Dutch humanist ethical education Didactic principles and the method

This article explains the aim of Humanist Education as developed by HVO (Dutch Centre for Humanist Ethical Education). In the first paragraph it will first give a picture of the general view of HVO through a metaphor. Next it will focus more deeply on the aims and didactic principles and themes that highlight the education. In the fourth paragraph it will discuss the specific method of HVO that serves as a steppingstone for the lessons. It closes with a roadmap how to set up a meeting yourself.

The article is written by Alexandra Bronsveld (Ed.) and others. The picture at the front is from the IHEYO international Conference on Teaching Critical Thinking held in 2006. The article is part of the IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’. The book will be published in 2012. See for more: www.iheyo.org.

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

Humanist Ethical Education in the Netherlands

School is an important institution for the moral development of children. Humanist Ethical Education focuses on the moral development of pupils and finds it important to guide young people by the development of their own consciousness of values and their own convictions about life. It is desirable that children learn to cope with questions about norms and values. In this way they can develop into people who know what they want and who make their own responsible choices with self confidence.

The Dutch educational system is divided between public and private schools. Both are funded by the state. Private schools are based on a belief-system such as Catholicism or a pedagogic point of view such as Steiner School. The public schools are ‘neutral’; they are not based on a particular pedagogic or (non-)religious point of view. In the Netherlands public education is accessible for everyone. Every child is welcome, regardless of their background, neither faith, ideology, culture nor country of origin. Public education has the statutory task to pay attention to the multiform values within Dutch society. Children learn to interact with each other in a good way in actual practice. The strength of this education is meeting each other.

Children between 6 and 12 years old in these state primary schools have a statutory right to receive religious education or education about an ideology which is not explicitly based on religion during school hours. In order to do justice to the various ideologies, public schools offer the opportunity to parents and

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children to receive religious or humanist ethical education. Parents can choose from protestant, catholic, Islamic, humanist or Hindustani education.

These separate denominations work together to realize this education in primary schools since 2009. The joint aim is to teach children to respect other faiths, ideologies and cultures from an early age on. The lessons help children to develop their own view of life. They show what faith can mean to people and show respect to people with a different way of living.

Since the academic year 1969 – 1970, humanists have contributed to the education of such an ideology. This contribution has been much valued by the children, parents and schools alike. They call their education of this ideology Humanist Ethical Education (HEE). Or as it is called in Dutch, “humanistisch vormingsonderwijs (HVO). The HEE-teachers are trained and supported by the Dutch Centre for Humanist Ethical Education (Stichting HVO). Currently 30.000 children receive humanist education. Humanists offer children a learning programme as an alternative to religious education which helps them become mature responsible adults. The methodology of the learning programme has been well thoughtout and is aimed at the moral and socioemotional development of children and the development of their identity. Over the past forty years, the subject of HEE as an ideological education has secured for itself a firm place in the curriculum as the enthu-siastic volunteer has grown into a motivated professional (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 8).

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

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Humanist Ethical Education (HEE), a metaphor

children can test whatever they think is valuable in life.

It is natural for human beings to ask questions. Not only adults, but children of all ages too, ask questions. Some of these questions are extraordinary and touch themes of life like love, death, identity, nature, faith, good and evil, beautiful and ugly. We also call these questions vital questions. We do not have an answer to them right away. Questions about life are about what we think are really important values in life. In the HVO lessons that we offer in the Netherlands, children explore these and other questions in a interactive, playful and creative manner.

In order to clarify how the way of life of the teacher, the educational vision and the pedagogy of HEE are connected to each other, I use a suitable metaphor, the wedding cake. This metaphor has been devised by Marjolijn Beuling, a former employee of Stichting HVO (Beuling 2010, p. 15-18). This metaphor illustrates at the same time the creative element and the playfulness which are so important in HEE.

