This is a joint showcase with Chad Miller.

“The Philosopher’s Pedagogy believes in schools as levers of change for creating a better future society– places where we can pose questions regarding our human experience and work together to understand the purpose of our lives and our contribution to the world.”

Table of Contents

• Teaching Philosophy
• Teaching Practice
• Impact
• Supplemental Material

Teaching Philosophy

The Philosopher’s Pedagogy (Makaiau & Miller, 2012) and accompanying Plain Vanilla Inquiry teaching practice are central to our progressive education teaching philosophy. Rooted in the work of American Pragmatists, the American progressive education movement is over a century-old and has been integrated into schools across Hawai‘i for just as long. The defining features of this teaching philosophy are: learning by doing; being “whole child” and student-centered; experiential, hands on, and active; inquiry and place based; using the principles of social constructivism to design curriculum and assessments that are grounded in the real world, integrated and interdisciplinary; prioritizing education for social responsibility and democracy, especially social justice; enacting ongoing opportunities for authentic collaboration, community building, and partnership with organizations and institutions beyond the classroom; and situating teachers as scientists who study students and society to design real life learning experiences that are responsive to a changing world.

The Philosopher’s Pedagogy believes in schools as levers of change for creating a better future society– places where we can pose questions regarding our human experience and work together to understand the purpose of our lives and our contribution to the world.

The Philosopher’s Pedagogy and accompanying Plain Vanilla Inquiry teaching practice

Teaching Practice

The Philosopher’s Pedagogy is a progressive educational teaching practice that integrates theories of philosophy (from John Dewey, William James, and Charles Peirce), philosophical inquiry, philosophical reflection, and experiential learning into a unified, transformative approach to teaching and learning. While many disciplines engage students in critical thinking, dialogue, theory-to-practice application, and personal reflection, this teaching practice is distinctive because it makes philosophy itself the anchor—the intellectual foundation, the methodological guide, and the reflective stance that shapes every part of instruction, learning, and assessment. In this sense, the Philosopher’s Pedagogy does not merely incorporate philosophical ideas; it uses philosophical inquiry as a way of being, a way of teaching, and a way of meaning-making. It is a pedagogy that transcends the field of philosophy and can be widely applied to any discipline. 

We introduce this teaching practice in PHIL 492 and fully integrate it across the five-semester Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Curriculum Studies program to train teacher candidates. This educational program aims to develop student learning across five interconnected domains drawn directly from its progressive philosophy and pedagogy.

1. Inquiry. Education “must awaken in students and teachers the wonder, questions, methods of inquiry, and initiative that cultivate and nurture the examined life.” Students learn to pose meaningful philosophical questions and make progress in inquiry using reasoning tools.
2. Experience. Education “must make the most of the opportunities of present life” by engaging learners in experiences that “promote active participation,” stimulate critical and creative thinking, “trouble the status quo,” reveal complexity, and create joy.
3. Dialogue. Education “must promote intellectually safe and empathetic communities of inquiry” that use dialogue and listening to exchange critical ideas, explore multiple perspectives, and deepen understanding of oneself and others in service of a more equitable and sustainable world.
4. Action. Education “must enlist the voice, agency, conscience, and intellect” of learners so they are equipped to respond to a changing world, contribute to a better future society, and take both individual and collective action.
5. Reflection. Education “must embody constant and consistent philosophical reflection on experience, thought, and emotions,” expressed through multiple forms that help students make meaning, build community, and honor individuality.

It is enacted through two interlocking components: (1) a set of six educational commitments that guide how teachers and students engage with learning, and (2) the Plain Vanilla Inquiry process, a structured sequence for facilitating inclusive classroom dialogue, reasoning, deliberation, and reflection using the philosophical inquiry and reflection process. These components underpin the design of the Plan B portfolio, which scaffolds student learning and provides authentic evidence of inquiry, experience, dialogue, action, reflection, and immersive field engagement. Small cohort sizes (approximately 10 students) foster the intellectually safe, relational environment necessary for deep inquiry and co-constructed learning.

Foundations: The Six Educational Commitments

To practice the Philosopher’s Pedagogy, instructors adopt six intertwined commitments that shape both long-term curriculum planning and moment-to-moment instructional choices.

