Philosothon

A Philosothon is an annual competition wherein students explore philosophical and ethical issues. Students are scored highly where they demonstrate rigour and clarity of thought. Philosothons are held in most Australian states and the UK. These events have grown in number over the past eight years from a local competition involving eight schools in Perth Western Australia to involve many hundreds of schools. An essential component of a Philosothon is the pedagogical model for teaching Philosophy to young people called Community of inquiry. The event has grown alongside and within the Philosophy for Children movement. The first Australasian Philosothon was held at Cranbrook School, Sydney in 2011 and the first UK Philosothon was held in 2012 at King's College, Taunton.

In 2007, Hale School in Perth Western Australia initiated a project to promote higher order thinking among secondary school students. At the first Philosothon nine high school teams, each including of five students from Perth came together at Hale School.

Following the first Philosothon it was decided to promote the event more broadly to other schools around the country and later in the UK. Philosothons now take place annually in each Australian capital city and in regional locations around the country. They also take place in the UK Recently Primary school Philosothons have been conducted in various Art Galleries in some Australian states and in the UK.

The rationale for the Philosothon methodology is based on empirical evidence that teaching children reasoning skills early in life greatly improves other cognitive and academic skills and greatly assists learning in general. Students are given the topic questions in advance and some stimulus reading materials.

Examples of topic questions from recent Philosothons are these:

Students, teachers and parents gather on a particular evening each year for the event. The students participate in a series of Communities of Inquiry which are facilitated by teachers or Phd. philosophy students from the local universities. While participating in this process students are scored by Philosophy lecturers also from local universities. The scores are then collated, ranked and later in the evening awards are given to students at each age level and encouragement awards to the most promising male and female philosopher. Also a trophy is awarded to the winning school.

Some have said that Philosophy cannot be undertaken in the context of a competition. They believe that by ranking individuals the process of developing a Community of Inquiry is fundamentally compromised. However, others have responded that many students forget they are involved in a competition and engage in the exact sort of investigation and collaboration we would hope to see in Philosophy. Others have suggested that the same process is undertaken in any academic institution, tertiary or secondary where students are ranked against criteria. The only difference is that one of the more important criteria in a COI is collaboration.

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