issues which can be contentious. These include: promoting shared values and freedom of speech; valuing diversity; and encouraging inclusion, the challenging of discrimination and sustainable living. Many assumptions and complex concepts are inherent in such documentation: How can 'shared values' be decided? Should all diversity be valued? How far should freedom of speech go? When is something discriminatory? Why should we try and live sustainably when others don't? This seminar will explore how educators can make sense of the many difficult issues that are at the heart of what it means to be a global citizen and translate them into practical ideas and action.