Australasian catalogue of curriculum materials and teacher resources

Ethics and the Community of Inquiry develops a practical philosophy of education that addresses professional values and conduct and pedagogical practice within a framework of democratic education. The authors propose a philosophy of genuine inquiry to integrate curriculum, teaching and learning, and to place deliberative democracy at the centre of education reform.

This book adopts a ‘community of inquiry’ approach to the teaching of professional ethics to pre-service teachers. It is designed to assist students to bridge the gap between ethical theories and their practical experiences as beginning professionals. The first part of the book articulates the framework for the approach taken while the second part provides a series of fictional ethical vignettes set consisting of school teachers and their students in a local school.

Values Education in Schools is an important new resource for teachers involved in values and ethics education. It provides a range of 'practical philosophy' resources for secondary school teachers that can be used in English, religious education, citizenship, personal development and social science subjects. The materials include narratives to engage students in philosophical inquiry, doing ethics through the activity of philosophy, not simply learning about it.

Written for primary school teachers with an interest in developing children's thinking skills, Thinking Together shows how children's literature and other material can be used to help children raise puzzles and problems that will encourage them to think. It explores the idea of a classroom community of inquiry, and shows teachers how to use questioning techniques, group discussion, and other activities to achieve growth in thinking skills.

Philip Cam. (1993, 1997) Thinking Stories (Hale & Iremonger)

• Philosophical Inquiry for Children, Books 1-3
• Teachers Resource/Activity Book, 1-3

The first two books in this series contain a collection of illustrated stories from all over the world including the USA, Scotland, Germany, Canada, Taiwan and Australia. Each story has been chosen for its ability to promote children's natural curiosity about issues such as friendship, multiculturalism, magic and make-believe, order in nature, and freedom and rights. The third book contains seven interconnected stories set in an urban Australian community. Illustrated and told in an easy-to-read style using a child narrator as the 'voice' of each incident, these stories explore issues such as friendship, racism, violence, justice, truth and lies, trust and respect. Each book has a teacher's resource and activity book full of discussion plans and exercises to help create a 'community of inquiry' in the classroom.

Explore the truly false and the falsely true in these ten, tall, teasing tales! There's the spaceship computer that's a compulsive liar, the bamboozled barber under the sentence of death, a pair of robots who claim to be the same robot, and the spine-chilling experience of the man who crossed the bridge between Kirov and Vorik. These stories, sometimes humorous, sometimes sinister, introduce the reader to puzzles that have teased the human brain for thousands of years. Presented in dramatic form and illustrated by lively cartoons.

Explore the truly false and the falsely true in these ten, tall, teasing tales! There's the spaceship computer that's a compulsive liar, the bamboozled barber under the sentence of death, a pair of robots who claim to be the same robot, and the spine-chilling experience of the man who crossed the bridge between Kirov and Vorik. These stories, sometimes humorous, sometimes sinister, introduce the reader to puzzles that have teased the human brain for thousands of years. Presented in dramatic form and illustrated by lively cartoons.

Chris de Hann, San MacColl & Lucy McCutcheon (1995) Philosophy with Kids (Longman Australia)

• Books 1-3
• More Ideas and Activities

Philosophy with Kids covers a series of themes and ideas, including activities designed to develop listening and thinking skills, problem solving and questioning techniques, and cooperative behaviour that are applicable through all the key learning areas.

Connecting Concepts is a classroom resource designed to help teachers turn their classroom into a community of inquiry through exploring concepts such as violence, the mind, culture, knowledge and justice. Includes: discussion ideas and exercises suitable for whole class, group and individual activities using a wide range of learning styles. Clear guidelines, examples and sample questions provide a step-by-step introduction to conceptual analysis in the classroom.

Unless teachers know and understand the theory of thinking it is likely to be difficult for them to model it for their classes.

Developing a Thinking Classroom provides teachers with information and activities they need to develop a thinking culture in their classrooms.

Provocative topics that really make students use all the thinking tools and strategies at their command. Rich Concepts include: Happiness; Choice; Ownership; Identity; and 10 more that lead students into thoughtful, guided discussion. Student warm-ups to start ideas flowing, then move through various exercises and respond to different statements to really grapple with each concept. Complete with practical teacher's notes, sample discussions and evaluation tools.