When teaching this subject, the ideology of the professional teacher is of importance. As a HEE-teacher you do not want to impose your view of life on the children, but to explore values and norms together with the children so that they will be able to make their own choices. Humanist principles are the touchstones for the research the pupils undertake. However, they will never be held as the only truth. You do not teach pupils what they need to think. You teach them the need to think. Pupils have a right to their own opinion. The purpose is to let pupils form their own awareness of their values and norms. Therefore, the pupil must be addressed as someone who is able to value things at its own level.

As a teacher you develop your own lessons. There are no clear-cut methods. You devise the subjects in cooperation with the group. As a teacher you are more of a coach or guide than someone who transfers knowledge. The teacher creates situations in which the

The lower layer of the cake is symbolic for humanism and the fundamental attitude of the teacher/trainer. To make a cake, various ingredients are needed: flour, eggs, milk and sugar. In the lower layer the flour (the firmness of the dough) indicates the humanist values as a human being, freedom, equality and solidarity. The eggs (all people in the making, who will grow their whole lives) stand for the autonomy of the human being: to form one’s own life and take responsibility for what you think, feel, want or do. The milk (dilutes the dough) stands for this responsibility. Do not only think of yourself, but give the other one the opportunity to develop his or herself. The sugar (as many people in the world as grains of sugar in the dough) stands for the human rights, striving for a world in which freedom and humanity will be central.

The middle layer stands for pedagogics, the way you think about raising and education as a teacher/trainer. It is about the question: to what kind of people should education in a humanistic way lead? On the one hand, you want children/youngsters to learn to adapt

themselves to their environment (socialization). On the other hand, you

Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’

Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method want them to form their own lives (individuation). In the metaphor, the flour in this layer stands for connecting to the pupils’ way of living and their perception of their environment. Without this connection that which you offer to the pupils or youngsters will hover in thin air and they will not be able to connect it to their own experiences. The eggs in this layer are symbolic for the ego, independence and the development of selfconfidence and the self-image of the children and participants.

The milk is symbolic for me and the other, for responsibility and the social development of the children or the participants. Finally, the sugar stands for me and the world, for world citizenship and being able to make moral choices: the moral development.

The upper layer represents didactics. How do you as a teacher/trainer bring your ideals into practice? In this layer, the flour (direct educators/culture), the eggs (the child or the participants of your training), the milk (the group) and the sugar (school) off course play an important part too, but because the method is central here the emphasis is on the sweets (handed out by the bride). These sweets stand for learning through experience, also called learning through action or interactive learning. You do this by using the RExCE method: recognize, explore/examine, choose and evaluate, and by using various working methods. The aim is to motivate the pupils and to cultivate development. It is important to realize that the participants in your group learn in different ways: by listening, by doing and experiencing, by reading, by watching, by talking and by writing. The sweets represent the various working methods that will be offered in the lessons because of these different ways of learning: talking, drawing, reading,

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writing, drama and games.

On top of the cake stands the wedding couple. This wedding couple is at once symbolic for the relationship between the children or the participants within your group itself as for the relationship trainer participant. It stands for good contact on an equal basis: equality. The experiences of the one participant are just as important as those of the other participant or as those of the trainer/teacher. By taking part in a discussion with each other you can find out how every one experiences a certain situation and which values are of importance to him or her.

The aim of Humanist Education as developed by the HVO

The main aim of Humanist Ethical education can be summarized as: ’to teach pupils, on the basis of humanistic principles, to tackle issues relating to standards and values in a critical and creative manner and to encourage them to judge and act independently, increasingly enabling them to give sense and shape to their own life and that of others’.

In HEE the teacher creates the conditions for pupils to grow into a master in the art of living and a citizen of the world. HEE works at building a bridge between radical steermanship over one’s own life and multilateral sympathy with the ups and downs of others.

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method There are constantly three levels of development: THE SELF, your own personal development, THE ME AND THE OTHER, living together with others in a democracy and THE ME AND THE WORLD, becoming a citizen of the world.

What does the above mean for the contents of the profession? Humanist ethical education and ideology is: 

Getting to know yourself: children explore in a creative way what they think is important, interesting, good, fun or annoying in their lives and how they deal with it.

