I love teaching these fundamentals of philosophical argument. The lesson goes through what is meant by: a priori knowledge a posteriori knowledge analytic statements synthetic statements deductive arguments inductive arguments I use a range of examples to explain and to test knowledge. Included also is a a brief run down of AO2 considerations: How do you defeat a deductive/ inductive argument? What is the difference between valid and sound reasoning?

Spruce up your assessment feedback and reflection time. How to use: Step 1: Students fill in the topic, name and date then add targets from previous essay on the reverse side. Step 2: Write an essay, attach cover sheet and hand in. Step 3: Teacher circles mark on criteria. Highlight in green what has been done, pink what hasn’t. Step 4: Fill in teacher feedback on reverse. Step 5: Students complete reflection on cover sheet and choose three targets. Super-charge your DIRT by highlighting a paragraph that needs improving in line with your feedback before handing back. Ask students to redraft. Immediate progress!

I use them sticking out around my board but they're a pretty adaptable lot...

Works well if you play the audio extracts. I tend to just focus on the boxed sections since they pick out important analysis points.

This follows on from my first A2 Compatibilism lesson on the features of Soft Determinist thinking and the form developed by Locke. With this foundation in place and with the appropriate language to hand, I ask students to analyse Hume and draw links between his language and the theory set out by Locke and the locked room thought experiment. This information is taken in part from the Stanford Encyclopaedia and reformatted to be more easily accessible. plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-freewill/ If you're struggling, the answers I give to the three types of liberty are as follows: Liberty of Indifference: Being to choose against your will. Liberty of Spontaneity: Being able to carry out your will unconstrained. Hypothetical Liberty: Having a number of valid different options that you may or may not will to do and can do. The previous lesson is available for sale here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/as-a2-compatibilism-soft-determinism-11124715

For use with discussion on Cartesian dualism. Ryle argues that dualists such as Descartes are fundamentally misunderstanding what the 'mind' is and explains their model as a 'category error'. Why not first teach my lesson explaining Cartesian dualism? https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descartes-substance-dualism-ocr-2017-a-level-soul-mind-and-body-11523728

A selection of images on the topic of 'humans' or 'humanity'. I have used these images as stimulus for the assessment task in my KS3 SOW on human nature entitled 'What is a human?' Find it here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727

The Sala Dei Nove is a series of Frescos in the Council Chambers of Sienna. They are entitled 'Allegory of Good Government', 'Allegory of Bad Government', 'The effect of Good Government' and 'The effect of Bad Government'. The example appears in the AQA RS textbook and this task is designed to help students identity key features of the frescos. This resource includes three high resolution images of the frescos and a number of small cards to place onto the pictures as annotation. I include an annotated version as an answer sheet or hand-out. Print the frescos onto A3 and provide these to each group. Give a set of the cards (printed A4) and ask the students to place the cards onto the pictures. In doing so, students should come to an understanding of the utility of the frescos to the Council of Nine and the people of Sienna. All images shared freely by Wikipedia as faithful reproductions of images in the public domain.

***NOW INCLUDES KS3 CARDS as seen in the complete 'What is a person?' scheme of work.*** For use with teaching moral responsibility, free will, libertarianism and determinism. I have used the game with the AQA and OCR Religious Studies A2 , though it can be useful in a variety of situations. The game will encourage students to develop responses to the following questions: - What is free will? - How free are we? - What limits our freedoms? - What is necessary for a free choice? - How do culture, upbringing or genetics have an influence on our opinions of free will?

In this lesson students will start to explore key Christian ideas about God's nature. They will learn about key qualities: Immanent, Transcendent, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal, Oneness. They will learn identify teachings which support these beliefs. You will need to print and cut the card sort for use in pairs or groups of three. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications.

