Sarah Davey Chesters

Pre-service teachers’ epistemic perspectives about philosophy in the classroom: it is not a bunch of ‘hippie stuff’

Using epistemic perspectives as a theoretical framework, this study investigated Australian pre-service teachers’ perspectives about knowing, knowledge and children’s learning, as they engaged in a semester-long unit on philosophy in the classroom. During the field experience component of the unit, pre-service teachers were required to teach at least one philosophy lesson. Pre-service teachers completed the Personal Epistemological Beliefs Survey at the beginning and end of the unit. They were also interviewed in focus groups at the end of the semester to investigate their views about children’s learning. Paired sample t-tests were used to explore changes in epistemic beliefs over time. Significant differences were found for only some individual items on the survey. However, when interviewed, pre-service teachers indicated that field experiences helped them consider children as competent ‘thinkers’ who were capable of engaging in philosophy in the classroom. They reported predominantly student-centred perspectives of children’s learning, although a process of adjudication (exploring disagreements and evidence for responses) was lacking in these responses.

Developing the Socratic Classroom

Much of education is focused on the achievement of certain basic skills and knowledge. This focus can be attributed to a commonly held view of education that raising the general level of IQ of children through the teaching and learning of thinking skills together with some knowledge of the world will assist them as future adult citizens. Beyond the ‘3Rs’ literacy and numeracy are now the cornerstones of learning. The aim of many governments is to ensure that all students gain at least the minimum standard of literacy and numeracy so that they overcome educational disadvantage, and that it is crucial for children to develop these foundational skills at the earliest possible time in their school years.

An Emerging Pedagogy

Marshall Gregory (2001) argues that the primary vehicle through which pre-service teachers learn about pedagogy is through their own experiences of pedagogy in their tertiary classes. Their lived experiences, not the theories or frameworks presented to them, have a greater effect on how they teach, For me, the impact of pedagogy was apparent when I began my university studies as an Arts student, majoring in Ethics and Philosophy.

Socratic Pedagogy and Classroom Practice

As a result of current innovations and reforms in education, teachers are increasingly required to adopt new approaches to teaching and learning, with emphasis on curriculum integration and new pedagogies to facilitate student-learning. In connection with these reforms a growing number of theorists of education are advocating inquiry-based education with emphasis on integrating curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to improve teaching and learning. This is in stark contrast to traditional or direct teaching methods. Of particular importance is the increasing acceptance of the need for the teaching of philosophy and philosophical inquiry to children. This development is recognised in the UNESCO study as a response to cultural and political needs. This is one of the reasons why the teaching of philosophy and philosophical inquiry to children was given a privileged treatment in that study.

Who cares? Tensions and conflicts from the field of teacher education

In Australia, teacher education is characterised by ever-increasing regulation, from teacher registration bodies, government policy directives, and university administration and procedures (Grossman and McDonald, 2008). Teacher educators’ responsibilities to these stakeholders, as well as to their students (pre-service teachers) and the mentor teachers and schools that act as hosts for field placements, create a complex working environment with, at times, conflicting interests.