Creating a Thinking School: Case Study Buranda State School

Creating a Thinking School: Case Study Buranda State School

Lynne Hinton and Clinton Golding, Draft 2006

The school’s central focus must be on the intellect, on helping each young citizen learn to use his or her mind resourcefully and well

Sizer, 1992, p.142

All which the school can or need do for pupils, so far as their minds are concerned…is to develop their ability to think

Dewey, 1966, p.152

The greatest responsibility for schools and educators must surely be to teach students to think: to develop in students the capacity to think clearly, to reason well, to make sound judgements, and to have students use this capacity and become good thinkers. By doing this we offer them the capacity to become reflective, thoughtful, well-rounded and responsible citizens. We offer them the capacity to live well.

This paper outlines the journey of one school, Buranda State Primary School in Brisbane, Australia, as it moved from being a small, declining, inner city school where students were generally disengaged and achieving poor academic results, to what can today be described as a successful ‘thinking school’. This paper isolates what made this journey so successful so we can make sense of the process of creating a thinking school.

What is a thinking school?

Calling a school a ‘thinking school’ is making a comment about more than what is taught. We are talking about the whole ethos or culture of the school, or what Ritchhart calls the ‘cultural forces’ – the aspects of the school that give it “Its unique flavour and force” [Ritchhart 146] A thinking school is one with a thinking culture, where its unique flavour and force is related to being thoughtful. Everything about the school encourages, promotes, facilitates, expects, demands and empowers good thinking from staff, students and parents.[1]

This paper outlines some of the most important cultural forces that make Buranda a thinking school.

Background

Buranda State School is a state government primary school situated 3km from the centre of Brisbane, Australia. It caters for students in their first seven years of formal schooling. The students come from a wide range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and represent a wide range of ability, from those with significant learning disabilities to those who are highly gifted. The area in which the school is set has been identified as low socio-economic and high migrant, although gentrification is now occurring. These days, many students are drawn from outside the local area because of the school’s innovative programs, in particular, the focus on thinking. There are currently 199 students, which is the maximum number that can be accommodated in the present facilities.

The development of Buranda State School as a thinking school began after the appointment of a new principal at what was a small, declining, inner city school. There were only 48 students. The biggest overall problem at that time was poor academic results. The students achieved poorly on systemic literacy and numeracy tests, and experienced great difficulty with curriculum areas such as problem solving. They appeared to be poor thinkers and unable to apply their skills to real situations. They were neither confident with nor engaged in their learning. There was certainly no excitement about learning for these students.

It was necessary to improve student outcomes. This was done by teaching the students to think clearly and well, and to have confidence in their ability to think. The vehicle was the teaching of philosophy to all students.

Why is Philosophy so good as the vehicle for creating a thinking school?

Having students engage in the discipline of philosophy enables them to think. (Sizer, 1992) Philosophy in Schools was not introduced to be a new subject with new content for students to master. It is independent from the views of particular philosophers and is generalised from different philosophical traditions. The ‘philosophy’ of philosophy for children is designed with the aim of helping our students learn to ‘do’ philosophy themselves. It is primarily concerned with thinking about and within every subject.

Philosophy in Schools, and the reason it is so good at enabling thinking, can be understood best by exploring its aim, process, content, and the role the teacher has in the philosophy classroom.

The aim of Philosophy in Schools is to make sense of ourselves, the world, and the connections between them. This is a different epistemic aim from getting the right answer, for example, and cannot be met by simply getting answers to a factual question. Reaching this aim requires students to invest and engage all their cognitive abilities. In order to make sense of something, for example, students must question, explore possibilities and alternatives and think through connections and distinctions.

The process of Philosophy in Schools is the community of inquiry. In a community of inquiry the students are not being led to what the teacher has decided is the best answer, nor are they just swapping opinions or chatting. The community of inquiry is a rigorous process of engaging with ideas in order to make sense of them and ultimately make progress. It is the process of rigorously thinking with others. Students must listen to one another and consider the ideas being put forward. They must listen to the reasons of others, decide whether they agree or disagree and why, and be prepared to explain their decision to others. When students speak, it is considered and thoughtful, and relates to and builds on previous comments.

During philosophy sessions, good thinking is modelled, expected and practised. This is not so much about teaching skills of thinking, but about enculturating the habits or dispositions of being a good thinker. Students immerse themselves in a community and culture of good thinking and good thinkers. They listen to one another, consider the ideas of others and build on one another’s ideas. They give and expect reasons, offer examples and counterexamples to support their arguments, seek alternatives, draw conclusions and recognise faulty reasoning. Participating in such a community requires students to engage in good thinking, scaffolds their increasing abilities to think well and helps them to internalise good thinking dispositions. By immersing themselves in shared, rigorous inquiry, students pick up important skills and habits of thinking. For example, they must test their ideas by sharing them with others so they become more careful and self-correcting thinkers. They are exposed to many different views so they learn to become deeper and discerning listeners.

The community of inquiry combines both the cognitive and social domains leading to not only improved learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, but also to improved social skills, behaviour and attitudes. As well as critical and creative thinking, students develop into caring thinkers concerned with others.

