Philosophy and Education ― Engaging Pathways to Meaningful Learning

Philosophy and Education: Engaging Pathways to Meaningful Learning represents a philosophical approach to learning. It encourages students to think critically and form well-reflected opinions around relevant concepts in the English language, literature and society, such as inequality and duty. Philosophy and Education embodies a more engaging style (than is traditionally common) with the text - instead of reading long texts and answering questions about that text, it motivates learners to relate their own experiences and interpretations to the view communicated in the text, by actively and continuously engaging them to test one opinion against another.

Philosophy and Education is primarily designed to help students improve their reasoning skills both orally and in writing, and prepare them for tests and exams at the end of the upper secondary and university-preparatory courses. Some of the chapters in Philosophy and Education have been used in the classroom, resulting in highly engaged students who feel they are offered the opportunity to relate to the classroom experience in a meaningful way. None of the activities ask students to make lists of words or spend enormous amounts of time on close reading and interpreting texts - instead, they are required to reflect and share their own thoughts on the relevance of the texts, movies, etc. to their own lives. They learn new words and ideas by discussing the myriad of philosophical questions presented, which makes learning a conversation about life.

Mara Cogni holds a master’s degree in philosophy of European languages from the University of Oslo, Norway and a master’s degree in modern languages from Moldova State University. She is currently holding the position of Lecturer M.A. at Oslo Adult Education Center Sinsen. She is actively engaged in research on developing students’ thinking skills, and is presently working on several projects designed to adopt philosophy as the ideal approach to the future classroom experience. Through her work, she has become acutely aware how significant it is to transform learning into a meaningful experience by engaging students to think philosophically.