1. Living the examined life. Teachers model asking deep, personal, and meaningful questions—both inside and outside the classroom—to cultivate wonder, intellectual curiosity, and “the examined life” in their students.
2. Learning as a shared activity between teacher and student. Knowledge is socially constructed rather than transmitted. Instructors and students read, think, and problem-solve together, beginning each class with a “prompt of the day” and ending with reflective closure.
3. Co-constructing meaning between course materials and life experience. Learning occurs through an exchange between subject matter and the beliefs, backgrounds, and lived experiences of participants. The content of the discipline becomes meaningful when students inquire into how it intersects with their own lives.
4. Valuing philosophy as foundational. Philosophical texts, questions, and traditions—including American Pragmatism—provide open-ended invitations to explore ideas, navigate uncertainty, adapt to changing conditions, and search for the purpose and relevance of education and life.
5. Doing philosophy with students. Students do not merely study philosophy; they practice it. Using tools such as the Good Thinker’s Toolkit, students learn to identify assumptions, make inferences, develop counterexamples, question deeply, and generate new ideas that illuminate personal and academic life.
6. Challenging traditional assessment. Instead of emphasizing standardized tests or cut scores, students demonstrate learning through authentic performance assessments that include community engagement, scholarly research, social justice action plans, public presentations, and reflective multimedia products.

Together, these commitments create a learning environment grounded in social constructivism, anti-bias education, inquiry- and place-based learning, and progressive education values such as social responsibility, democracy, and experiential learning.

The Plain Vanilla Inquiry Process: A Distinctive Innovation

The Plain Vanilla Inquiry process operationalizes the Philosopher’s Pedagogy through a repeatable six-step sequence:

1. Read – Engage with a stimulus (text, art, media, or experience).
   
2. Question – Each student generates a philosophical question.
   
3. Vote – A community ball is used to facilitate inclusive, student-driven selection of the question to pursue.
   
4. Write – Students write responses using philosophical reasoning tools.
   
5. Dialogue, Inquiry, and Deliberation – Students inquire into the selected question collaboratively, offering insights, examples, counterexamples, and questions.
   
6. Reflect & Evaluate – Students articulate what they learned, how it connects to their life, and how the community functioned (e.g., intellectual safety, active listening, sustained focus).

What makes this process innovative is that it transforms philosophical inquiry from an abstract intellectual exercise into a structured classroom practice that is accessible, democratic, culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate. It distributes power among students (through questioning, voting, and community ball facilitation), fosters intellectual safety, and builds metacognitive habits of reflection. The process is also scalable and adaptable, making it applicable across ages, subjects, and contexts. Ultimately, the Plain Vanilla Inquiry nurtures dispositions essential for 21st-century teaching: curiosity, empathy, flexibility, collaboration, and critical reasoning.

Integration into the Plan B Portfolio

The Philosopher’s Pedagogy shapes the innovative and holistic assessment of student learning through the Plan B portfolio, which includes six major components:

1. Inquiry – Scholarly Research Paper
   Students conduct original research, pose philosophical or pedagogical questions, review literature, select methodologies, analyze data, and articulate interdisciplinary connections and social implications.
2. Experience – Theory to Practice Exemplar
   Through completing the p4cHI Graduate Certificate requirements, candidates participate in experiential, inquiry-based learning grounded in American Pragmatism and Hawaiʻi’s community of inquiry tradition.
3. Dialogue – Conference or Professional Presentation
   Candidates present their research or practice in authentic public settings and engage audiences in dialogue.
4. Action – Leaders of Social Justice in Education
   Students design and enact social justice action plans that impact communities, institutions, or policies beyond the classroom.
5. Reflection – Philosophical Reflection Video
   Through digital media, candidates create an artful reflection exploring the meaning and purpose of progressive philosophy and pedagogy.
6. Immersive Field Experiences Gallery
   Students curate multimedia evidence of field experiences and interdisciplinary unit development, including work from the Hanahau‘oli Teacher Collaborative.

