1st Global Conference
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Friday 10th September - Sunday 12th September 2004
Mansfield College, Oxford
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session
1: Thinking, Philosophy & Teenagers
Chair: Rob Fisher
Somebodies-In-Particular: The Scenario Approach
to Philosophy with High School Students
Sharon Kaye and
Paul Thomson
John Carroll University,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
As is well known, Matthew Lippman’s approach
to philosophy with children centres around the discussion of philosophical
stories. The advantage of this approach is that fiction is effective
in stimulating student interest. The disadvantage, however, is that
reading/listening to a story written by someone else is a passive process.
I am currently co-writing a textbook for philosophy with high school
students. It features what I am calling the “scenario” approach
which, I believe, preserves the advantages of fiction while avoiding
passivity.
Each chapter begins with a casual and realistic conversational
exchange between two teenagers who disagree (for example, over what
love is or whether lying is always wrong). Their disagreement illustrates
two philosophical positions on an issue.
I and my co-author have the
good fortune of being in the position to test our book and the scenario
approach on high school students next year. We plan to begin each two-hour
class by asking volunteers to act out the scenario for that week’s
chapter. Then we will read about the issue and discuss it in small
groups. Students will be asked to formulate their own views, find a
partner, and write a scenario of their own. Some will act out their
scenarios, and perhaps record them on video. They will always use pseudonyms
to encourage experimentation with views they may not be ready to adopt
as their own.
In my experience doing philosophy with teenagers, I have
found that one of the major challenges students face is learning to
view disagreement as a positive thing. My theory is that, by asking
the students to adopt active scenario roles, they will begin to enjoy
dialogue and incorporate effective dialogue skills into their everyday
lives. For this presentation, I will bring video footage of some scenario
sessions to facilitate discussion of the pros and cons of this approach.