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Getting to know the other: children learn to listen to and be open for what others think, feel, want or do. They compare their own opinion to those of other children and learn that there are similarities and differences.

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Learn to make choices: children look at their own way of thinking and doing in a critical manner. They do this through stories and mutual experiences. They will be encouraged to make their own choices and to search for solutions in conflicting choices.

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Learn to respect differences: together children explore each others’ standards and values. They learn that although there are differences between people, cultures and ideologies, it is possible to live together in a good way by accepting the other as he/she is. They learn to empathize with the other, not to judge too quickly and to develop an open mind.



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Learn to take responsibility: children learn to carry their own responsibility, explore the consequences of their choices for others and their environment and learn how to work together. Skills that are important to live together with each other in a good way (Bronsveld & Corneille 2009).

To be able to do all this, it is important that you do not adopt all opinions and knowledge without thinking and that you learn to think it over. The development of a critical way of thinking takes a central position within HEE. Within Humanism postponing your judgment a little and dialogue are important values. More knowledge about one another, really getting to know each other leads to more understanding and a more humane society.

Teaching methods in HEE All these wonderful objectives require professional skills of the teacher. Achieving the objectives is not something that happens by itself. It requires a great deal of practice, reflection and learning, and HEE and Life Orientation lessons provide the setting in which to do this. Many different working methods have been developed over the years supporting this education. As mentioned earlier on, it is not about transferring knowledge but to explore a theme with children in an active, creative and playful manner. Methods that are commonly used include drama, role-play, various forms of dialogue, learning to construct one’s argument, dealing with moral dilemmas and various creative forms of expression (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 7). In this and the following paragraph you will find various tools to construct your meetings.

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method Fundamental didactic principles HEE is based on a number of fundamental didactic principles. These principles pertain to a humanistic portrayal of mankind and of the world and a humanistic perspective on teaching an education, which underlies HEE. HEE is about the teacher performing an initiatory, stimulating and supportive role among pupils who are educating themselves. I will now briefly explain the different didactic principles.

Using pupils’ actual experiences The main didactic principle of HEE is to use pupils’ actual experiences as a basis and in this way gear lessons to their own environment. In other words, learning through or from experiences. Mind, feeling and behavior are more or less present in each experience. For HEE it is important to connect to the environment of the pupils, so that they will be able to recognize moral dilemmas and life issues. In the next chapter various examples of this will be given. De following principles really stem from this principle.

Creative working methods Another principle is to appeal to a combination of the senses that will bring you as fully as possible in touch with yourself and the outside world. By using creative and activating working methods like talking, drawing, reading, writing, drama and games you connect to the individual differences between pupils. The idea that pupils will learn much better by bringing variation in your lessons is based on the insight that information is better and multilateral secured in the memory when it reaches one through more senses. The key word in this principle is activating. By devising stimulating tasks, formulating challenging dilemmas and organizing working to-

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gether in subgroups, you will incite pupils to physical and mental activity. Especially at the beginning of a meeting, the learning by doing has a strong activating effect. Through learning by doing the whole person is involved with mind, heart and hands. This way of teaching is radically different from the more classical way of teaching in which the teacher talks and the children listen.

Asking questions and explore A third principle is to learn through questioning and examining, to develop an open mind towards life issues and finding possible answers. The teacher together with the children explores moral issues and studies these in depth through various working methods. In the HEE lessons the emphasis lies on questions regarding standards and values. A lot of the choices children have to make amount to moral issues like: do you always need to be obedient? Are you allowed to decide what to do by yourself?

Pupils will think about this, they will ponder and will finally establish to their own judgment. It is important here that children solve the dilemmas together. They have to know why they have chosen a certain point of view. It does not matter if this point of view is right or wrong. There is not one right solution.

