Inspired by Aristotle and Goffman this article considers how the study of virtue acquisition may be pursued through an observational theorising about social interactions in institutions. Adapting Goffman's and Harré's notions of moral order and moral career, it proposes character education to be a dialogic process requiring negotiation between…

This article, a conceptual and theoretical piece, opens a window on "playful learning" as a philosophy of education and a suite of diverse pedagogical approaches, methods, and techniques. The paper criticizes the serious ambience of adult education with its high levels of instrumentalism and performativity. It argues for playful learning…

In this article, I present selected extracts and formulations from John Dewey's seminal book "Democracy and Education" (1916) that speak to the question of the educational purpose of PBL. Dewey's work, and in particular this book, is in many ways foundational in regard to arguing for PBL as an educational approach. However, in…

"Applications" of knowledge symbolically and structurally "codify" thinking, often displacing the human who is relegated to passive, routine reproduction of operations and left with no space or time to understand or question the relations underlying the processes. This is both mirrored and augmented by the schematic narrowing…

This paper seeks to introduce a meaning-making process called 'sensuous abstraction' as one approach to aesthetic experience in line with Dewey's philosophy. Dewey highlights aesthetic experience as the best form of experience that integrates emotional and intellectual qualities to foster deep learning and insights. Building on contemporary…

In a time of intellectual and emotional overload in education, this paper offers room for breathing through a pedagogy of emptiness from a Daoist perspective. It begins by introducing the concept of Daoist emptiness through three intertwining features--generative, transcendent, and inclusive--important for rethinking pedagogy. It then moves to…

In this paper, this theme of the open question is offered as a hermeneutical approach to problem-based learning. Most of the scientific literature on problem-based learning is in the realm of the behavioral-sciences. To the extent that the latter becomes the exclusive focus of research on problem-based learning, there is a risk of…

It has been widely noted that society has moved away from seeing truth as an objective and, in some ways, important part of what it means to be educated. Varied conceptions of truth have existed and have been debated in the halls of academia for years but recently a shift has occurred in which truth has lost its status broadly as a virtue. In…

The phenomenological tradition developed sophisticated techniques to draw attention to pre-theoretic or pre-reflective experience. This article examines how one of the most famous, Heidegger's 'broken tool', might work in a pedagogical context. I contend that it can be highly effective there, fleshing out his vision of teaching as 'letting learn'…

This paper discusses the relation between the poetic and teaching. Drawing on Heidegger's question of Being and his turn to poetry as the site through which Being is brought forth through an interplay between revealing and concealing, I address the intricacies of poetic thinking in teaching. I argue that thinking 'about' teaching needs to go…

This study presents the Terele-model (TEaching, REsearch, LEarning) -- an easy-to-use model that distinguishes different levels of connection between teaching, research and learning. To do this the study uses Johari windows to show clearly and intuitively the five different levels of action and interaction between the teacher and the student. At…

This study investigates what mathematicians, who teach academic mathematics courses to secondary school mathematics teachers, want to teach them about the discipline of mathematics. Data sources included interviews with five research mathematicians. The data analysis revealed that expanding teachers' knowledge about the discipline of mathematics…

This paper aims to highlight a) the necessity of linking the educational philosophy with practice by presenting educational philosophical theories of the reference field, i.e., adult education, b) the prevailing educational philosophies in active adult educators and c) the possibility of the co-existence of two or more educational philosophies in…

In this paper, I show the ambiguities in the interpretations of Martin Heidegger and Alain Badiou of Plato's allegory of the cave as an enlightening educational experience. In Heidegger's interpretation, knowledge appears as a rational process that corrects the thinking of others. By his claim of an education by truths, Badiou prioritises, again,…

Teaching philosophy statements articulate educators' beliefs about what makes learning happen. They can be powerful tools in identifying assumptions about teaching, articulating our values as educators, and connecting to a community within and across disciplines. Teaching philosophy statements are often an integral part of job applications,…