The Ethical School discusses case studies to help teachers to reflect on their own ethics, guiding them to make more reasonable decisions in their schools, and thereby gradually transforming schools into more cohesive and caring communities.

This book covers such everyday problems as censorship, inclusivity, school uniform, punishment, personal gain and confidentiality, and argues that care and respect for others, equity, rational autonomy and concern for long-term benefits are more important for a school community than short-term power and control.

Each big, classroom sized picture in Perplexing Pictures and Thought Provoking Pictures is a discussion starter, with topics ranging from identity to conversation, from imagination to the ethics of keeping animals in captivity.

The short story books contain lesson-length stories to provoke classroom conversation. Some of the stories are revised in the Changing My Mind books.

The Teacher's Resource Books provide discussion plans and lesson ideas for both the big picture books and the story books.

This collection of short single-lesson stories springboard students into thoughtful discussion with humour, surprises, and lots of fun.

Judy Keen, Don Black & Petra Hanzak. (2002) Changing My Mind - Teacher's Resource Book (Cumquatmay)

Based on Philosophy for Children principles, The Teacher’s Resource Book containing discussion plans and exercises tells how to stimulate good discussion using the Changing My Mind stories.

A journey in time for middle school students, this novel contains challenges in logic, time and place, and questions for discussion.

The Teachers’ Booklet contains answers to the challenges and ideas to further student discussion.

Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery (Years 4-7) focuses on the development of basic logic and reasoning skills within the context of ordinary language. The central characters in the story develop their own community of inquiry, bringing together different perspectives and ways of thinking. Harry deals with the criteria and principles which underlie good thinking in all subject areas and disciplines. The Teacher Manual to accompany this novel is Philosophical Inquiry.

Philosophy and Ethics is written specifically for Units 2A and 2B of the Philosophy and Ethics Course.

This book is loaded with information, photos and activities for all levels.

This series uses New Zealand School Journals to help students develop discrimination and reasoning skills and to encourage them to consider philosophical concepts. The activities are designed to fit easily into the reading programme, and there are also teacher guides on assessment and evaluation. Suitable for ages 7-12.

Both books uses plans and activities to stimulate discussion on philosophical concepts in well-known and well-loved picture books. This guide to thoughtful discussion is suitable for students of all ages, right up to senior secondary school level. It comes with ready-to-copy handouts, teacher notes, a checklist of essential thinking skills and evaluation forms.

The books in this series encourage the development of good thinking skills: reflective analysis, reasoning and discrimination. It asks students to consider philosophical concepts and promotes discussion. This series is supported by teacher notes, a checklist of essential thinking skills and evaluation forms. Suitable for ages 6-13

Complete Kit includes: On a Plain, In a Field, In a Tree, On a Path, and Teacher’s Manual

Designed for children in the first years of school, the series consists of four visually and verbally challenging books that provide a collection of questions and ideas that all children should find intriguing, fascinating, puzzling and worthwhile. The accompanying manual helps teachers and parents to identify the philosophical ideas that emerge from the stories, and to guide children in an investigation of these ideas.

This manual contains numerous discussion plans and activities designed to foster good thinking, dialogue and community relationships among very young children.

Making Sense of My World is intended to accompany The Doll Hospital by Ann M Sharp, which centres on Jess, a girl who explores the boundaries of her world with her toy, Roller. A trip to the doll hospital triggers a permanent change in their relationship.

Discovering Our Voice provides teachers with an accessible way of exploring philosophical concepts with their students. The manual is intended to accompany Geraldo by Ann M Sharp. Geraldo is a story about a boy who leaves one culture and tries to ‘join’ another. In addition to his feelings of dislocation, he finds that he must learn a new language as well as social and ethical norms. In order to cope with this, he finds a new way of looking at things.

Provides a detailed description of what the discipline of philosophy offers to children and teachers. Building on the intimate connection between thinking and philosophy, the central theme is that when the classroom is transformed into a ‘community of philosophical inquiry’, children develop the ability to think in ways which are more reflective, more judicious and more reasonable. Primarily for teachers, teacher educators and others involved in school level education, but will also appeal to parents, youth workers, religious leaders and academics.

