Level 1 – Community of Inquiry Training

Aim: To give teachers and others sufficient practical understanding of philosophical inquiry with children in a Community of Inquiry (COI) setting to enable them to start practicing it in their own educational contexts.

VAPS has spent over 20 years developing and delivering this course to support newcomers in the COI methodology.  We are very proud of our work! We run two beginner level courses each year. Each course is run over two training days. Participants can also attend a third assessment day.

The Community of Inquiry (COI) is a pedagogical method for encouraging and incorporating philosophical, critical, creative and deep thinking in the classroom. There is significant research indicating the positive impact philosophy can have for children in the classroom in terms of student confidence, self-esteem and academic performance. Here are some relevant links:

‘Latest research on philosophy with children’

‘Want to improve NAPLAN scores? Teach children philosophy’

‘Teaching kids philosophy makes them smarter in math and English’

‘Why children should be taught philosophy (beyond better test scores)’

Certification

Completing the two day course qualifies as professional development and a certificate of attendance is awarded. Participants must complete the third assessment day in order to be certified as Level One trained with the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA.ORG.AU), the peak body for Philosophy for Children (P4C) in Australasia.

To attend, please download and complete one of these forms and send it to the Education and Innovations Officer:

Registration form here

For more information about the course, contact the Education and Innovations Officer