Germany- Franca Hielscher’s Visit

We at the Uehiro Academy deeply appreciated Franca Hielscher’s visit to Hawaii and her overall enthusiasm for the work that we do here. Here is a reaction written by Franca herself accounting her experience with p4cHI:

One year ago, in a seminar in Berlin, I discovered Philosophy with Children (as they call it in Germany) and I was overwhelmed. I liked the wholeness of learning and being and I realized the enormous potential in regards to personal strength and social attitude, creativity and thinking – for the children and for the facilitator as well. From this moment on, I wanted to learn more about P4C and wanted to apply it.

As a volunteer in an Elementary School in Berlin, as after class activity I read with children aiming to improve their reading skills, to discover books and to enjoy the learning process in general. Recently, I started to involve more and more questions and ideas of the kids in my sessions and thought about them together with the kids. In order to become more secure and to improve these inquiries, I wanted to gain knowledge –  practical knowledge for the sessions with the kids and  theoretical knowledge as well, as I decided to write about P4C in the thesis for my master studies in Intercultural Education.

From this background, I looked abroad for the right place for P4C- learning and when I read about p4c Hawai´i I knew that Honolulu would be ideal place for me. Due to the collaboration of University of Hawai´i at Manoa and the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education and its theoretical and practical work I was sure that there I would find what I was looking for. Other aspects that convinced me to come to Hawai´i is its ethnic diversity, which is valuable for my master studies, and the Aloha Spirit, the way of life, which I expected that it would foster the connection between people, and thus I reckoned it would be valuable for my work with children.

Within the 6 weeks that I stayed in Hawai´i I experienced p4c in different schools, from preschool to high school, with children that had different backgrounds and ages, with different facilitators and teachers. Despite the variety of p4c classes and different ways of executing the class, a few things I detected in almost all p4c classes:

Children are sitting in a circle, that it is possible for each of them to see the faces of the others.

Wonders and questions of the children are the core of p4c Hawai í. They are explored with patience and uttered for the group according everyone feels. The topic for the inquiry is determined by the group, democratically through each group members´vote.  A woolen ball (Community Ball), was moved around, indicating whom has the right to speak and imparting a feeling of belonging together. A set of Thinking Tools called (Good Thinkers Tool Kit) supports to lead everyone and the group towards deeper thinking.

Children raise their hands to show that they would like to speak. Some children try to get the ball a lot of times because they like to talk. Some children seem just to use the opportunity to say something if they have an idea they want to share. Other children were so shy that they do not raise their hands to get the ball during the whole session. At some point these children get invited by other children or by the facilitator to share their thoughts. They share their ideas when they felt like it – either because suddenly there was the time to say something, or they felt that it is time to share something with the community. Or they do not share because no idea has come up, then they make use of the right to pass the ball to the next person.

During the whole inquiry there is no rush and it seems that this atmosphere helps some children to get ideas, others to express thoughts, others to really feel what they want to express. Then ideas come up that make others think, ideas that are so inspiring that the group starts to think more and a  true exploration of thinking starts.

I assume that the facilitator has an enormous influence on all of this, and it seems that the management of everything what is involved in having a philosophical inquiry with children, for instance observing the energies, maintaining the focus, the flow and an inspired and save atmosphere is not an easy task and it requires a lot of experience. However, I believe that it is worth to start doing P4C although with less experience. It is an inspiring way of learning and it should be very worth for the children if the facilitator has an open, fresh and wondering mind, and furthermore, if he/she likes reflection and development.

When I will be back in Germany I want use P4C and the aspects that have inspired me most during my visit I will take along. I will adapt and establish them:

• A mindset of patience and awareness – in other words I will try to apply the not being in the rush. This will not be an easy task as in Germany many people are in a rush. But since the visit in Hawai´i I consider not being in a rush as an important base for learning as it is connected with finding out who one really is and what one really wishes to express. This mindset makes philosophy with children even more powerful.
• The other aspect I discovered through the visit in Hawai´i is the importance of self reflection in a group. Thinking about an inquiry increases the awareness of the learning process. By that joy is created not only in the inquiry, but also for the development of thinking.

These two aspects I want to include in my activities with children and with the teachers in Germany and I am very excited to see if and how this will work. Certainly, I wish to stay in touch with the team of p4c Hawai´i, because as the experience here in Hawai´i has shown me: exchange gives inspirations and lead to changes and development.

