Pop Up Philosophy became a Melbourne business in 2013, creating strategic thinking games to be used in the classroom and as a professional development tool for learners of every age. Pop Up Philosophy
The Concept
Pop Up Philosophy grew out of the Melbournian idea of transforming empty spaces into a pop up stores to utilise vacant shops and give meaning and value to transitional spaces. That is,
philosophy pops up when a greater understanding is required or assumed positions need testing to give fuller and stronger meanings to thinking processes. Therefore, the concept of Pop Up Philosophy is conceptual thinking in physical spaces: philosophy pops up in the empty spaces between random thoughts with the intention to transfer ideas and knowledge using physical activities. The Purpose
Pop Up Philosophy has a twofold purpose. On a foundational level, Pop Up Philosophy aims to develop and improve creative and critical thinking skills in a collaborative manner to improve a student’s individual thinking capacity, thus giving philosophical thinking inherent value for all learners. On another level, Pop Up Philosophy aims to encourage thoughtful thinkers to act in a way that is well considered and tested, therefore transforming thoughts into actions and agency towards creating a better world and future for everyone. The purpose of Pop Up Philosophy aims to improve thinking and actions through philosophical practices making education key to creating and constructing better future using the strength of understanding. Interconnecting a Community of Inquiry with a Culture of Thinking Routine as a fun game of structured arguments where discerning thinking is the winner! Would you like to participate in a fun game of cards and wit to develop a structured argument within a community of players on a big question, then, this is the workshop for you! Imagine setting up a Community of Inquiry that has a Culture of Thinking Routine embedded into the game plan that is student led, student driven, student focused, student supported and student assessed. Imagine that the teacher’s role in the game is to stand back and watch the Community of Inquiry take on a life of its own. Imagine the benefits of a thoughtful classroom of intelligent thinkers willing to contribute to everyone’s learning experience. I wanted to give my students the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning and cultivate interdependent structured thinking to develop the foundation of argument as a habit or natural way of thinking. One of my concerns was to develop a strategy that enabled students to contribute to philosophical discourse that valued respect and patience while developing critical and reflective thinking based on a several ideas I had encountered from Victoria’s Philosothon and a range of different expert presentations on thinking skills. After implementing several different strategies in the classroom it became apparent that a community of thinkers developed more sophisticated arguments than any individual alone. Although this is common knowledge to educators, implementing a thinking culture based on collective ideas is challenging in an environment driven by individual results. I wanted to develop good thinking habits in a fun way. As a result, I merged the Thinking Routine: Claim, Support and Question with the principles of Community of Inquiry as an assessment task. Thus, the task needed to be challenging and engaging with the potential to ensure all of the students contributed and supported their understanding that was being assessed. The result was a fun game that the students enjoyed so much that they all supported each other and developed their skills in an atmosphere of serious learning and fun where everyone was a winner as they supported and learned from each other. If you are interested in participating in some serious and fun learning, come along and play the game.
