Issue: January/February 2004
News
Primed for Plato
La Trobe University's Role in VCE Philosophy
La Trobe University Philosophy plays an important role in teaching philosophy as a VCE subject in Victorian schools.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority introduced VCE Philosophy for Years 11 and 12 in 2001. In preparation for that event, La Trobe's Philosophy Program launched a VCE Philosophy Teachers' Support Program in January of that year.
According to Philosophy Program Co-ordinator and senior lecturer, Mr Ross Phillips, 14 teachers were in the initial group. The latest course, held in December 2003, attracted 34 teachers, bringing the total over three years to 110.
Mr Phillips - who organises the VCE Philosophy Teachers Support Program - says the program has several aspects.
'It begins with a four-day intensive course at Bundoora in December followed by sessions held on Sundays during the teaching year. These intensive sessions are bolstered by an e-mail or telephone ?advice-on-the-run? service,' Mr Phillips says.
'Teaching the curriculum that spreads across Year 11 and 12 is quite a
challenge. Year 12 is tightly tied to some very demanding pieces of text from Plato and Plotinus to Karl Popper and Alan Turing.
'The challenge for the teacher is not only to help the students to manoeuvre their way through the logical complexities of the texts, but to supply enough of the missing pieces to enable the students to understand the motivations and concerns of the philosophers they are studying.
'The Year 11 curriculum looks less exacting, but only at first sight. The teacher is required to introduce students to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and logic in semester one, and then lead the class through an extended example of applied philosophy in semester two.
'There are no set texts, and the teacher's job is to develop in the students a sense of what it is to do philosophy that will help them penetrate and engage critically with the efforts of some of the important figures they meet in Year 12.
'It is hard on the teacher, but the pedagogy of VCE Philosophy is unusual and interesting. There are few subjects in which students are first encouraged to articulate and attempt to solve problems for themselves - either as individuals or co-operatively as a class - and then exposed to exemplary efforts in the same domain. The two years of study are very different in character, but mutually dependent,' Mr Phillips said.
Other La Trobe academic staff have played prominent roles in the introduction and conduct of Years 11 and 12 Philosophy.
Reader in Philosophy, Dr Robert Young, was a member of the committee that drew up the initial plans for VCE Philosophy and laid the groundwork for its unusual structure.
Since then, Mr Tim Oakley, Dr Robert Farrell, Dr George Vassilacopoulos and Mr Phillips have all been involved in supporting the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the Victorian Association for Philosophy in Schools in their efforts to assist and promote VCE Philosophy.
'The whole of the Philosophy Program at La Trobe has been behind the Bundoora-based VCE Philosophy Teachers Support Program, and the number of teachers who, having been through the Year Eleven stream, are coming back to be taken through Year Twelve, suggests that a useful service is being provided to Victorian teachers,' Mr Phillips added.
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