By exploring life issues and moral dilemmas, the pupils will be more conscious of how they view human kind and the world and which

place and part they (want to) take in it. Here one’s own thinking is crucial. One’s own mind is often surprisingly original and creative. Asking questions and exploring one’s own thoughts and actions stimulates a positively critical attitude. By exploring

Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’

Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method which place and part they (want to) take in it. Here one’s own thinking is crucial. One’s own mind is often surprisingly original and creative. Asking questions and exploring one’s own thoughts and actions stimulates a positively critical attitude. By exploring with each other the thinking out-of-the-box will be stimulated. Finally, by taking what pupils say serious and exploring it with each other you are showing that their opinions, ideas and contributions do matter.

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In the end the themes and objectives connect to the three layers of being a human being as mentioned above: the ego, the me and the other and me and the world. Within HEE it is not only about discovering and creating your own ideology but also to live together with others and the world around us. This division in three can well be found in the various themes which can be discussed in HEE.

Themes in HEE Cooperate You do not explore life issues and moral dilemmas on your own. You do this in a group. The emphasis on cooperation and exchange is also a didactic principle in HEE, in which social learning and living are also given their place (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 9). You could describe the HEE-lessons as an actual democratic practice. Children can practice dealing with diversity, the possibility to autonomous development of identity, forming an opinion and communication, especially dialogue (Bartels & van Rossum 2009, p. 17). It is always about exploring and discovering together.

Learning through reflection By looking back at the learning process and by doing that looking forward how you can improve certain things, you will be able to contribute to your own education and consciously choose to change. It is about discovering alternatives of acting. We all tend to act according to certain patterns. In HEE you will explore these patterns and you may discover that you could do things differently.

ME, ME en THE OTHER, ME and THE WORLD

In HEE one does not use fixed methods or series of lessons. Lessons are usually based on a theme. The teacher may choose a theme him or herself which he or she believes fits in with the pupils’ environment. More often, however, pupils will bring up an issue themselves during the lesson which the teacher and pupils may feel is important to deal with. This particular issue then becomes the theme of the HEE-lesson, in which topical matters and events usually play an major role.

The themes that are being used have been ordered in three main categories. The three main categories are (Stuij 2010, p. 25): 1.

Social art of living with subjects like: philosophizing with children, Who am I? Belonging. Me and the other. Being different. Family. Friendship. Animals in my life. My life on the internet. Sexual education as relational education. The sense of art. Life and death and my personal art of living.

2.

Social and ecological world citizenship with the following subjects: democratic way of living, the world belongs to everyone (social world citizenship), the rights and obligations of children, rich

and poor, living together in peace

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

people who think or believe differently, green from the inside out (ecological way of living) the earth belongs to everyone (ecological world citizenship), stories from around the world and my personal world view. 3. Humanist principles: A.

Origin and development: evolution and humanity (about the origin and the development of the human being, human kind and humanity). The great thinkers from history: Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoa, Erasmus, Spinoza, Darwin a.o.). (These are mostly Western philosophers, however, each continent can add their own philosophers here).

B.

Values and virtues: about freedom, solidarity and individuality. About wisdom, courage, justice and self-control and discovering one’s own view of life.

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of the pupils, stimulate their interests and increase their motivation.

When you are looking for a suitable form from the social reality or environment of the pupil for the first stage of the lesson, it is necessary that you have a vision of the social context of the pupils that is connected to your theme. While looking for a working method you constantly keep in mind that the pupils have to recognize the moral or life issues. You can achieve this by giving suitable examples or a story, showing an article from a newspaper, an interview with someone on tv or by specific photos. You can also let your pupils experience the moral dilemma directly in the lesson by playing a game. As you see you can use various didactic working methods (Beuling 2010, p 75).

At this stage questions matter like:

The RExCE method How do you put the above in a lesson or a meeting with the aim to make the participants develop themselves in the field of life views and morals? A special method has been developed, which gives HEE teachers a structure, a framework within which to plan their themed lessons. This methodology allows for a variety of working methods. The methodology comprises four steps: Recognize, Explore/Examine, Choose and Evaluate (RExCE)

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Have you ever experienced or seen the same?

