CONTEXT
Course: HZT4U Philosophy: Questions and Theories
Students: 16
Length: 21 x 75-minute classes, May 2023
This is my first time teaching Philosophy, and I was handed some really great resources by the previous teacher. I noticed that there were two strands she didn’t have any resources for: Aesthetics, and Philosophy of Science
I wanted to pursue my Deep Learning certification this year, as well as participate in our Board’s ReconciliACTION collaborative inquiry. After participating in an introductory professional development session about the DL Certification, I pondered ways to allow students to drive their own learning and participate in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Introducing the Project
Students were asked to choose a topic of interest: Philosophy of Science (4 students) or Aesthetics (11 students). They had a few minutes to research each one to help them decide which topic to focus on a few weeks before beginning the inquiry.
On Day 1, I introduced/students were given the Hāpara workspace including:
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A curriculum tracking sheet and rubric
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Calendars for tracking whole-class events, their own work, and to schedule time with the teacher
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Exit ticket to be filled out daily
They were then placed into the two groups with some preliminary tasks:
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Look through the curriculum expectations as a group
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Generate the Big Questions asked by their branch of Philosophy
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Determine the different schools of thought and which philosophers belong to each
“Can I take a trip to the art gallery and do a journal entry?”
“Can I have a mini-conference with you? I’m a makeup artist. Can I create a makeup look if I tie it to the expectations?”
As they developed their inquiry questions, many began planning the products they wanted to create and asked me about their ideas. I found that while they were encouraged to collaborate on products, most were planning individual products, so I made it mandatory that at least one product be collaborated on with one or more of their topic group members, and another product be a collaboration with one or more people from the opposite topic group.
“You should ask if *student* is Beautiful.”
“You should Ask WHY is *student* beautiful!”
Academic Honesty and Research Skills
In classes 3 & 4 we discussed Academic Honesty and Research. Our school's Teacher-Librarian visited to discuss the importance of academic honesty and how to research and use sources appropriately. I unfortunately was absent from work that day so I am unable to comment further.
When I came back to class for day 4, I briefly introduced citing in APA and directed students to resources and offered to run a workshop should they need assistance later on. We recapped types of Artificial Intelligence (AI), appropriate and inappropriate uses, and consequences for inappropriate use using a collaborative Jamboard.
Refining Our Inquiry Questions
Students were asked to brainstorm together what makes a good inquiry question:
They then returned to their topic groups to go through each group member's question to determine if it fit the criteria they developed, then brought their question to conference with me. Some students were able to justify strong questions right away, and some required further refining.
For example, one student's original question was "Do we have higher or lower expectations from beautiful people?" Through conversation, the student determined that this question had a yes/no answer. They weren't sure how to adjust, so we leveraged digital and gave ChatGPT the prompt "Adjust the inquiry question 'Do we have higher or lower expectations from beautiful people?' to tie more strongly to the philosophy of aesthetics." It responded "How does the concept of beauty influence our expectations of people, and what are the underlying philosophical assumptions that inform these expectations in aesthetics?" The student adjusted their inquiry question to be "How does the concept of beauty influence our expectations of people?"
Another student originally asked, "If time travel existed, would we allow it to be developed?" This was again a yes/no question, but I understood the student wanted to investigate the overlap between Philosophy of Science and Ethics. They adjusted their question to "How does the philosophy of science relate to ethics? Are there any specific examples in the universe that broaden it?"
Some approved-as-is questions included "What is consciousness?" and "Why do we find certain things beautiful?"
ReconciliACTION
Students were introduced on Day 5 to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (with Indigenous peoples in Canada) 94 Calls to Action (TRC 94CTA) in both formal language and kid-friendly language, as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In their topic groups, students skimmed through both to think about why their chosen question matters and how it can tie to UNDRIP or the TRC 94CTA. Strong ties were not expected at this time, and the connection may be as simple as listening to and elevating Indigenous voices through the inquiry.
I emailed the students' questions to our school board's Indigenous Education consultant, who connected me (directly and through the advisory committee) to Indigenous artists and scientists with expertise in the topics students are inquiring about, and students can then connect with these individuals to interview them and garner their perspectives on the inquiry questions.