The following are the notes from Mr Paul Southwell's introduction to our session at the conference...
Presentation to IBO Asia Pacific Conference
March 2012
WELCOME.
An ice breaker from Jason Buckley.
INTRO OF PRESENTERS
RADFORD and RADFORD JUNIOR SCHOOL
-a P to 12 Anglican Coeducational College in Canberra
-years 7 to 12 in it's 30th year / renowned for it's Year 12 outcomes
-Junior School P to 6, in our 5th year
Jnr School opened in 2008 as a PYP Candidate School...this strongly influenced our staffing, in particular the type of staff, attracted to the framework.
Authorised in 2010
We have a wait list of 3500 in junior school. We don't market, instead rely upon word of mouth, we have undergone major growth and staff changes each year.
Early Goals
from our outset, in addition to understanding the multiple layers of the PYP framework, we were keen to pursue;
How we could deepen our inquiry, in this 21st century?
How we could better support the emotional growth of our students, and support greater understanding of differences...particularly given the many new students?
How we could deepen our critical and creative thinking (beyond "hats", and "blooms" activities...to pedagogy)?
How we could Improve our teachers questioning skills?
And
How we could continue , as an adult community of inquirers, to best support our kids?
SOPHY
Our group thinking led us to SOPHY (Society of Philosophy for the Young), or P4C. Sophy is the "trademark" of a curriculum developed by Prof Mathew Lipman at Columbia University in the 1960s. Lipman emphasises the importance of questioning and inquiry in the development of reasoning.
P4C AT RADFORD
I must, here, share with you ...something called a ‘Paulism’...explain
e.g meddlers, critical moments, if we stand still…….
My Paulism is that, in our profession we modify..eg, Units that almost fit...or videos revolutionizing education – one reason I really liked the PYP framework – helped to stop modification.
With P4C we have broken a ‘Paulism’
"we modify P4C to fit where we are in our journey”. We are not pure philosophers, instead, we seek to develop a more thoughtful, reflective and considerate community – through this process
Philosophy is...
Love (philo) of wisdom (Sophia)
Our journey is influenced by;
· Mathew Lipmans desire for education to be seen, as a context for young people to learn to be reasonable, to become reasonable citizens, companions and parents for this century
· By Prof Phil Cams (Uni of NSW) statement that within our current trends we are failing to teach students how to think...imagine the outcry if students graduated without being numerate or literate?
· And lately, by, Englishman Jason Buckley, aka, the philosophy man, who provided our ice breaker
P4C is not a stand alone subject, it is embedded in our Units of Inquiry, and in particular our RaVE program...explain this (RAVE)
We use it as a way of lifting our pedagogy...our inquiry...of bringing our curriculum to life by engaging students in meaningful discussions around issues and concepts of relevance and importance to the students (we are seeing improvements in student questioning as well)
The benefits of P4C for us are;
-improved listening and speaking skills across our curriculum
-developing skills of thinking, reasoning and inquiry
-improved feelings of enjoyment, achievement and positive contributions in class
-greater opportunities for focussed reflection on learning and how our students learn
- self esteem and positive regards for difference
-increased motivation ,social and emotional wellbeing
-benefits that run across our framework for all our staff
-active participation in learning
-true provision for a pupil voice..to make a positive contribution
-that it's holistic, therefore fitting our PYP framework. It relates to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural dimensions
-it does develop teacher pedagogy!!
And promotes individual thinking AND community of inquiry.
Nick and Nicole can share the real elements of this program with you today.