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What does it make you think of?

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Is it important to discuss this?

Example from the IHEYO conference 2006 Addressing the family For the ages 6-12

Recognize The chosen situation must be brought to life and pupils must recognize it, i.e. identify with it. The teacher must present the subject in such a way that all pupils are able to fully participate. This will deepen the involvement

Step 1: have the students look at pictures of many different kinds of families: single-parent, multi-racial, multi-religion, large, small, young, and old. Ask the students what the picture says about the family. Do they think they are happy? Do they get along? Do you know a family like this? Do you think families are like in other parts of the world?

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

Explore / Examine The pupils explore the situation and examine it from all angles. This is the stage where underlying values are made explicit. Pupils look at their experiences and assess their personal feelings and evaluations.

It is important when exploring that you start with the own experiences of the pupils. By giving the pupils the opportunity to exchange their own experiences with the given situation with each other, they will explore the situation further. In that way you will give them the opportunity to include former experiences when defining their opinion. It is important that you give attention to the feelings that go with these experiences. Through this you create the possibility to let underlying values come to the surface and to deal with existential questions that have to do with the theme (Beuling 2010, p. 76). The meaning of this second step, explore or examine, is to experience, to consider and to understand an event, a situation or a dilemma from different perspectives. In this way, the various motives for acting become clear and a balanced picture about the situation will evolve.

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

What do we know about things that have to do with the dilemma?

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Why would anybody do something like that?

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What would happen if …..?

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What do you think of that?

This is also the stage where concepts are clarified and taught. The teacher or the pupils may also add information in order to test the various opinions about it. If you as a teacher want to give extra information, this stage is the best stage to do so.

Example from the IHEYO conference 2006 Addressing the family For the ages 6-12 Step 2: then the discussion can be directed to families around students and their own ones. With questions such as the following. What is your best friend’s family like? How are they different from your family? Do those differences matter? How do you think life would be different in another kind of family?

At this stage, questions that matter are: 

What experiences do you have that resemble this dilemma?

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What did you feel at the time? What do you think the other people felt?

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What do you think is most important in this situation?

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What exactly do we mean by …?

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When is something …..?

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

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Choose The pupils are encouraged to make choices within the given situation. The emphasis here is not so much on the final choice, but on the development of moral sensitivity and becoming fully aware of values. Moral and existential questions can help out here. The teacher continues to refine the information of the situation. To allow the pupils to re-assess their choice and justify it. What is important here is that the pupils are able to empathize sufficiently, that they take into account the arguments and feelings of others and that they can form a connection with their own behavior. All behavior is based on a view of reality in which standards en values have a firm place. This is therefore also the stage where values are developed and communicated.

In order to make a well-considered choice, it is necessary that the pupils:

At this stage it is important that you as a teacher can listen actively, are well able to summarize and that you are inviting pupils to make a choice. The issue here is the process of how to make a choice. What pupils choose eventually is less important than how they came to make that choice. At this stage the pupils explore the various possibilities of choice with each other.

Questions you can ask as a teacher at this stage are: 

Questions about the dilemma – Questions about taking a point of view: ‘What would you do?’

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Why- questions – Questions about the reason or motive of a point of view: ‘Can you tell me why you think about it in this way?’

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‘more-questions’ – Questions about more reasons.

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Pass on questions – Questions if other pupils want to react.

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Change parts questions – Questions to put oneself in the position of another: ‘What would you do if you were …. or if you were …..?

-Have entered well enough into the situation -Have involved solutions and reasoning of others into their own argumentation and solutions (social development) -Have involved former experiences into their solution (with experiences of an unity, balance in thinking and feeling, personal development); -Are able to connect their arguments to their behavior (moral development)

You can do this in a group discussion but also through other working methods:

-Are able to connect the situation and their solutions to the humanist values that are in line with them.

