What happens when children are given the space to listen, question, respectfully disagree and build on one another’s ideas?

By Brett Henebery

The Educator has featured Primary Ethics and the growing evidence that classroom discussions about ethical dilemmas can help children recognise ethical issues, think more carefully and confidently share their ideas.

Delivered by trained volunteers in around 500 NSW public schools each week, ethics lessons help children develop critical-thinking and respectful discussion skills, skills that matter more than ever in our rapidly changing and increasingly polarised world.

Imagine a circle of eight-year-old children wrestling with a question most adults would prefer to dodge.

Is it ever okay to break a promise?

There’s no answer sheet. No lecture. Just young people listening, disagreeing and building on each other’s reasoning.

That’s the groundbreaking model behind Primary Ethics – the volunteer-run program now teaching more than 500 NSW primary schools every week.

New research from the Australian Catholic University, the largest study of its kind, found that programs that promote discussions of ethical challenges can help students recognise ethical issues and think more carefully about what to do.

“The Primary Ethics curriculum was designed to help students consider everyday ethical dilemmas using carefully developed lesson plans and pedagogy that equips volunteer teachers with practical skills to facilitate constructive discussion in the classroom,” Laura Ramos, Chief Operating Officer at Primary Ethics, told The Educator.

“The clearest sign that ethics lessons are making a difference comes straight from Primary Ethics volunteer ethics teachers – in what they share about how students are responding in the classroom and how this shows up in the playground.”

‘Students are feeding off each other’s ideas’

Petersham Public School, located in Sydney’s inner-west, is seeing the benefits of ethics education from Kindergarten right through to Year 6.

“We have wonderful volunteers who make Primary Ethics possible at Petersham Public School,” the school’s Principal, Lisa Sands, told The Educator.

“As Principal, I work thoughtfully to manage organisation and supervision arrangements to ensure that all students can access the SRE/SEE offering of their choosing.”

Kindy teacher Nathan Grange, part of the volunteer ethics team at Petersham Public School, said he has noticed how his students are learning by speaking freely and asking questions within the structure of the ethics lesson.

“Students care about what is happening in the stories, they are listening and feeding off each other’s ideas,” Grange told The Educator.

Amy Butler, the school’s Year 3-4 Ethics Teacher, is an educator who has also seen the benefits of these lessons first hand.

“In the final reflective class last year one of the students said, ‘ethics class has made me more confident to share my ideas outside of ethics class.’”

Year 5-6 Ethics Teacher, Sue Cameron, the classes are having cut-through, even if some students are using what they’ve learned in a joking way.

“I have heard some kids just after the Ethics Class saying, ‘I respectfully disagree with you, because…’ They were making a joke of the phrase, but they have definitely taken it on board!”

Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/g26qkNpW