Mahalo! Herzlichen Dank!Let´s keep in touch!

Franca Hielscher

We wish you the best of luck, Franca!

p4c Hawai‘i & Art Spring Break Camp

Seventeen Elementary and Intermediate School students gathered at the Honolulu Museum of Art during their March break for a week long p4c Hawai‘i & art day camp.  Co-sponsored by the Uehiro Academy and the Honolulu Museum of Art, this intensive class provided students with the opportunity to practice p4c, create art, learn about Hawaiian culture, and make friends.

Participants in the camp were current and past students of Ala Wai Elementary School.  Students gathered each day at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s art school and participated in p4c inquiries and art making sessions.  The camp was entitled “Tracking Aloha:  Artistic and Philosophical Reflections on Nature.”  It focused on exploring the interconnection between nature and the Hawaiian values of aloha (love), ohana (family), laulima (teamwork), and ho‘oponopono (making things right).  The class was coordinated and taught by the Uehiro Academy’s Dr. Toby Yos and the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Janell Nakahara and Eric Keli‘i Beyer.

Saturday p4c Classes at the UH Uehiro Academy

Led by Dr. Toby Yos and veteran p4c teacher Beth Yos, students have been gathering at the UH Uehiro Academy for Saturday afternoon p4c Hawai‘i classes.  The 13 students in the class – all of whom are members of the Hawai‘i Youth Opera Chorus – have skillfully delved into a broad variety of questions.  Why do people act fake?  Why are people so mean?  What is too loud?  What do we mean by “smart”?  What is music?  And, of course, why does Cookie Monster eat so many cookies?

The Saturday afternoon class is distinctive because it takes place outside of a school classroom, meets at the UH Uehiro Academy, and is a collaborative partnership between the Academy and members of the Hawai‘i Youth Opera Chorus ohana.  It is also unusual because it consists of a particularly diverse group of students.  The students come from culturally diverse backgrounds, attend different schools, and fall within a broad age range.  The youngest student is in First Grade and the oldest is in Tenth Grade.  This richness of difference, coupled with the students’ aloha for each other, has led to the creation of a particularly dynamic, fun, and caring community of inquiry.  Currently the students in this Saturday afternoon class, Dr. Yos, Mrs. Yos, and UHUA intern Ryan Roberts are being kept quite busy filming a series of videos on “How to do p4c Hawai‘i.”

P4C STEAM

Students and teachers at Ala Wai Elementary School integrated p4c Hawai‘i and art into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) inquiry.  This partnership between the school, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the UH Uehiro Academy allowed students to use a powerful multi-disciplinary approach to reflect deeply upon environmental issues which confront their community.

The p4c STEAM process combines art, the STEM disciplines, and the p4c Hawai‘i pedagogy.  Students work through the STEM process as they observe their surroundings, take note of problems, brainstorm solutions, and engineer prototypes of these solutions.  During weekly p4c sessions students explore concepts, clarify essential questions, and reflect upon project experiences.  During weekly art classes students envision and create solutions and prototypes.  The combination of these disciplines creates an ever-deepening spiral of understanding; ideas are reflected upon, designs are tested, and hypotheses are revised.

For nearly six months students and teachers at Ala Wai Elementary School worked on two major p4c STEAM projects.  Mae Kuba’s class of First Graders learned about biomimicry, solar and wind energy, and created prototypes for a “tree playhouse” which would be fun and safe for children and would also create energy for their community.  Collaborating with Ala Wai philosopher-in-residence Dr. Toby Yos and the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Janell Nakahara and LeAnn Yamamoto, the First Grade students used the Engineering Design Process (EDP) and the p4c STEAM pedagogical approach to create a scale model of their community, and to envision, design, and revise their prototypes.  Their project was presented to parents, state legislators, department of education officials, and other distinguished guests at the school’s annual learning showcase.

