Implementation of “Exploring and questioning philosophical ideas through images” (SOI-PT-333)

Author: Maria Antónia Brandão, teacher

School/Organization: Agrupamento de Escolas D. Afonso Henriques, Santo Tirso

This SOI is inspired in the LS “Exploring and questioning philosophical ideas through images” The scenario consists of analyzing in groups some chosen images of the Europeana Platform that relate the Religion concept and, in time, after some text information, use the Socratic Smackdown/ Fishbowl strategy to approach the topic of religion. Finally produce some presentation about the topic.

The aim of this learning scenario is, using visual literacy, to develop students philosophical thinking (analysis and critical thinking) as well as collaborative, argumentative and digital skills.

I’m Maria Antónia Brandão, a philosophy and psychology teacher, from a small town of the north of Portugal. My students are from the 11º grade, and it´s a small group of sixteen students, between 15 and 17 years old. They have different needs, interests, expectations, and levels of academic skills, so the class is very demanding, and I must prepare tailored activities to them. Students are not familiarized with Europeana Platform.

This LS implementation implied some adaptations to the original LS.

First Step: Making Groups and use the picture prompt method of teaching.

Picture Prompt – Show students an image with no explanation, and ask them to identify/explain it, and justify their answers. Eventually they will mention Religion…we followed that path.

Previously chosen resources from Europeana:

Headscarf with face veil – Amsterdam Museum, Netherlands – CC0. https://www.europeana.eu/item/2048221/europeana_fashion_KA_22132_1_2

Headscarf, green – Amsterdam Museum, Netherlands – CC0. https://www.europeana.eu/item/2048221/europeana_fashion_KA_22130

Buddha sculpture – World Museum Vienna, Austria – CC BY-NC-SA. https://www.europeana.eu/item/15504/VO_36797_a

Drombeg stone circle (Images) – -2500 – The Discovery programme, Ireland – CC BY-NC-ND. https://www.europeana.eu/item/2048705/object_HA_1371

View of Stonehenge por Kate Fernie – 2014 – 2Culture, United Kingdom – CC BY. https://www.europeana.eu/item/2020739/object_DCU_24257300

God creating Eve out of Adam and blessing her as she emerges into the splendors of Eden. Wood engraving. – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY. https://www.europeana.eu/item/9200579/vfy9xquq

God, as a triangle representing the Trinity, pours light upon the Garden of Eden. Engraving. – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY. https://www.europeana.eu/item/9200579/xvqnh5h4

Second Step:

Explain to students where the resources were found and make a tour around the Europeana´s Platform.

 Third Step

Provide students with selected texts to help them to discuss philosophically types of religion and its impact. It’s a sensitive and delicate theme, so students must be prepared to get some information and be ready to analyze and discuss it, with some rules, like politeness and respect.

Fourth Step

Socratic Smackdown, a kind of Fishbowl technique, a versatile discussion-based humanities game to practice argumentation around any text or topic.

“During the session, teams of 4-6 students discuss texts and use textual evidence to make connections and ask thought-provoking questions. Students win points whenever they make constructive contributions to the discussion and lose points if they exhibit disrespectful behaviors, such as interrupting their teammates. By the end of game play, students have learned how to work together as teams and a class and contribute meaningfully to a discussion.”

Institute of Play

All images license

Figure 1 Preparing the space for the Socratic smackdown or Fishbowl Technique

Figure 2 – discussing

Figure 3 – The classmates observation

Figure 4 – Filling the evaluation

More details about the The socratic Smackdown practice: https://clalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SocraticSmackdown.pdf

Fifth and last step

After the practice, each students group, prepared a final presentation with the conclusions and other relevant information they choose, using a digital tool, like Genially or Canva. The presentation must include at least 4 images from Europeana’s Platform illustrating their ideas. To evaluate the presentation, we used the two stars and a wish strategy, that is a reflection strategy designed to provide student feedback via peer- and self-assessment. Students consider the activity and respond with two positive (stars) and one hopeful (wish) reflection.

Achievements for students

Students were able to: To know Europeana Platform; Prepare for discussions; Use a variety of discussion skills; Ask and answer deep questions; Build on and refute others’ ideas; Built a presentation, with digital tools, choosing meaningful images; to do Peer evaluation

Achievements for the teacher

As I’m very familiar with Teaching with Europeana resources, I find them very useful and most of the learning scenarios are flexible and can be adapted in a lot of ways.

I could verify that my students had some troubles in finding free images, and the search could be more friendly to them. As a teacher trainer I always present the Europeana Platform to my colleagues and ask them to explore it.

Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? Exploring and questioning philosophical ideas through images (LS-EU-12) created by François Jourde

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Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Mauritshuis.

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