Books Into Ideas uses a Philosophy for Children approach to encourage thinking in young learners. The author explains how teachers can set up a community of inquiry within the classroom and teach questioning techniques at all levels of thinking. Based on 15 published picture books, Books Into Ideas will take your students into the world of literature and critical thinking, interpreting and expressing ideas.

Philosophical Discussion in Moral Education develops a detailed philosophical defence of the claim that teachers should engage students in ethical discussions to promote moral competence and strengthen moral character.

Paying particular attention to the teacher's role, this book highlights the justification for, and methods of, creating a classroom community of ethical inquiry.

Critical & Creative Thinking is a valuable resource for teachers. It provides a strong rationale for the role of inquiry in the classroom, a range of activities for encouraging pupil participation, and teaching strategies to develop and refine thinking skills and processes such as: identifying assumptions; prioritising; seeking alternatives; speculating; drawing inferences and identifying faulty logic.

The approach used in this text is a response to the needs of those teachers who are concerned about improving the skills of oral communication, together with those who are already using the philosophical inquiry approach in their classrooms.

The ideas presented are designed to be used in classrooms using literature as a resource for fostering critical and creative thinking.

This book responds to the challenge of disengagement in the middle years of schooling by providing ideas for the implementation of a thinking curriculum in schools. Teachers, teacher educators and curriculum consultants describe how they have been influenced by theorists, their use of appropriate cognitive theories, and strategies they have developed that will assist students to develop higher order thinking skills. Ways of accommodating a variety of learning styles and establishing supportive school structures are also presented.

This 53-minute video provides an introduction to teaching the skills used in philosophical thought. Includes interviews with leading teachers and principals advocating the advantages of communities of inquiry in schools, students from a variety of school environments working together on philosophical problems, and modelling of classroom protocol in ways that highlight the importance of careful and considered dialogue.

Includes animated short films, ‘Munch Kids’, which uses the voices of children recorded discussing a topic, and wrestling with some big questions. They wonder about the solutions to environmental and personal issues and other puzzling big ideas. Developed through a philosophy program for children, their words are interpreted in a variety of interesting animated forms, including paper cut-outs, real objects, line drawings, painting, newsprint and photographs, so as the children explore the question, their unscripted insights become alive and dynamic.

• What's Fair?
• I Think ...
• Chill Out!

What’s Fair? is a cross-curricular resource for ethical inquiry comprised of a teachers' guide book, video clips from the TV series ‘What’s Fair’ and website. It is designed to focus on a range of themes relevant to English, Studies of Society and Environment, and Health and Physical Education – Human Relations. It aims to support teachers in developing ethical inquiry as part of these curriculum areas. It is also well suited for use within Lifeskills programs designed to foster positive student behaviours within a supportive school environment.

I Think ... is a practical, cross-curricular resource which uses TV to explore philosophical themes with children. The teaching kit comprises a Teachers' Guide book, video anthology and website. It is based on the animated short films ‘Munch Kids’ from the ‘Lift Off’ series, in which children discuss important, puzzling big ideas and wonder about the solutions to environmental and personal issues.

Chill Out! is a multimedia resource which draws upon segments from the ‘Lift Off’ series to explore a range of social issues. It has been designed for students from P/K to Year 4. Within each unit, teachers can select from a range of options which they feel are a logical sequence of activities and requirements for their class or individual students. As a cross-curricula resource, it will enable teachers to extend and incorporate exploration of social skills into the curriculum areas of English, SOSE and HPE. Chill Out! consists of Teacher’s Guide, Video (DVD) anthology and online component (Topic 4).

The focus of the journal is philosophical inquiry with school-age students. The journal performs two roles. The first is to publish scholarly research concerning the theory and practice of philosophical inquiry at school level. The second is to publish reports of practice, comments on resources, suggestions and ideas about philosophising with school students and so forth, with a view to encouraging professional interchange among those interested in philosophical inquiry with school-age students. To view journal contents click here.