A group work lesson with a puzzling task to understand Descartes' substance dualism. Designed for the NEW 2017 OCR Religious Studies A Level it will work with any course including mind body dualism. Students will understand Descartes' beliefs about mind and body. They will be able to present his arguments in favour of dualism and also evaluate his arguments. Ready to teach, lesson includes: Full lesson plan PowerPoint Resources Worksheet

In this active and group working lesson students explore examples of scientific challenges to religion and evaluate the claim that science has removed the need for religion. They will come to an understanding of the unique offering made my both science and religion to our understanding of the world and be able to employ quotes from a range of key thinkers. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - ‘Arguments against the existence of God’. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications. Target grade is 7-9 though you can reduce the level of challenge my focussing on the easier sources. Included: - Lesson Plan - PowerPoint - Card sort - Scientific Discoveries - Quote cards for Science and Religion I have loved teaching this lesson and it has always led to very high level evaluative responses.

In this highly differentiated lesson, students will challenge themselves to work out the Ontological argument put forward by Anselm and the criticisms from Gaunilo. They will also be able to evaluate the criticism from Gaunilo. It's all ready for the NEW 2017 OCR Religious Studies A Level. The lesson has a focus on independent learning and student-led activities. Included are all of the resources, a powerpoint and a detailed lesson plan. Just add chocolate! Notes: The card sort runs over three pages and needs to be printed onto green, yellow and red card. The first page should be printed onto green, the second onto yellow and the third onto red. This means students can choose their level of challenge by the traffic light colours. Answer to the quiz: BCCABCACB

An introduction to compatibilism with a focus on the specific understanding put forward by Locke. The powerpoint offers key information for students' own note taking and I have included some guidance in the presenter notes for yourself. The resource includes a differentiated group interpretation sheet where students are tasked with examining quotes from about and from famous compatibilists including Locke, Hume and Hobbes in order to identify key features of compatibilist thought. Included is a 50 word grid for use with the plenary. I hope you find it helpful since it has taken me a long while to feel very comfortable teaching this area of the course! I have provided for free the follow-up reading on David Hume (which can be given as an independent reading task or done in lesson). It can be found by searching 'A2 Compatibilism' on the TES resources or by copying this URL into your address bar: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a2-compatibilism-david-hume-reading-with-questions-11127076

Used with A2 AQA Life, Death and Beyond though relevant to AS AQA Nature and Value of Human Life (and many others!) Examines Christian, Buddhist and Hindu teachings. Print the Card sort onto Green/Yellow/Red card as instructed at the end of the document. Print the Gapfill onto A3 double sided (one each). Print the Learning Grid onto A4 (one each). Lesson Plan: Starter- Students to organise the quotes however they like in pairs. Choosing their level of challenge based on the colour. Students are likely to sort from most positive to most negative. Main - Gapfill task in groups. Then groups to pull out key features of each religion's attitude to what a human is, completing the first column of the Learning Grid sheet. Plenary - Students to return to their pairs to make links between these ideas and the quotes in the card sort used as the starter.

This display pack is designed to engage students in reflecting on their thinking and argument. The pack includes two displays: Logical fallacies covering a range of 21 examples of irrationality including: Strawman, slippery slope, ad hominum, black or white, appeal to authority, bandwagon, middle ground, begging the question, non-representative sample, moral equivalency, non sequitur, red herring, splitting hairs, non-testable hypothesis, anecdotal support, genetic, post hoc ergo propter hoc, appeal to tradition, appeal to emotion, affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent. Cognitive biases covering a range of 18 reasons why we all fail to be objective including: Anchoring, confirmation bias, declinism, framing, fundamental attribution error, the halo effect, backfire effect, reactance, groupthink, belief bias, availability heuristic, clustering illusion, conservatism bias, blind spot bias, the ostrich effect, zero risk, in-group bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect. All of the displays are styled in a high contrast white on black or black on white (apart from the red herring of course…) They are eye-catching and informative for your students of all ages from Year 7 through to Year 13. Great for an RE, Philosophy or Psychology classroom. Maybe these should be in every classroom - just think about the world we could create! Instructions: Just cut around the shape leaving a small border of white. You could create a board for each or put both together! I’ve uploaded a model of how they look in my classroom.