The Fourth Grade classes of Lori Kwee, Joven Asuncion, and Jennifer Hudson, meanwhile, worked in partnership with Dr. Yos, Justin Davies and Yamamoto from the Honolulu Museum of Art, and staff from the City & County of Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services.  They visited nearby Mānoa stream, conducted water testing, and learned about the ecology of the indigenous O‘opu fish.  They collaborated with students from Prince Kuhio Elementary School (who also do p4c) to create a thirty foot long mural of the stream.  Then they designed prototypes of designs to help the O‘opu safely navigate concrete channelized sections of the stream.  Additionally, the students created a 15 foot long, working stream and an after-school p4c & art mentoring (p4cM) group created a mural which illustrated the process behind the project.  The students’ work was displayed at Ala Wai School’s Learning Showcase, the Mauka to Makai Expo at the Waikiki Aquarium, and at the convention of the National Association of Environmental Professionals.

P4C & Art in Ala Wai Elementary School

With support from the UH Uehiro Academy, the Honolulu Museum of Art and Ala Wai Elementary School are integrating p4c, art, and core instruction in a broad variety of exciting and innovative ways.  Honolulu Museum of Art instructors and Ala Wai School philosopher-in-residence Dr. Toby Yos help Ala Wai teachers to provide their students with vibrant, enriching, meaningful, and productive school experiences.

Generously supported by the Honolulu Museum of Art, Ala Wai Principal Sean Wong, and the UH Uehiro Academy and inspired by their passion to help students, to empower teachers, and to creatively explore the powerful connection between p4c Hawai‘i and art, Dr. Yos and Honolulu Museum of Art outreach director Janell Nakahara have launched an impressive array of p4c & art initiatives at Ala Wai this year:

• p4c & art in the classroom: 2^nd grade teachers Diane Arakawa & Lori Maihui and 5^th grade teachers Rhonda Morishige & Seija Nolan will, in the coming weeks, use p4c inquiry sessions to reflect upon and better understand their art making sessions with Honolulu Museum of Art instructor LeAnn Yamamoto.
• p4c STEAM: 1^st grade teacher Mae Kuba and 4^th grade teachers Lori Kwee, Joven Asuncion, and Jennifer Hudson collaborated with Dr. Yos, Yamamoto, Nakahara, and Honolulu Museum of Art outreach director Justin Davies to integrate p4c and art into their students’ STEM projects.
• p4c & art Mentoring (p4cM) groups: Forming a caring ohana, Dr. Yos and 4^th & 5^th grade students travel regularly to the Honolulu Museum of Art school.  There – with the help of Nakahara, and art instructors Ms. Ashley and Ms. Erin – they explore who they are, develop leadership skills, and discover their identity as artists.
• p4c & art Spring Break Camp: Co-sponsored by the UH Uehiro Academy and the Honolulu Museum of Art, present and former Ala Wai p4cM students gathered for a week long, intensive, p4c & art day camp.  Students, with the help of Dr. Yos and art instructor Eric Keli‘i Beyer, built friendships, gained confidence, and explored the connection between aloha, themselves, and nature.

The Role of Philosophical Inquiry in Helping High School Students Engage in Learning and Seek Meaning in Lives Dissertation

p4cHI Summer Presentations: Vancouver, Seattle, Salt Lake City

This summer p4c Hawai’i will be well represented in Vancouver, British Columbia at the International Council of Philosophical Inquirywith Children (ICPIC) conference. Read more

Dr. Chad Miller will present:

What is a Teacher-Philosopher? An Inquiry to Understand My Professional Identity

When I tell someone “I am a teacher-philosopher,” I am often met with the familiar, “what exactly is a teacher-philosopher?” For several reasons, this conception of a teacher lies outside our realm of understanding, so in order to truly understand the nature of a teacher-philosopher, especially within the contexts of a traditional content-specific classroom, I turned to the insights of the experts, my former students. Please come and hear the findings of this study that aims help move philosophy into our classrooms by way of the teacher.

Philosophy, a Promise Unfulfilled: Reinvigorating philosophy in our Schools

We are all at this conference because we genuinely care about creating philosophical opportunities for children, but our schools typically don’t have the “space” for “philosophy time.” Therefore, we must create ways in which philosophy can become the pedagogy in which we teach any and all content matter. Come learn how Hawaii’s teachers are accomplishing this task by evolving the Philosopher’s Pedagogy to fit the contexts of their K-12 classrooms.

