No description available.

Is open-mindedness necessary for intellectual well-being in education? To answer this question this thesis draws on Aristotle‟s virtue ethics and virtue epistemology. It is argued that in order to understand eudaimonia (well-being) it is necessary to understand phronesis. In this regard, it is implied that in order to understand well-being, it is necessary to understand virtue, thus, well-being needs virtue(s). Just as Aristotelian virtue ethics defends the necessity of virtue(s) for well-being, virtue epistemology defends the priority of intellectual virtues for intellectual well-being. Unlike epistemology, virtue epistemology focuses on how an individual can be a good informant through the cultivation of intellectual virtues. To this end, this thesis proposes an alternative regulative educative virtue epistemology for intellectual well-being in education. In this context, open-mindedness is examined as an intellectual virtue that secures and facilitates other virtues both for individual and collective well-being in education. Bringing together White‟s and Nussbaum‟s seemingly opposed approaches to well-being, this thesis argues that a better theory of well-being in education must be one that equally combines a collective subjective major-informed desire theory with an individual objective list account of well-being. This account of well-being implies a certain understanding of intellectual open-mindedness. Drawing on Wolff‟s and De-Shalit‟s novel ideas of „secure‟ and „fertile functioning‟ as well as on Roberts‟ and Wood‟s „intellectual functionings‟, this thesis proposes a genuine intellectual open-mindedness that is both well-informed, reasonable, and necessary to „secure‟ and „fertile‟ „intellectual functionings‟ for intellectual well-being in education. Throughout the discussion, the thesis asserts that particular attention needs to be paid to the well-being of student teachers. Although it is widely accepted that pupils‟ well-being is important, less attention has been given to teachers‟ well-being. This thesis argues that teachers‟ and pupils‟ well-being is inextricably connected and initial teacher education should focus on student teachers‟ intellectual well-being as they constitute the future teaching workforce. The implications of how this account of well-being might inform Scottish initial teacher education programmes is addressed.

L’enfance est l’âge des prémices intellectuelles et existentielles, mais l’appartenance à ce stade du développement ne doit pas signer l’incapacité philosophique des enfants, qui manifestent des tendances philosophiques spontanées par leur faculté d’étonnement, leur quête de sens et leurs intuitions sur le monde. Cette affinité naturelle de l’enfance au monde conceptuel ferait de la philosophie le lieu idéal pour instituer une éducation de la pensée. Ainsi, le mouvement pédagogique de la philosophie pour enfants défend, depuis une quarantaine d’années, la nécessité d’une formation de l’esprit critique, réflexif et dialectique. En vue de réinventer une méthode pédagogique conforme à l’esprit enfantin, elle a surgi sous la forme d’une pratique de la discussion collective, centrée sur l’échange des idées, l’exercice des habiletés intellectuelles et la construction d’une réflexion conceptuelle, argumentée et problématique sur un enjeu universel de la condition humaine. Dans ce cadre (et dans celui de notre étude), les philosophes pour enfants défendent de toutes parts le développement de l’ouverture d’esprit, en un double sens : comme développement des capacités rationnelles et comme éclosion des capacités dialogiques de compréhension intersubjective. La discussion philosophique permettrait à l’enfant de s’ouvrir l’esprit, grâce à la dynamique d’exploration des idées, problématiques, arguments et à l’apprentissage de la disponibilité à la pensée nouvelle, à la pensée d’autrui, à la pensée pluraliste. Il convient donc de se demander si la philosophie pour enfants peut être conçue comme une pratique intellectuelle et éthique de l’ouverture d’esprit. / Childhood is the age of an awakening of intellectual and existential capacities, but this developmental stage is not indicative of a philosophical inability of children, who may display spontaneous philosophical tendencies through their faculty for surprise, their quest for meaning and their intuitions about the world. This natural affinity of children for the conceptual world makes philosophy the ideal medium to introduce education in thinking. Thus, for the past forty years or so, the philosophy for children movement has defended the need to train critical, reflexive and dialectic minds. In order to reinvent a pedagogic method best suited to a child's mindset, this training has developed in the form of collective debate centred on the exchange of ideas, the exercise of intellectual capacities and the construction of conceptual thinking, argued and problematized around the universal challenges of the human condition. In this context (and that of our study), philosophers for children are strongly in favour of defending an openness of mind, from two standpoints: as the development of rational abilities and as the first steps towards a capacity for intersubjective understanding. Philosophical discussion allows children to open their minds, thanks to the dynamic of exploring ideas, issues and arguments and learning about the availability of new, external and pluralistic thoughts. The question is therefore whether philosophy for children could be conceived as an intellectual and ethical practice to achieve open-mindedness.

This qualitative investigation addresses the notion of using the film The Matrix (Silver, & Wachowski, Wachowski, 1999) as a fortigenic tool. Fortigenesis is a process of developing strengths. Within the relatively new field of positive psychology (PP) the premise is that character strengths and virtues can be fostered to lead a better life with positive goals and richer meaning. This positive outlook has several links with existentialism. As such PP and existentialism were used as theoretical points of departure in this reading of the film. For this new field to grow, positive psychologists embrace the idea of using many foci. Hence many looking-glasses or lenses were used in this reading: these are PP, existentialism, philosophy, Christianity and fairy-tales. As a result, several PP notions such as self-efficacy, love, hope, courage, open-mindedness, creativity and faith and two existential themes, freedom of choice and will to meaning, were read into this motion picture. Thus conceptually, The Matrix is specifically explored as a filmic container. Its application as a fortigenic tool is highlighted through the use of Broaden-and-Build theory to validate and solidify constructs. Broaden-and-build theory is founded on the idea that positive emotions lead to a broadening of cognition (e.g. new and creative ways of thinking), which in turn allows for a broader repertoire of positive actions that people can consider. Lastly, conclusions are discussed, one being that more research about the positive in psychology is necessary. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.