Firstly, I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the more than 1000 of you who have downloaded this display pack! I hope your classrooms look gorgeous! This is a complete 200+ page pack of a number of classroom displays that I have developed over the last couple of years to invigorate my department. Two updated booster packs have already been added. Original Display Pack: - Philosophers and Religious Figures Timeline (Over 40 thinkers with pictures, dates and outlines of their thinking). - Famous quote callouts to add along the timeline (one for almost every philosopher). Get students talking! - Custom-made colourful lettering for timeline eras. - Over 20 ethical and philosophical questions in colourful speech bubbles to inspire thinkers in your classroom (A great one for open-evenings or tutor time discussions!) - Steps/Levels display with optional number arrows. Department levels policy documents included. - ‘How to’ guides for all displays. Booster Pack 1: - Philosophical Language Literacy Display with sentence starters for knowledge/explanation and assessment/evaluation. - Agree --> Disagree continuum signposts to make human bar charts in your classroom! - Blooms thinking guidance for teachers with question prompts. Great for shrinking and sticking on desks or displaying at the back of the room. Booster Pack 2: - A raft of additional thinkers to give greater flexibility to the Philosopher Timeline across exam boards. - Quotes for every new thinker of course! I’ve also added another high-quality display pack covering Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases. Find it here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/logical-fallacies-and-cognitive-biases-display-pack-philosophy-psychology-11925635

BRAND NEW scheme of work which runs over 9-10 lessons on the topic of human nature, for use with KS3. Addresses questions of human nature, value, purpose and free will. Builds critical thinking, analysis and independent learning. Student-led and with rigorous AfL throughout. All resources of a wide variety for all lessons are included. Games, card sorts, learning grids, reading and much more. Complete SOW document included with lesson sequence, differentiation, key skills and suggested homework/continuation opportunities. Powerpoint for every lesson. This really is ready to go straight out of the box! Lessons include: 1. What makes you, you? Explore ideas of body and soul with your students and introduce them to dualist and materialist views. 2. How much is a person worth? Ask your students to make some tough decisions and pin down what gives life value. Compare and contrast these with philosophical and religious standpoints. 3. Are humans special? Consider what sets us apart from other creatures and address the question of our unique position and status. 4. What is the purpose of human life? Give your students an opportunity to reflect on their ideas of the good life and what gives life meaning. Compare these with others and consider the implications for us as people. Compare their views with philosophical and religious perspectives. 5. How free are human choices? Assessing the idea of free will and outline some constraints on freedom. 6. What does the future hold for humanity? Reflect on the modern world and our technological advancement and consider the ethics of memory manipulation, artificial intelligence and designer babies. 7. Creative assessment which runs over 3-4 lessons with planning and reflection. And finally, a massive thank you to the more than 150 of you who have purchased the SOW!

Markbook Extra is an incredibly powerful yet wonderfully simple automated electronic markbook. How does it work? In brief, you enter the student’s raw marks for any assessment and the markbook uses sophisticated analysis to present you with all the data you’d want to see on an individual student or whole classes. Highlights of v5: Overhauled from the ground up to improve on almost every aspect of the original ‘markbook ultra’. Store all of your classes (KS3-5) in one simple Excel workbook. Suitable for any subject area regardless of how or what you assess. Show or hide up to five different assessment objective columns for each assessment. Supports GCSE (9-1 or A*-G), A Level and Pre-U. Goodbye to using different workbooks for different types of grades! Supports Foundation, Intermediate and Higher tier students in the same class and will limit grades accordingly. Supports more than just male and female gender identity. Set your own regularly used grade boundaries in eight quick presets or choose them individually for each assessment. Powerful ‘at a glance’ and on the go analysis of individual student progress, each assessment or classes as a whole. One-click export for headline data for all KS4 and KS5 classes for use by colleagues or line managers. Live analysis of Gender gaps, SEND gap, and PP gap. One click button to print a summary sheet for any student or the whole class at once. This gives a breakdown of all assessments and their marks. Shows progress against targets. Great for handing out and discussing at parents’ evening. Filter by assessment type to offer even more powerful analysis of class strengths and areas for improvement. KS3 markbooks support custom levels/grades or RAG rated strand systems. Sample class included which is packed with helpful tips on how to use the markbook. All Macros work on PC and Mac. This is truly universal and made for everyone! If you have any questions prior to purchase please do get in touch: markbookultra@gmail.com Custom-made versions of Markbook Extra are available. Have your school branding added and modifications made where necessary. Email me directly for a quotation.