Acting out the situation;

-After having defined a dilemma in the exploration stage, the pupils are then challenged to reconsider their choice (what they would do in this situation) and put their findings into words (Beuling 2010, p. 77).

Playing a card game;

Writing a newspaper article;

Making a cartoon.

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

Example from the IHEYO conference 2006

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process which the pupil experienced.

Addressing the family For the ages 6-12 Step 3: Questions around choosing: would you change your family? Do you think there is a “right” kind of family?, When you grow up, what do you want your family to be like?, What type of family would you choose? If you would choose your own family, why?

Questions belonging to the evaluation about the process are: 

Were you able to give your opinion about this theme?

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Did others give their opinion?

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How did that go?

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Did you have enough time to finish the assignments?

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How did you like working in the group?

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Did the drama, drawing, writing etcetera help you find answers?

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How was working in subgroups?

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Do you think you participated well?

Evaluate n the last stage pupils look back at what they have done during the lesson. They identify important moments and issues that made them change their point of view and/or encouraged them to search deeper. It also becomes clear at this stage what needs more work and which themes should be explored next (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 9-10) It is a matter of an evaluation about the content of the lesson and an evaluation of the process which the pupils have been part in.

Questions belonging to the evaluation of the content are:

The evaluation can provide a lot of information for further themes, subjects and lessons. In this case too, many working methods can be used: Ask questions orally -Let them fill in questions on paper individually.

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What appealed to you in this lesson?

-The agree-and-do-not-agree-propositions game.

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What did you think of the subject or theme and why?

The making of two statues; one like is was and one how it is now.

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What did you learn about the subject?

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Do you think differently about the situation now?

-The writing of a poem about what has changed, about how the class thinks about it.

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What made you change your opinion?

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Do you have any other questions about this subject?

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Are there other themes or subjects we could pursue in the future?

The four RExEC stages can be run through within one lesson or spread out over several meetings.

An evaluation about the process is about the

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

Example from the IHEYO conference 2006 Addressing the family For the ages 6-12 Step 4: the discussion is closed with an evaluation of it. Questions for the evaluation are: Did you learn about a kind of family that is new for you? Do you see “family” differently now? Did you learn something new about your family? What will you do when you see your family next? Do you like your family? Do you think your family is normal? What is special about your family?

Design your own meeting How to go about it? To help you design your own meetings I have formulated 5 steps below which you may use as a checklist. I will first describe the steps and then I will translate the steps into a lesson for children aged 10 to 12 years.

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Design your own meeting by following the steps of the RExCE method as described in the preceding chapter. Always connect to the perception of the environment and always round off your meeting, however briefly this may be. Step 4: Moral questions and existential questions See if you can make statements in your meeting. Is it about exchanging experiences or really about exploring a moral dilemma? In the questions you present to the group you can stress different subjects. One time you will discuss a dilemma together and the next time you will explore deeper values in a dialogue about ideologies.

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What age are the participants and what are they interested in?

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Is it a new group or not at all?

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How does the group treat one another?

Existential questions are questions about the origin, the connection and the aim of life. They question the meaning of importance of things and are directly related to values. Existential questions therefore give rise to starting points to talk about their feelings with the pupils. Moral questions are questions concerning good or bad, right or wrong, are or are not allowed to. It are questions concerning a moral dilemma.

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Which working methods are familiar to the group?

Step 5: Reflection

Step 1: Explore your target group

Step 2: Formulate objectives The aim of your meeting must be feasible and challenging for the participants from this specific group. 

What do you want to achieve with this meeting?

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What do you want your participants to have experienced or learned by the end of the meeting?

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How do you test your objectives?

Evaluate your lesson yourself. Have you achieved what you wanted to achieve? What went well, what good have been better? What would you do differently next time? Evaluation helps you to discover your strong points and your less strong points and to discover your own style. You as a teacher are a driving force behind the meeting and that which you ask of your participants is also important to go through yourself. That is how you develop yourself and how you keep improving your meetings.