These components align directly with the program’s overarching purposes: Inquiry, Experience, Dialogue, Action, and Reflection that cultivate transformative future educators and social change leaders.

Impact

All graduates of the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd-CS program have demonstrated their ability to implement The Philosopher’s Pedagogy and accompanying Plain Vanilla Inquiry teaching practice with fidelity in a variety of real world settings. Based off of the first cohort of candidates who completed the program, 100% of the students met and/or excelled in the target program learning outcomes, assessed through the program portfolio:

• 100% of the students demonstrated skillful use of philosophical inquiry methods through their completion of high-quality scholarly research papers. Their work is of such a high intellectual caliber that 60% published their papers in academic venues such as the Journal of Philosophy in the Schools and the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy: Blog for Progressive Educators. 
• 100% of the students are actively and competently implementing the Philosopher’s Pedagogy and the Plain Vanilla teaching practice in classrooms and other educational settings, such as Punahou School, Hanahau’oli School, Nānāikapono Elementary School, Ka’elepulu Elementary School, Waikīkī Elementary School, Sunset Beach Elementary School, Palo Alto High School, Kailua Intermediate School, Stevenson MIddle School, Kapolei Middle School, McKinley High School, Lokelani Elementary School, Waldorf School, and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
• 100% of students engaged audience members in community dialogue and discussion regarding their work and scholarship at a professional level through professional presentations in a number of settings, such as: the Progressive Education Network National Conference, the Conference to Restore Humanity, Teacher’s College, Shady Hill School, Palo Alto High School, UH West Oahu, Punahou School, Hanahau’oli School, and the University of Hawai‘iʻs Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education. 
• 100% of students demonstrated their social justice leadership skills through creating and implementing social justice action projects to spark change that goes beyond the classroom and makes a broader impact on institutions, systems, and/or policies. Examples of these social justice action projects, include:
  • The I Want to Know What Love is Film Festival (https://www.hanahauoli.org/pdc-blogposts/2021/23);
  •  Finding Why: Learning About and Launching “Life Design” Curriculum and Coursework (https://www.hanahauoli.org/pdc-calendar/2024/findingwhy), and 
  • Supporting the Filipino Curriculum Project (https://sites.google.com/view/filipinocurriculum/home)
• 100% of students demonstrated their abilities to philosophically reflect on their experiences in the program and articulate those significant realizations to a broader audience through the use of creative digital media (assessed by the program rubric). For example, Using the Art of Dance to Communicate: Why Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy? (https://www.hanahauoli.org/pdc-blogposts/2023/5)

Additionally, 100% of the students enrolled in PHIL 492 demonstrated that they met and/or exceeded the PHIL 492 learning objectives via a number of assessments. This included successfully showing proficiency on all of the required elements of the UHM COE philosophy for children Hawai‘i Graduate Certificate:

1. Application Letter
2. PHIL 492 Final Project Reflection: Students selected a medium of their choice for a public presentation about p4cHI that answers the questions: What is p4cHI? Why is it needed? How does it work? They will also write a final reflection about their entire experience in the course in two-to-three pages.
3. Planning for Instruction and Assessment
   • One Exemplar p4cHI Lesson Plan (see p4cHI lesson plan rubric for specific requirements)
4. Instructing and Engaging Students and Learning
   • One Exemplar Ten Minute Video Clip 
   • One Written Instruction Commentary
5. Assessing for Student Learning
   • Two Exemplar Student Samples, Assessment Tools, & Feedback
   • Written Assessment Commentary
6. Field – Formal Observations
   • One Formal Observation and feedback from a qualified p4cHI HIDOE teacher at a model school or a UAPEE faculty member 
7. Culminating Final Product with Written Final Reflection and Public Presentation

Supplemental Material

• The Philosopher’s Pedagogy
• The Philosopher’s Pedagogy teaching activities (intellectual safety, community ball, and Plain Vanilla)
• Plain Vanilla Philosophical Inquiry Rubric
• Examples of Students’ Plain Vanilla Philosophical Inquiries
• Participation and Engagement Self Assessment
• Philosophical Annotation Reading Assessment
• The Reflective philosophical Inquiry Writing Assessment
• Prompt of the Day and Daily Reflection