VAPS Conference

VAPS Conference: Cultivating Curiosity: Philosophy and STEM

The Biennial VAPS conference ran from 13-15th of September

The theme for this year focussed on the role of philosophy in STEM areas.

The community of inquiry stream included many spectacular talks from experienced and innovative educators. 

These included the VAPS launch of the Ethical Capability resources (which will be online soon). These resources contain workshops, tool kits, trails, and frameworks for the teaching and assessment of the Ethical Capability. We had presenters from Melbourne Zoo, who now have an ethical trail up and running. We have also ethics trails at the State Library, Melbourne Museum, Barrinja Cultural Centre, Monash Gallery of Art, and the Jewish Holocaust Museum.

VAPS celebrated the achievements of three primary schools with Lighthouse Awards. Brunswick East PS, Serpell PS, and Brighton PS. These awards are in recognition of the partnership between these schools and VAPS in developing programs of philosophical inquiry at their schools. All of these schools are beginning to, or have already, embedded philosophy across their entire school. They also have a number of teachers and executive staff who have completed Level 1 VAPS training, and some staff who have completed Level 2 VAPS training. VAPS supports the philosophical work these schools and doing throughout their journey, and looks forward to more contributions from them in the future.

VAPS Committee member Dr. Harry Galatis also introduced participants to Patrick Griffin’s developmental approach to learning and assessment, favoured at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education and which has informed VAPS CoI and other training programs.

Monica Bini, Head of Capabilities at VCAA, presented on the the teaching and assessing of the capabilities. The four capabilities, listed below, have explicit teaching requirements and schools are now required to assess students against these capabilities. All four capabilities have components that can be developed through philosophical inquiry. Monica presented strategies and examples for how these could be addressed through both philosophy and STEM.

Critical & Creative Thinking

Ethical Capability

Personal and Social Capability

Intercultural Capability