Step 3: RExCE

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Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

The lesson: Who are you and who am I? Step 1: The target group Have the participants been together over a period of time and do they feel somehow safe with each other? If not, you will have to adapt your lesson. The lesson I will elaborate on has been developed for children aged 10 to 12 years.

Step 2: Objective The objectives I want to achieve in this lesson are: -Making pupils realize that first impressions are not always correct -Getting them to look at photographs and describing their first impressions -Encouraging them to show themselves willing to explore their own impressions and discover any prejudices they might have.

These objectives have been made specific and can be tested. The first objective is always tested during the introduction and you can let it recur during the evaluation. The second objective is actually carried out during the lesson with the pupils. And the last objective you test with a working method in which the pupils show what they have filled in and what they are going to ask each other. Stap 3: RExCE A) Introduction: Discussion group with questions: Recognize: Is the first impression you get of someone always correct? Have you experienced that?

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when do you want to become friends with a child you do not know? when will you avoid someone, when will you ignore someone? Does this have anything to do with the way this person looks?

B) Core: The teacher brings in a large number of different photographs of children. Try to make sure these include a good number of children from other cultures (source: UNICEF, Oxfam of Novib calendars for instance). Every pupil is given a photograph and a worksheet. They stick the photograph in the middle of the worksheet and answer the following questions on the worksheet, working on their own. 

What do you think of this person? I think he/she is …

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Can you trust him/her? cause…., No, because

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Which 2 characteristics do you think describe him/her well?

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What name would you give him/her?

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Would you like to be friends with him/ her?

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What would he/she enjoy doing, do you think?

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What else do you want to say about him/her?

Yes,

be-

the worksheets are put C) Conclusion: up. Every child or a number of children, are invited to tell something about their own worksheet and ask each other questions about it. You can round the lessons off by asking the class some of the evaluation questions.

There are several variations possible to this lesson. You can, if you do not have enough photos, choose 4 yourself and

Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’

Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method

There are several variations possible to this lesson. You can, if you do not have enough photos, choose 4 yourself and make a number of children write down what they think about a certain picture. In the subsequent discussion the children can then explore with each other why it is that they look at one and the same person in different ways (if that is the case).

Step 4: Moral questions and existential questions You can make statements in your lessons when dealing with moral questions and existential questions. A moral question for this lesson could be: Is it bad to be prejudiced? Is it allowed to shut out someone because of what he looks like? Can you think of situations where that would be allowed or not? Existential questions in this lesson would be about how it is that you immediately get a number of images/prejudices when seeing someone? Did anyone experience things being said about you which were not correct? How did that feel?

Step 5: Reflection Evaluate your lesson through answering the following questions: 

What went well? Because of what?

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What did not go as well?

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What happened and what did you do?

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What did you think, feel and what did you want to achieve?

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What is most important of the abovementioned?

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What would you do differently next time? (make this clear, do not say: I want it to be better next time, but say: next time I will hang a clock in the classroom so I can better keep a track

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of time. Or I will create depth in the conversation by asking the following questions…. etcetera). In the next article the methodology will be translated to a wider target group which might possibly be usable in your own practice. I hope that the description of the methodology in this chapter can help you to make challenging, creative and playful meetings. In which the participants will explore their own values and those of others in a positively critical manner. Good luck!

Literature 

Bartels, R. & van Rossum, M. (2009). Filosoferen doe je zo. Leidraad voor de basisschool. Band 1 voor groep 1 t/m 4. Damon Budel  Bronsveld, A. & Corneille, J. (2009). Humanistisch Vormingsonderwijs en Levensbeschouwing (HV)) op de openbare basisschool. Utrecht: Folder HVO  Groot, T. & Klarenbeek, E. (2000). Mastering the art of living and becoming a citizen of the world. It isn’t something that just happens. A book of lesson plans and teaching suggestions for Humanist Ethical Education. Utrecht: Pedagogisch studiecentrum HVO  Vries, J.P. de (2010). Competente vakdocent GVO en HVO voor de openbare basisschool

Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’