Dr. Jessica Ching-Sze Wang, Dr. Amber Makaiau, Dr. Karen Ragoonaden, Dr. Lulu Leng will present:

The Examined Lives of Culturally Diverse P4C Teacher Facilitators: The Art of Balancing Tensions

To all the P4C facilitators out there: Do you ever struggle about when to enter into the dialogue during a P4C community of inquiry discussion? Do you ever experience the tension between building the community and deepening the inquiry ? Do you ponder the relationship between teachers and students?  Come to this presentation to learn how a team of six international Philosophy for Children (P4C) researchers and practitioners used self-study research methods to understand the nuanced roles and tensions of teacher facilitators in a P4C community of inquiry. They are from the USA, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Canada, and are all members of the Philosophy for Children Hawaiʻi (p4cHI) International Journaling and Self-Study Project. In this presentation they invite you to enter their ongoing inquiry, which asks “what does it mean to be a teacher facilitator in a P4C community of inquiry?”

Dr. Chad Miller will also be presenting at the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO)

“We are philosophers!” The Kailua High Complex’s k-12 Philosophical Schooling Experience

Twice a year I take Kailua High School (KHS) philosophers on a visit to Waimanalo School to facilitate inquiries with 250 elementary and intermediate students. This marks the third year these students “do” philosophy together and, like previous years, it was a life changing experience for many. For example, as the high school students reflected on their experience, Kepa, a sophomore, said, “Lately, I wondered if my life had purpose or if I had anything to offer my community. Today, I realized my life is worthwhile. I am a philosopher and have something to offer my community.”

As dramatic as Kepa’s “aha” may appear, it is just the tip of the p4c Hawai‘i iceberg. What started as a p4c experiment in one classroom at KHS, has sparked a revolution that has radically transformed the identity of our community’s schools, teachers, and students. The Dalai Lama even came to KHS to do philosophy with our students!

How does this happen? How does a “disadvantaged” community that predominately consists of Native Hawaiian students become a complex whose vision is to create “mindful, philosophical thinkers prepared to pursue their goals and create positive change in the world”? The purpose of my presentation is to share how the Kailua High Complex and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education have made philosophy a central aspect of our students’ schooling experience. The aim is to highlight how p4c can be utilized as a tool for meaningful educational reform.

Dr. Chad Miller will again be speaking this July at the National Network of State Teacher’s of the Year conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. For information, click here.

June 2015 Exchange to Japan

In the second half of June, Uehiro Academy faculty Benjamin Lukey and Toby Yos led an exchange group of seven educators to Japan to work with schools, educators, and students in Sendai and Tokyo. This is the 8th year of what continues to be an increasingly productive exchange between p4c Hawaii and Japan. More information coming soon!

Japanese Visitors!

From March 22-25, 2015, the Uehiro Academy hosted 9 educators and researchers from Sendai and Tokyo.  They shared about their practices and activities in Japan and were able to fully experience p4c Hawaii, learning from Uehiro Academy faculty and Model School teachers and students.

Visitors from around the world

This semester the Uehiro Academy hosted international, national, and local educators and researchers who are interested in learning more about p4cHI.

International

 Japan – Researchers and educators from Sendai and Tokyo experienced p4cHI.

 Germany – Franca Hielscher. visited the Uehiro Academy to help inform the research that she is conducing for her Masters in Education thesis.

 Austria – Jenine Butzerine visited the Uehiro Academy as a part of her ongoing professional development.

National

 Massachusetts – Kerri Lirossi, a middle school social studies teacher from visited the Uehiro Academy to learn more about incorporating p4cHI into her middle school world history course.

Local

 Kauai/Kailua – Ele’ele In March members of the Uehiro Academy coordinated a p4cHI educational exchange for 10 educators (teachers and principal) from Ele’ele Elementary on Kauai, four educators (teachers and vice principal) from Aikahi Elementary, two educators from New Zealand, and two educators from Kaimuki Christian School. The group attended a one hour introductory p4cHI seminar, visited p4cHI classes at Waikiki Elementary and participate in a Waikiki School faculty meeting. They were provided with p4cHI resources and materials, and arranged for a videographer to attend the visit and video record the exchange. The video produced will be used for teacher professional development.

 Nanakuli – Two social studies teachers from Nanakuli High School visited three p4cHI classes at Kailua High School this March. The teachers made observations and participated in professional conversations with teachers and Uehiro Academy members in an effort to find new ways to integrate p4cHI into the social studies classroom.