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The publications in these two volumes reflect the author's work over the past ten years in the development of teaching thinking through philosophical enquiry in primary and secondary schools. Philosophy as an essential aspect of education for all young people was first considered in the US by Professor Lipman in the early 1970s, and is now established in more than thirty countries around the world. The publications presented here represent key documents in the author's involvement in the development of a curriculum for teaching thinking through philosophical enquiry in UK schools. The publications are organised under two themes relating to teaching thinking and philosophical enquiry which are seen as vital elements of children's learning, and are presented as a contribution to curriculum development in schools, including the developing of pedagogic methods and teaching materials, and as a contribution to the professional development of teachers. Fifteen sole-author publications are included, comprising two books, excerpts from four books, and nine published papers. In addition to the publications this volume contains the author's commentary which provides an introduction to the publications and an assessment of their significance.

The principal theories of human motor skill are compared. Disagreements between them centre around the exact details of the feedback loops used for control. In order to throw some light on this problem a commonplace skill was analysed using computer techniques to both record and model the movement. Bicycle riding was chosen as an example because it places strict constraints on the freedom of the rider's actions and consequently allows a fairly simple model to be used. Given these constraints a faithful record of the delicate balancing movements of the handlebar must also be a record of the rider's actions in controlling the machine. An instrument pack, fitted with gyroscopic sensors and a handlebar potentiometer, recorded the roll, yaw and steering angle changes during free riding in digital form on a microcomputer disc. A discrete step computer model of the rider and machine was used to compare the output characteristic of various control systems with that of the experimental subjects. Since the normal bicycle design gives a measure of automatic stability it is not possible to tell how much of the handlebar movement is due to the rider and how much to the machine. Consequently a bicycle was constructed in which the gyroscopic and castor stability were removed. In order to reduce the number of sensory contributions the subjects were blindfolded. The recordings showed that the-basic method of control was a combination of a continuous delayed repeat of the roll angle rate in the handle-bar channel, with short intermittent ballistic acceleration inputs to control angle of lean and consequently direction., A review of the relevant, literature leads to the conclusion that the proposed control system is consistent with current physiological knowledge. Finally the bicycle control system discovered in the experiments is related to the theories of motor skills discussed in the second chapter.

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The recent movement to enhance critical thinking through education is not entirely new. However, it differs from an earlier tradition which was concerned broadly with the historical origins and social ramifications of critical thought. The terms of reference of the current 'thinking skills debate' are more narrowly restricted to the objectives and methods of contemporary education systems and there is a characteristic tendency to adopt features of individual psychology and 'cognitive science'. Even where such conceptual perspectives are not made explicit, there is widespread commitment to the idea that it is possible to identify general skills of thought and teach them successfully. Various programmes maintain this commitment, despite a paucity of evidence that the 'skills' thus identified transfer readily between 'cognitive domains'. A powerful and controversial counter-argument has been advanced against this conception of critical thinking skills. The main thrust of 'domain-theory' is that the 'generalist' position is incoherent; thinking skills are specific to subject-matters of 'domains' of thought, and cannot be abstracted from them, a conclusion said to be preordained by the logic of language and thought. The present thesis is that this counter-argument is substantially correct as a refutation of the theoretical basis of many current aspirations for the introduction of 'thinking skills' programmes into education. Formal representations and generalised accounts of thinking fail to address the open-endedness and creativity of genuinely critical thought. Domain-theory falters, however, in its attempt to interpret logically self-authenticating modes of thought. They are not distinguished by seamless, internal logics or methodologies, nor are they radically distinct from common modes of discourse. Indeed, specialised disciplines derive their intelligibility from this common ground of evolving linguistic meaning and imagery. It is from this, rather than from within the constraints of 'logical domains' that some of the most innovatory developments occur; the perception of analogy; the 'thought-experiment' with revolutionary implications for established theory. Paradigms of this kind have universal significance for the elucidation of critical thought.

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Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975. / Bibliography: leaves 310-319. / x, 319 leaves ill

Thesis (MPsych(Clin))--University of South Australia, 1998

Outdoor education offers a promising method for developing life skills, however this field is undermined by ad hoc theory and limited research. This thesis offers a critical synthesis of theoretical and empirical outdoor education literature, develops instrumentation to measure life effectiveness, and reports on a large, longitudinal study of outdoor education program life effectiveness outcomes. Outdoor education was reviewed as consisting of seven theoretically interactive domains (participant, environment, program, activity, group, instructor, and culture) within a dynamic, experiential milieu. A theoretical systems framework is proposed, drawing on Dewey’s theory of experience, to illustrate how participants’ experiences of outdoor education might be understood as arising within a “complex system”. A critical review of traditional and meta-analytic reviews of empirical outdoor education research indicated small-moderate positive impacts on typically measured outcomes (e.g. self-concept, locus of control, and social skills; ES ~ 0.35). However, this research has been limited by a lack of appropriate dependent measures, low statistical power, over-reliance on inferential statistics, a lack of control and comparison groups, a lack of longitudinal data, and a lack of investigation of independent variables. To address such issues, Study 1 developed new measurement instrumentation and Study 2 conducted a large, longitudinal study. “Life effectiveness” was proposed to refer to generic life skills which facilitate surviving and thriving across a variety of situations. Life effectiveness skills were further proposed to be enhanceable through intervention. Study 1 investigated the psychometrics of the 11-factor, 64-item Life Effectiveness Questionnaire version G (LEQ-G) through congeneric and confirmatory factor analyses (N = 1,164). Three problematic factors and several weaker items were removed, leading to an 8-factor, 24-item model (LEQ-H) with an excellent fit (TLI = .984; N = 1,892). A global second-order model also provided an excellent fit (TLI = .980), with evidence for factorial invariance of the second-order factor across gender and age, and promising evidence for factorial invariance of the first-order model. Further development of the LEQ was recommended to consider construct validity, other life effectiveness factors, and ongoing item development (e.g. to reduce skewness). / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)