Philosophy for Children Across the Primary Curriculum: Inspirational Themed Planning

296 Pages·2022·4.88 MB·English

by  Alison Shorer, Katie Quinn

Philosophy for Children Across
the Primary Curriculum
This is an easy- to- use, theme- based resource book for Philosophy for Children (P4C) practitioners in
primary school settings. It covers ten popular themes, which include many current affair issues and
enduring curriculum themes such as artificial intelligence, biodiversity, resilience, and waste.
Each theme provides planning for every subject and links to the relevant English national curriculum
expectations. Offering ideas for a year’s worth of work, it can be dipped into for inspiration or used for
step- by- step sessions. There are links to video clips, websites, and stories that teachers and practitioners
can use to base their concept exploration and enquiries on.
Presenting a range of philosophical ideas, activities, and resources, this book is essential for all primary
P4C facilitators excited by embedding and exploring philosophy across the curriculum.
Alison Shorer is a P4C facilitator (SAPERE trained) and Thinking Moves Trainer for DialogueWorks. She
specialises in oracy teaching and is a co-f ounder of Articulacy and TalkTastic. During her career in educa-
tion, she has been a primary school teacher, given oracy intervention programmes to secondary school
students, been a lecturer in language and literacy, and served as a teacher trainer and mentor. Her first
degree was in reading philosophy, and she has a master’s in education.
Katie Quinn is the Philosophy for Children (P4C) Lead and SAPERE Trainer at a large city- centre primary
school in Exeter. She has worked with senior leadership to link philosophy to the learning and behaviour
values already in place, and to develop ways of systematically incorporating it into topic planning, across
all year groups and all curriculum areas, from science to maths to religious education. Her first degree was
also in reading philosophy.
“Absolutely packed with great ideas and resources, this book shows that Philosophy for Children truly
can be cross curricular, and used within a holistic approach to education, throughout primary education
and beyond. For educators new to P4C up to those who have been doing it for years, this book will prove
to be an essential tool. An absolute treasure trove of lessons to take you through a full year and beyond.”
Dulcinea Norton- Morris, author of Beautiful Thinking:
Metacognition from Birth to Five
“I really like that the cross-c urricular links were shown and linked to the questions. This makes it easy for
teachers to embed P4C into the curriculum.”
Natalie Padley, Deputy Head Teacher, St. Martin’s Primary
Philosophy for
Children Across
the Primary
Curriculum
Inspirational Themed Planning
Alison Shorer and Katie Quinn
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Alison Shorer and Katie Quinn
The right of Alison Shorer and Katie Quinn to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
The content of this publication has not been approved by the United
Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its
officials or Member States.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Shorer, Alison, author. | Quinn, Katie (Primary school teacher),
author.
Title: Philosophy for children across the primary curriculum : inspirational
themed planning / Alison Shorer and Katie Quinn.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022004009 | ISBN 9780367207113 (hardback) | ISBN
9780367207137 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429263033 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Children and philosophy. | Philosophy—Study and
teaching (Primary)—Great Britain. | Education, Primary—Curricula—
Great Britain.
Classification: LCC B105.C45 S56 2023 | DDC 107.0941—
dc23/eng/20220505
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004009
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 20711- 3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 20713- 7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 26303- 3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429263033
Typeset in Helvetica
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Access the Support Material: www.routledge.com/9780367207137
For my co- author, Katie Quinn, who has
endured long COVID since March 2020.
Alison

Contents
Foreword
Nick Chandley ix
Preface xi
1 About the authors 1
2 How to use this book 2
3 Philosophy at the heart by Alison Shorer 4
4 The philosophical teacher by Lizzie Lewis 6
5 Making metacognition simple: philosophising and thinking moves
by Roger Sutcliffe, Bob House, and Nick Chandley 11
6 Artificial intelligence 16
7 Biodiversity 40
8 Heart and lungs 64
9 Journeys 88
10 Money 114
11 Resilience 138
12 Time 166
13 War and peace 190
14 Waste 218
15 Water 246
viii Contents
Appendix A: P4C generic worksheets 270
1 SAPERE – Developing 4C thinking 270
2 SAPERE – Identifying philosophical concepts 271
3 A new thought – evidence of thinking 272
5 SPEC Grids 273
6 Group, divide activity 274
Appendix B: Commemoration dates 275
Index 279
Foreword
Nick Chandley
Philosophy for Children, or as it is commonly known, P4C, has been the slow-b urn initiative within the
education world. Since its development 50 years ago, by Professor Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret
Sharp, it’s never gone away, nor gone out of fashion, nor suffered the fate of many other newcomers of
disappearing and returning years later under another name. Now practised in over 60 countries, Lipman’s
aim for P4C was to help children become ‘more thoughtful, more reflective, more considerate and more
reasonable individuals’ (Philosophy in the Classroom, p. 15). It does this through presenting children with
something interesting – a story, poem, or picture, for example – and encouraging them to come up with
their own questions about it, rather than answering the teacher’s. The teacher then manages, or ‘facili-
tates’, the subsequent discussion, encouraging children to build on – and respect – each other’s ideas.
Lipman’s own description of P4C as a thinking skills programme certainly helped its spread, as most
curricula aspire in some way to promote critical and creative thinking, core elements of P4C. However,
‘thoughtful’, ‘reflective’, ‘considerate’, and ‘reasonable’ are rather less likely to appear as outcomes within
subjects, which may be a reason why P4C has been so enduring. The addition of the caring thinking
dimension (to critical and creative), encourages students to care about being involved, to care enough to
want to ‘entertain’ the thoughts of others (a mark of an educated person, according to Aristotle), to care
about the feelings of others and those of their own, and to care enough about the progress of the enquiry
at hand that they share their personal feelings and experiences and reflect on the lives they lead.
This all- too- brief explanation of caring thinking does little to convey its richness, but it goes some way
to show why P4C is the tortoise in the hare-a nd- tortoise education race. Children and young people are
entering a world that is moving at a relentless pace, with whole new fields of employment springing up
between the time children start school and the time they enter the workplace. The development of critical,
creative, caring, and (particularly in the UK) collaborative thinking skills that are inherent in P4C, through
participation in classroom (and beyond) communities of enquiry, may be viewed on one level as essential
for the workplace. At another level, though, these ‘4Cs’ are powerful companions on the journey to living
a good life.
One of the challenges that P4C faces is the giving over of curriculum time to discrete sessions, despite
the value that these bring. Students, in the main, love this time for them to talk about things that matter to
them, so for many schools, this is something precious and worth timetabling. As one 10- year- old girl said
to me, ‘It’s important that we do P4C because when we get older, we won’t have time to think’.1
For others though, incorporating P4C into curriculum subjects and topics may be the only way to access
it, which is why a book like this is important. There is a philosophical dimension to every subject, which
shouldn’t be viewed as icing on the cake if there is time at the end of a lesson. Any topic on World War
One should surely include some exploration of the concept of conflict, just as any study of a particular
artist should explore elements of the field of aesthetics, lest we demote education to simply learning facts.
P4C may not be the only way to do this, but for me, it is the most complete, with a rich past and an
assured future. This book will help those both experienced and inexperienced in P4C take a step towards
truly philosophical teaching and learning.