DAY 1
The meeting was, as usual, opened by the SOPHIA Network president, Emma. And then our host, Jason, kicked off proceedings with a game of “Have it!” which brought our inner EastEnders to the surface!
Pete Worley kicked off the practical sessions with his talk: The Opposite of Questioning, encouraging us to always be in the questioning mode and how practically everything we say can be a question.
- How can we classify questions?
- What is a question?
- How many questions have been asked in a <period of time ie.: conversation>?
- Is everything a question?
- Are you a question?
Next up was Daniella, talking to us about the unity of opposites and raising many interesting questions about what it means to be an opposite.
- What do we mean by unity of opposites?
- Do opposites need to be at the other end of the spectrum?
- Are opposites always polarised?
- How can we maximise the transfer of philosophical skills to other disciplines?
Following this was Jarek in a very interactive session inviting us to create constructs with sticks to represent a human and artificial intelligence and then explaining and interpreting others’ creations.
- What’s the difference between humans and AI?
- What makes us human?
Finally, on Day 1, Pieter and Ewelina talked to us about why it was important to explain what we’re doing when we’re doing p4c and introduced us to a tool to investigate all of the different variations within our practice.
- How can we check if what others are doing is P4C?
- What’s the purpose of P4C?
Day one came to a close with a meta discussion including questions like what’s the opposite of P4c? Do different approaches to doing p4c compete? And how instructive can a teacher be?
Day 2
Opening the day was Kristof talking to us about their new book and their website www.thephilosophicalconversation.com, including a masterclass in the last weekend of October in Spain.
Isabelle then told us about her board game, FiloSprook, including castles, magical forests, mumbling mushrooms, and a hypocritical hip-hopping Hobbit. There are some fantastic questions within the game such as when is a giant two small and what would it be like to be a seven-headed dragon? Their website is www.filosprook.be
Lukasz also talked us through The Thinking Project Facilitator’s Toolkit, developed together with Grace Lockrobin, Pete Worley, and Kate Halliwell for the makers of the Young Plato documentary. This resource includes a general introduction to P4C and over a dozen scripts that are inspired by the themes in the film. He also presented the Ethics of Climate Change resource developed for Green-Schools Ireland and his groundbreaking card game ThinkTanglers. Link to resources here: https://www.creativetogether.ie/onilne-resources-for-parents-and-teachers
Joos told us about opportunities for colleagues to pursue research at University College in Antwerp.
Grace told us about the monthly free zooms open to everyone to help launch the revamped www.p4c.com Tom and Jason run sessions on the resources via https://www.sapere.org.uk/resources/
Pete told us about his work at The Philosophy Foundation and the great work they do working with children of a variety of ages. (www.thephilosophy-foundation.org)
Jason introduced the group to www.debateplanet.co.uk and an approach to debating that makes it more inclusive and participatory rather than being strangled by rigid rules.
The sessions of day two began with Jess and Kathleen from The Philosophy Garden showcasing a range of accessible videos which were briefing engaging stories that give animals a problem to solve and the example they used was What is a conspiracy theory?
Their website is https://sites.google.com/view/the-philosophy-garden/home
Aini gave their session after lunch on day two about critical self-reflection and exploring the opposites within ourselves.
What is critical self-reflection?
We also had Milos asking us to drink a magic potion and inviting us to a fun enquiry! Would you drink it if…?
Grace finished the day with a talk about balancing progress and participation in p4c.
- What does participation mean?
- What are classic examples of participation?
- What are controversial examples of participation?
- What are contrary examples of participation?
- How should participation be prioritized alongside progress?
We are looking forward to our next meeting in 2025. If you’re not a member of SOPHIA yet consider joining us here and get access to other resources and updates. Memberships are available here. You can find the contact details of all the speakers on the member’s map on our home page.
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