The content of philosophy in schools is rich concepts and philosophical questions. Students engage with big issues that are of concern to them – fairness, family, the mind, thinking, responsibility … They explore these ideas by asking and answering philosophical questions. These cannot be answered by gathering facts, asking an expert or reading a book, but can be answered only by rigorous inquiry and thinking. For example, What is the mind, Should we always be fair to people, Can any group of people be a family?

There are particular effects from students engaging with philosophical questions rather than other types of questions. Philosophical questions provide a thinking treasure for students. Philosophical questions awaken wonder and evoke speculation and discussion which can go on informally for days or weeks. To begin with, the question itself becomes a focus, rather than simply the trigger for finding a piece of information. It becomes a source of interest in its own right. ‘Does every creature have the right to a home?’ is much more interesting for children than ‘What sort of bird lays a blue speckled egg?’ Instead of the question being seen as a source of work (go the library, find a book about birds, look it up, write the answer in my own words…), a philosophical question sparks the imagination and excites the intellect. Children will burst into the classroom in the morning and say ‘I’ve thought of a great question for philosophy! “What is it that makes me, me?” Can we put that on the board and talk about it later?’

Philosophical questions are also excellent thinking treasure because good thinking is the only way to resolve such questions. The teacher and students are investigating questions which, on one hand, cannot be settled by getting the facts or an expert view. On the other hand, nor are these questions about mere preferences where there are no right and wrong. Some answers given to philosophical questions are better than others. The only way to resolve such questions is by application of good thinking. One answer is better than another because of the quality of thinking involved.[2]

The teachers’ role in philosophy in schools is also very important in making philosophy an excellent vehicle for creating a thinking school. Because the point is for students to engage in their own thinking about their own questions in order to make sense of them, the teacher cannot be doing the thinking for the students. Instead the teacher becomes a thinking coach and philosophical guide for the students. They help the students to learn how to think for themselves.

Philosophy and the community of inquiry is an excellent way to meet all the features of a thinking school. Having students engage in philosophical communities of inquiry enables them to think clearly and well and to have confidence in their ability to think.

Why can Buranda State School be described as a thinking school?

The major contributor to the development of thinking at Buranda State School is the teaching of philosophy across the whole school. Every child at Buranda State School participates in philosophy classes, and every teacher teaches reasoning and good thinking through philosophy classes. There are no exceptions. Because of this whole school approach, the features that make philosophy so good at supporting a thinking school have become the very features that are characteristic of Buranda State School.

A culture of thinking exists at Buranda State School. This is consistent through administration, all teachers and all year levels because it is mandated as part of the school structure. The school abounds with a sense of wonder, an insatiable curiosity and a healthy, respectful scepticism. Buranda State School students don’t just know about thinking or know some thinking tools; they actively puzzle, imagine, question, talk and think. They consider information and they examine values. They do this alone and they do it together. They are thoughtful, enthusiastic, energetic, reasonable and optimistic.

On a day-to-day basis, Buranda State School students listen to one another respectfully and consider the views of others. They talk quietly, reasonably and reflectively with one another. They know how to respectfully disagree with someone else’s idea, and they are comfortable changing their minds about an issue.

The students have well developed reasoning skills and are aware of themselves as thinkers. They can be seen following an argument, applying prior knowledge, giving examples and counterexamples, making distinctions, listening intently, seeing things from different points of view, thinking reflectively and so on. They make good decisions based on sound reasoning and a consideration of ethical and practical implications.

Through asking and discussing open inquiry questions such as ‘Is it always good to be fair?’ and ‘Is progress always a good thing?’ students demonstrate their capacity to monitor their own thinking. ‘I think I’m making an assumption here … ’, ‘I’m not sure what I think about this idea …, and ‘I think we asked good questions today’ indicate metacognitive processes at work. Extending on the metacognitive processes, they know what they are good at and what they are not good at, and are comfortable with that. They see mistakes as a normal part of learning.

The expectations developed in the philosophical community of inquiry - to think deeply and well and to listen respectfully to others - are translated to all other areas of operation within the school.

·  Students are expected to become independent, responsible learners, both individually and as part of a team.

·  They are expected to take responsibility for what happens around the school, and to help develop solutions to problems that arise, be they of an academic or social nature.

·  They are expected to support one another and seek support when needed.

Buranda State School is a thinking school. This is recognised both within and outside the school where thinking is central to everything that is done. The students know they are part of a school that is seen as successful, and that operates differently from many other schools. They are proud that this is so. If asked why the school is successful, they will correctly identify the teaching of philosophy and thinking as the key. Many parents seek enrolment for their children because they want them to learn to think.

Is Buranda merely a thinking school?

It could be thought that even though Buranda can be described as a thinking school, this is not something to be emulated if Buranda does not measure up on other academic standards. It would not be valuable to create a thinking school if the school is not performing in other important areas.

However, since Buranda State School has become a thinking school, the students have received outstanding academic results. Despite the fact that, as a cohort, the students have a normal range of abilities, they now achieve results well above state and national means in all aspects of literacy and numeracy. This took about three years to achieve and has been sustained for the last six years. Buranda is a thinking school, but it is also a high-performing school in other areas.