215 Summary in English The primary purpose of this descriptive study into good practices in the teaching of philosophy is to provide insight into the practical knowledge that experienced philosophy teachers have. Its secondary purpose is to arrive at a conceptual framework that might be of practical value to teachers. In the first chapter (Theory and context) the conceptual framework involving the three areas of tension is drawn up. The first and overarching area of tension, that between learning philosophy and doing philosophy, stems from the objectives set for the subject of philosophy in the upper years of higher general secondary education and pre-university education. These pertain to both the acquisition of knowledge of philosophical concepts and theories (learning philosophy) and learning to think about philosophical questions (doing philosophy). This involves a classical pedagogical paradox: if the objective is to teach pupils to think independently, without being led by another, how is this supposed to happen under the leadership of a teacher? The principal question arising from this for the current study is the following: How can the philosophy teacher give pupils room to think for themselves? The concept of ‘thinking’ was investigated with reference to the philosophers Hannah Arendt and John Dewey, supplemented with later ideas from educational literature on critical thinking, and arrived at the following eight pointers for the teaching of thinking: 1) You cannot make people think. What you can do is invite your pupils to think. To get into ‘thinking mode’ you need something that will break through the ‘routine mode’. 2) Thinking is a dialogue. The dialogue that takes place in one’s head can be practised by engaging in dialogue with other people. 3) In order to think in a philosophical way, we must examine what concepts mean and what presuppositions underlie them. 4) Education in thinking should be aimed at an attitude of inquiry and in unlearning thinking errors. 5) Thinking requires liveliness as well as concentration.
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