Workshops

The Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children conducts workshops around the Pacific Northwest for teachers, parents and other adults interested in facilitating philosophical dialogues with young people. Over the past decade, the Center has run over 25 workshops for teachers and parents about ways to do philosophy with pre-college students. For more information about our workshops, contact Director Jana Mohr Lone

Another source for high quality education about ways to introduce philosophy into K-12 classrooms is the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University in New Jersey, which runs an excellent 10-day introductory seminar each summer in Mendham, New Jersey.

SAMPLE CENTER WORKSHOP FORMAT

Workshop: Philosophy in the Classroom

This teacher-education workshop is an intensive, 15-hour workshop. It provides an introduction to methods for bringing philosophy into K-12 classrooms. This involves reading with students stories and other texts that raise philosophical issues and then leading philosophical discussions about the material. The workshop will focus on ways in which to establish philosophical "communities of inquiry" in classrooms, and will introduce a conception of what constitutes a philosophical discussion, basic reasoning and logic tools, and the method of Socratic dialogue. The workshop will also provide some general introduction to the discipline of philosophy.

By the end of the week of the workshop, participants will be equipped to begin doing philosophy with students in the classroom. The workshop emphasizes learning by doing. We will form our own community of inquiry, and will spend most of each day discussing philosophical questions such as: When do we know something? What is the self? What is friendship? What is the mind? We will learn how to engage in philosophical dialogues with children by doing it ourselves. Each participant will lead at least one session of a philosophical discussion with the group. The workshop will also provide an introduction to some of the traditional branches of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, and logic.

Workshop Schedule

Friday

1 – 2:30 p.m.	Introduction: Philosophy/doing philosophy with children
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.	BREAK
3 – 3:45 p.m.	Harry Stottlemeir’s Discovery by Matthew Lipman, ch. 6
3:45 – 4 p.m.	CLOSURE

Saturday

9 – 10 a.m.	Pixie by Matthew Lipman, ch. 3
10 – 11 a.m.	The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
11 – 11:15 a.m.	BREAK
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.	Harry Stottlemeir’s Discovery, ch. 13
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.	LUNCH
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.	“Double Trouble” by Philip Cam
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.	BREAK
2:45 – 3:45 p.m.	“A Mad Tea Party,” in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
3:45 – 4 p.m.	CLOSURE

Sunday

9 – 10 a.m.	Ring of Gyges, in Plato’s Republic
10 – 11 a.m.	Philosophy Thought Experiments/Puzzles/Games
11 – 11:15 a.m.	BREAK
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.	The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula LeGuin
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.	LUNCH
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.	Developing a Community of Inquiry: Questions and Discussion
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.	BREAK
2:45 – 3:45 p.m.	Yellow and Pink by William Steig
3:45 – 4 p.m.	CLOSURE